Stupid Humans

This is a picture of my nightstand. These are all books that I haven't read but would like to - it's basically my Netflix queue minus the envelopes.

For the past 10 years my friend Greg has taken notes on books he's read and sent out a yearly review. It's a great read - cliff's notes on a whole slew of books with a copywriter's commentary. Inspired some on the nightstand.

I'm most excited about the two close to the bottom - Nudge & Predictably Irrational. Both focus on the flaws of human decision-making. The gist: not only do we make poor decisions, but our poor decisions are so common that they're actually predictable. This seems somewhat less revolutionary in light of the current economic disaster, but no less interesting.

The idea that we're irrational, predictable and unlikely to act in our own best interest is distressing. It's uncomfortable in the same way that Mark's book on herd behavior is - enlightening, but not very flattering. Humans as herd animals must match up with all of this collective decision-making failure. Each of these books will make me a better planner - and more suspicious of my own choices.

Comments

[neilperkin]

I have about the same number of unread books on my bedside table :)
Funnily enough one of mine is The World Without Us as well. Been there for about 6 months...one of these days...

[Libby Anderson]

Mine's from Christmas. 2007. Whoever finishes it first wins?

[Susan]

Let me know if you like Downtown Owl. Love Chuck.

[inaki]

Did you get to read predictably irrational?
Is it good? Really, really good?

[Laive]

Hi, I found your site using http://www.laive.com Laive, does your site support Firefox?