The Art of Thinking Clearly: Better Thinking, Better Decisions: The Secrets of Perfect Decision-Making

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You can then think how to apply them to areas of your life that could be improved. I used them to think more clearly about my creative output, both with my camera and on this blog. Do you consider yourself a good judge of character, whose first impressions of people often prove true later? Many people think this way about themselves, but in fact, it's likely that they are just the victims of confirmation bias. These days, however, these shortcuts lead to many fallacies and biases that hurt us more than they help us. The power of because. People will forgive much more readily if you give a reason (i.e., include a "because" in your speech), even if it's not much of a reason at all. E.g., people were much more willing to let someone cut in line at a copy machine when they said "Could I cut in line because XXX" rather than just "Could I cut in line." The XXX itself barely mattered: "because I'm late for class" worked more or less as well as "because I need to make copies" (i.e., a meaningless reason). The mere presence of "because" was the important part. The Art of Thinking Clearly is a 2013 book by the Swiss writer Rolf Dobelli which describes in short chapters 99 of the most common thinking errors - ranging from cognitive biases to elements like envy and social distortions.

We think we are better than we actually are and we automatically seek out information that confirms us in our pre-existing beliefs. We also have a preference for the exotic, beautiful people and a small rather than a large selection of things. We notice only a limited amount of the things in front of us, and don’t know how to make absolute judgments. And our decisions are guided by our emotions and by the way that people around us are behaving.

Instead of focusing so much on the things you must do, concentrate on not doing things that are undermining your own life. Think about the One Plus phone launch all those years ago. The idea of getting an exclusive invite to buy a phone was what made it the talk of the town. Even the people who didn’t need or want to buy a new phone, wanted an invite. Because it was that rare. And in their minds, it was that valuable. Similarly, research has shown that 93 percent of US students ranked themselves as “above-average” drivers, and 68 percent of University of Nebraska faculty ranked their own teaching abilities in the top quartile. I am primarily a novelist. In writing this book, I think of myself as a translator whose job it is to interpret and synthesize what I’ve read and learned. My great respect goes to the researchers who, in recent decades, have uncovered these behavioral and cognitive errors. The success of this book is fundamentally a tribute to their research. I am enormously indebted to them.”

Bruno S. Frey, Professor of Economics, University of Basel, and founder of the field of economic happiness researchYou may have heard of some of these cognitive biases, although probably not all 99 of the ones explained in the book. Sentence-Summary: The Art of Thinking Clearly is a full compendium of the psychological biases that once helped us survive but now only hinder us from living our best life. Prejudice and aversion are biological responses to anything foreign. Identifying with a group has been a survival strategy for hundreds of thousands of years. Not any longer. Identifying with a group distorts your view of the facts.” Rolf Dobelli Lesson #3: We are Blind to What Does Not Exist