The Decisive Moment / How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
I read this book as "The Decisive Moment: How The Brain Makes Up Its Mind" but in the United States it is called "How We Decide" (based on the Amazon reviews and the look inside feature)
Regardless of title it is a fascinating book which looks at how the emotional and the logical brains work individually or together to help you to make decisions at work and in your personal life.
It also helps to explain how the people around you also make decisions.
Emotions Vs Logic
This is a very interesting debate which has challenged man since the times of Ancient Greece and the philosophers like Plato.
Then the emotions were seen as something that needed to be controlled - to be made subservient to the rational mind and cold hard logic.
Now the emotional brain is seen as the dominant force although both logic and emotion have flaws which can lead to the wrong decisions. As Dan Ariely says, we are Predictably Irrational.
Since the book draws on psychology and neuroscience, some technical words are inevitable but it is at an easily manageable level, unlike some psychology books I've looked where I can only understand three words in every four.
Fascinating Stories
In "The Decisive Moment / How We Decide", Jonah Lehrer interweaves the clever stuff around stories of airline crashes and near-crashes, war, sports success and gambling as well as the issues I am most interested in - how decisions are made for business.
The book has me reflecting on how I reached certain decisions which is interesting and I think it will help me to trust my intuitions which come from the brain's super-computer - the emotional brain.
As I delve deeper into decision making with the emotional and rational minds, I think this is a book I will keep going back to since it is easy to read and helps put everything into perspective through the examples.
Why Not How
It is a "why" book rather than a "how to" book.
What I mean is that "The Decisive Moment / How We Decide" explains why certain decisions and actions are made which helps to increase understanding of what is going on in our brains.
It does not reveal the "how to use this information" for business or personal success although understanding your decision making process inevitable impacts on the way you make decisions and look out for biases.
My Review Rating Of The Decisive Moment / How We Decide
For me that stops it getting the full Five Star rating as an essential buy for business book readers.
Anyone who wants to understand more about decision-making, either their own or other people's should read "The Decisive Moment / How We Decide" which is why it gets a 4.5 Star rating from me - a strong buy and read recommendation from me.
One word of warning for anyone who has a psychology or neuroscience background. You may not like the way the book has been dumbed down for lay-people and I suppose, you may not agree with some of the conclusions.
They make sense to me but I don't know enough about psychology to be sure.
On the other hand, I read simple finance and marketing books to help keep me grounded and help me to explain complicated concepts in simple terms so I wouldn't rule out "The Decisive Moment" if you are an expert.
Buying "The Decisive Moment / How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer
Remember is is "How We Decide" on Amazon.com and "The Decisive Moment" at Amazon.co.uk
You can buy this book from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (compensated affiliate links)
Have You Read "How We Decide / The Decisive Moment"?
If you have read this book, what do you think?
Do you agree with me that it makes this important subject which affects us all, very accessible and easy to understand?
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