The art of thinking clearly /​ Rolf Dobelli

Title

• The art of thinking clearly / Rolf Dobelli ; translated by Nicky Griffin.

Author

• Dobelli, Rolf, 1966-, (author.)

Other Authors

• Griffin, Nicky, (translator.)

Edition

• [Paperback edition]

Published

• London : Sceptre, 2014.

Copyright

• ©2013.

Content Types

• text

Carrier Types

• volume

Physical Description

• x, 326 pages ; 20 cm.

Subjects

• Decision making.
• Intellect.
• Thought and thinking.

Target Audience

• Adult

Summary

• "THE SECRETS OF PERFECT DECISION-MAKING Have you ever ... Invested time in something that, with hindsight, just wasn't worth it? Overpayed in an Ebay auction? Continued doing something you knew was bad for you? Sold stocks too late, or too early? Taken credit for success, but blamed failure on external circumstances? Backed the wrong horse? These are examples of cognitive biases, simple errors we all make in our day-to-day thinking. But by knowing what they are and how to spot them, we can avoid them and make better choices - whether dealing with a personal problem or a business negotiation; trying to save money or make money; working out what we do or don't want in life, and how best to get it. Already an international bestseller, THE ART OF THINKING CLEARLY is essential reading for anyone with important decisions to make. It reveals, in 100 short chapters, the most common errors of judgement, and how to avoid them. Simple, clear and always surprising, this indispensable book will change the way you think and transform your decision-making - at work, at home, every day."--Publisher's description.

Contents

• 1. Why You Should Visit Cemeteries: Survivorship Bias
• 2. Does Harvard Make You Smarter?: Swimmer's Body Illusion
• 3. Why You See Shapes in the Clouds: Clustering Illusion
• 4. If 50 Million People Say Something Foolish: Social Proof
• 5. Why You Should Forget the Past: Sunk Cost Fallacy
• 6. Don't Accept Free Drinks: Reciprocity
• 7. Beware the Special Case: Confirmation Bias (Part I)
• 8. Murder Your Darlings: Confirmation Bias (Part II)
• 9. Don't Bow to Authority: Authority Bias
• 10. Leave Your Supermodel Friends at Home: Contrast Effect
• 11. Why We Prefer a Wrong Map to No Map at All: Availability Bias
• 12. Why 'No Pain, No Gain' Should Set Alarm Bells Ringing: the It'll-Get-Worse-Before-it-Gets Better Fallacy
• 13. Even True Stories are Fairytales: Story Bias
• 14. Why You Should Keep a Diary: Hindsight Bias
• 15. Why You Systematically Overestimate Your Knowledge and Abilities: Overconfidence Effect
• 16. Don't Take News Anchors Seriously: Chauffeur Knowledge
• 17. You Control Less Than You Think: Illusion of Control
• 18. Never Pay Your Lawyer by the Hour: Incentive Super-Response Tendency
• 19. The Dubious Efficacy of Doctors, Consultants and Psychotherapists: Regression to Mean
• 20. Never Judge a Decision by its Outcome: Outcome Bias
• 21. Less is More: the Paradox of Choice
• 22. You Like Me, You Really, Really Like Me: Liking Bias
• 23. Don't Cling to Things: Endowment Effect
• 24. The Inevitability of Unlikely Events: Coincidence
• 25. The Calamity of Conformity: Groupthink
• 26. Why You'll Soon Be Playing Megatrillions: Neglect of Probability
• 27. Why the Last Cookie in the Jar Makes Your Mouth Water: Scarcity Error
• 28. When You Hear Hoofbeats, Don't Expect a Zebra: Base: Rate Neglect
• 29. Why the 'Balancing Force of the Universe' is Baloney: Gambler's Fallacy
• 30. Why the Wheel Of Fortune Makes Our Heads Spin: the Anchor
• 31. How to Relieve People of Their Millions: Induction
• 32. Why Evil Strikes Harder Than Good: Loss Aversion
• 33. Why Teams Are Lazy: Social Loafing
• 34. Stumped By a Sheet of Paper: Exponential Growth
• 35. Curb Your Enthusiasm: Winner's Curse
• 36. Never Ask a Writer if The Novel is Autobiographical: Fundamental Attribution Error
• 37. Why You Shouldn't Believe in the Stork: False Causality
• 38. Everyone is Beautiful at the Top: Halo Effect
• 39. Congratulations! You've Won Russian Roulette: Alternative Paths
• 40. False Prophets: Forecast Illusion
• 41. The Deception of Specific Cases: Conjunction Fallacy
• 42. It's Not What You Say, But How You Say It: Framing
• 43. Why Watching and Waiting is Torture: Action Bias
• 44. Why You Are Either the Solution - or the Problem: Omission Bias
• 45. Don't Blame Me: Self-Serving Bias
• 46. Be Careful What You Wish For: Hedonic Treadmill
• 47. Do Not Marvel at Your Existence: Self-Selection Bias
• 48. Why Experience Can Damage Our Judgement: Association Bias
• 49. Be Wary When Things Get Off to a Great Start: Beginner's Luck
• 50. Sweet Little Lies: Cognitive Dissonance
• 51. Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last - But Only On Sundays: Hyperbolic Discounting
• 52. Any Lame Excuse: 'Because' Justification
• 53. Decide Better - Decide Less: Decision Fatigue
• 54. Would You Wear Hitler's Sweater?: Contagion Bias
• 55. Why There Is No Such Thing as an Average War: the Problem with Averages
• 56. How Bonuses Destroy Motivation: Motivation Crowding
• 57. If You Have Nothing To Say, Say Nothing: Twaddle Tendency
• 58. How to Increase the Average IQ of Two States: Will Rogers Phenomenon
• 59. If you Have an Enemy, Give Him Information: Information Bias
• 60. Hurts so Good: Effort Justification
• 61. Why Small Things Loom Large: the Law of Small Numbers
• 62. Handle with Care: Expectations
• 63. Speed Traps Ahead!: Simple Logic
• 64. How to Expose a Charlatan: Forer Effect
• 65. Volunteer Work Is For The Birds: Volunteer's Folly
• 66. Why You Are a Slave to Your Emotions: Affect Heuristic
• 67. Be Your Own Heretic: Introspection Illusion
• 68. Why You Should Set Fire to Your Ships: Inability to Close Doors
• 69. Disregard the Brand New: Neomania
• 70. Why Propaganda Works: Sleeper Effect
• 71. Why It's Never Just a Two-Horse Race: Alternative Blindness
• 72. Why We Take Aim at Young Guns: Social Comparison Bias
• 73. Why First Impressions Deceive: Primacy And Recency Effects
• 74. Why You Can't Beat Home-made: Not-Invented-Here Syndrome
• 75. How to Profit from the Implausible: the Black Swan
• 76. Knowledge is Non-transferable: Domain Dependence
• 77. The Myth of Like-Mindedness: False-Consensus Effect
• 78. You Were Right All Along: Falsification of History
• 79. Why You Identify With Your Football Team: In-Group Out-Group Bias
• 80. The Difference Between Risk and Uncertainty: Ambiguity Aversion
• 81. Why You Go With the Status Quo: Default Effect
• 82. Why 'Last Chances' Make Us Panic: Fear of Regret
• 83. How Eye-Catching Details Render Us Blind: Salience Effect
• 84. Why Money is Not Naked: House-Money Effect
• 85. Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Work: Procrastination
• 86. Build Your Own Castle: Envy
• 87. Why You Prefer Novels to Statistics: Personification
• 88. You Have No Idea What You Are Overlooking: Illusion of Attention
• 89. Hot Air: Strategic Misrepresentation
• 90. Where's The Off Switch?: Overthinking
• 91. Why You Take On Too Much: Planning Fallacy
• 92. Those Wielding Hammers See Only Nails: Deformation Professionnelle
• 93. Mission Accomplished: Zeigarnik Effect
• 94. The Boat Matters More Than the Rowing: Illusion of Skill
• 95. Why Checklists Deceive You: Feature-Positive Effect
• 96. Drawing the Bull's-eye Around the Arrow: Cherry-Picking
• 97. The Stone-Age Hunt for Scapegoats: Fallacy of the Single Cause
• 98. Speed Demons Make Safe Drivers: Intention-to-treat Error
• 99. Why You Shouldn't Read the News: News Illusion.

Notes

• "First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Sceptre"--Verso title page.
• Includes index.
• Adult.
• Translated from the German.

Language

• English