Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction

Description

In Thinking, today's most influential scientists and psychologists explain everything you need to know about the unique processes of human thought, rationality, happiness, and decision-making. Contributors and topics include: "Leaning to Expect the Unexpected" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author of The Black Swan), grappling with the problem of "randomness" and the limits of the human mind to effectively model and comprehend it. "Thinking About Thinking" by Daniel Kahneman (Nobel Prize winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow), a "master class" in looking inward at human thought, with topics spanning happiness, decision-making, problem-solving, and predictive utility. "Affective Forecasting... Or... The Big Wombassa: What You Think You're Going to Get, and What You Don't Get, When You Get What You Want" by Daniel Gilbert (author of Stumbling on Happiness), on the uniquely human ability to forecast what we want-and why people are rarely as happy or unhappy as they might expect to be. "Smart Heuristics" by Gerd Gigerenzer, on human rationality and the heuristics involved in the wide-ranging fields of human choice. "Probing The Limits Of Statistics by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, on data analysis and the notion that the more data one has, the more likely one is to be "fooled" by randomness. "A Short Course In Behavioral Economics" by The Reality Club (Richard Thaler, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Daniel Kahneman), a "master class" on the study of various impacting forces that affect economic individuals and institutions.

The publisher of the online science salon Edge.org, John Brockman is the editor of the national bestsellers This Idea Must Die, This Explains Everything, This Will Make You Smarter, and other volumes.

"For ... readers interested in keeping up with what serious thinkers are thinking about thinking, this book offers nourishing food for thought." -- Kirkus "Thinking is excellent and mind-expanding in its entirety." -- BrainPickings