The Art of Thinking Clearly

Massive disappointment

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Despite his claims of 'researching a vast amount of scientific evidence and literature' there's nothing terribly original here. Overall the book feels like a reworking of Daniel Kahneman's and other's works (including his hero Warren Buffet, who's cited innumerable times). In fact, the book could have very well being cut by 50% without much loss. The first few chapters are okay overall (hence my two star rating), but then it descends into a succession of platitudes and half-cooked arguments.There are other bits that are at the very best amusing, and at times annoying, like the over-representation of Swiss contribution to the human knowledge or some tints of 'misogynistic' innuendo... Anyway, that's not the worse of this books faults.The overall tone of the book is patronizing, made much worse by the pompous tone of the narrator. There are parts that require an enormous self-control effort to not smash the audio while listening. The author takes an arrogant perspective on many of the subjects he approaches, even classifying as 'idiotic' some behaviors, but he lacks the sincerity to admit his lack of knowledge in key aspects of psychology and neuroscience that is broadly evident across the book (funnily enough, the author stresses we should be warned against stepping out our 'circle of competence'). In summary, probably you're better off by reading Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink", Daniel Kahneman's "thinking fast and slow", Ben Goldacre "Bad Science" and Chip and Dan Heath's "Decisive". At least these carry on considerable more weight.

What could Rolf Dobelli have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Keep it within his 'circle of competence'. He tries too hard to guide us all mere mortals to scape our errors, but in doing so he portraits himself as the expert he is not.The book feels like just another poor 'self-help' attempt (a genre, by the way, heavily condemned by the author).He should have tried a more humble and down-to-earth approach to the problem he's trying to approach.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Jonathan Keeble?

Either Jonathan Keeble has done a superb job in reflecting the patronizing tone of the book or his narrating style is making it a hundred fold more obvious. I would have appreciated a more 'approachable' voice, one of us mere mortals...

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Massive disappointment and at times anger about the nonsense included in it.

18 of 21 people found this review helpful

It is a list

Although I enjoyed this book it is somehow pedestrian. Dobelli makes no bones about this : he is reporting the work of others, and the book's origin is his own notebook of useful mental glitches to avoid. There are lots of things to like - the completeness of his review, listing, it seems to me, most of the fascinating examples from behavioural economics of the past four decades, and his European perspective, in contrast to the many US-based authors in this field. (Dobelli has defected to New York, but his heart is still in Switzerland, and his memories and friends are still Euro-centric). What the book lacks, is the dazzle, coherence and wit of someone like Kahneman, or the personality of Jamie Whyte (Bad Thoughts) but that is clearly an inhuman standard to apply.

This is more like a reminder and check list. Still good listening.

Narration is professional quality.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Interesting is muddled

If you could sum up The Art of Thinking Clearly in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, random, thoughtful.

What did you like best about this story?

It challenges the way you think about everyday situations, statistics and news.

What does Jonathan Keeble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He narrates it with humour and notably engaging inflection. It is not a 'story' but a collection of observations and advice on how to analyse and consider news, statistics and life in general, so it needed someone who could liven up the 'dry' content which he mostly does successfully.

Any additional comments?

This is a book that makes you think about how you think, what you take for granted and why a lot of what you see in the media might, in fact, be rubbish! It concentrates a bit too much on 'money' but having said that I really enjoyed it. It will certainly help me stop and think before reaching erroneous conclusions in the future. My only criticism is that it could provide a bit more of an 'overview' as this amounts to a collection of fairly random musings without much guidance on when and how to apply them.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Not that in depth

For me there are much better self help books on the market, try Black Box Thinking first. This book is a little simplistic and is too broad for any of the ideas to be truly developed and for them to sink in. Too much of a scatter gun approach to actually make any difference.

If you have the time to expand on the topics yourself then you could benefit a lot. But I am guessing if you are the type of person who can do this and has the time to then youre not the type of person who would benefit from it in any case.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Brilliant work!

Excellant narration. Many useful tips on day-to-day decisions. Loved from 1st word to last word!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Weak and opportunistic

What disappointed you about The Art of Thinking Clearly?

This book reads like each wikipedia page on cognitive bias had been edited into a short chapter long essay with some very weak personally reflections on the biases discussed.

The only art I could hear, was the art of making a bit of cash with an opportunistic side project; the art of spending ten minutes a day taking notes from the internet.

It isn't in the same league as titles like You Are Not So Smart, Your Brain at Work, or even How the Mind Works, in which new research and primary sources take the fore.

I would not be at all surprised to learn that Rolf is a software programmer who has written some kind of bot to trawl wikipedia to generate non-fiction.

What could Rolf Dobelli have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Some real research of the real research

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Sure

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Art of Thinking Clearly?

All of them

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good to dip into

Well written and easy to digest, easy to dip into when you need a refresher, concepts well articulated and structured

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent

This book is insightful & thought provoking. It makes you think about what you are thinking about and provides a balanced view of popular analysis and conclusions. i highly recommend it.

My best read this year!

A must read to navigate an ever increasingly complex world, giving the reader tools to strike a balance between heuristics and logic. Superb!

the worst book I've endured for years

dreary, tired observations about how we don't think logically enough. ironically, the evidence he uses to support his theories in this book are the kind of supporting arguments he tells you to actually ignore throughout this book. endlessly hypocritical or dull, unfortunately.