I have just recently finished reading this book after a while. This is one of the best book I have ever read and I’m planning to re-read it again next time or probably make it a future reference for quick flip through. The book is eye opener. It explains many pretty common mistakes that we do. We have heard certain things so often so “common sense” that we don’t realize they are not the truths. Rolf Dobelli has been very thorough in getting the references for all the chapters he wrote. See the references section for the details! This book has quite a number of chapters. At least on my Kindle it feels very long. Each of them are pretty short but very informative and to the point – with examples.
Why You Should Read This Book
Not to boast or brag about my stubborn brain, but I think it is not easy to convince me of certain believes if I don’t see a good grounds of facts or research results. But still, this book amazed me with many real life examples of falsehood where we often fall prey into. Some of these incorrectness or false thinking are subtle and actually kind of “make sense”. Until Dobelli explained it in the book.
Take example of chapter 96, Cherry Picking, where often people take the best of what they have as the face that represent them. This is very often happening even in normal mundane work life. Anywhere. Surprising but if we really think about it, it seems to make sense that these are not real representation of the whole thing.
Chapter 7 talks about confirmation bias where there are strong tendencies in us to interpret new information so that it fits with what we already know. And this is very common. This is the downfall where we keep convincing ourselves about certain (false) things by feeding it with new information that is compatible with them. “The confirmation bias is the mother of all misconceptions” says Dobelli.
I am not quoting the examples from the book. You have that to find for yourselves, but I’m sure it is really important.
There Are More Surprises!
Kid you not. I am always contradicting myself. And whenever I am in a discussion with friends, people probably hate me because I always try to take an opposite opinion to look at certain topic from a very different angle. A waste of time, some may say. Especially if there is almost an anonymity and conclusion is almost very obvious.
I always thought I always looked at things from different angles about their truth. It’s annoying to others but it’s probably my principle. Still this book seems to offer much more perspectives with surprises that I have never thought of.
Happy reading.