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

by John Brockman

Unlock your mind. From the bestselling authors of Thinking, Fast and Slow; The Black Swan; and Stumbling on Happiness comes a cutting-edge exploration of the mysteries of rational thought, decision-making, intuition, morality, willpower, problem-solving, prediction, forecasting, unconscious behavior, and beyond. 

Edited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's smartest website"—The Guardian), Thinking presents original ideas by today's leading psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers who are radically expanding our understanding of human thought.

Contributors include:



Daniel Kahneman on the power (and pitfalls) of human intuition and "unconscious" thinking
Daniel Gilbert on desire, prediction, and why getting what we want doesn't always make us happy
Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the limitations of statistics in guiding decision-making
Vilayanur Ramachandran on the scientific underpinnings of human nature
Simon Baron-Cohen on the startling effects of testosterone on the brain
Daniel C. Dennett on decoding the architecture of the "normal" human mind
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on mental disorders and the crucial developmental phase of adolescence
Jonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, and Roy Baumeister on the science of morality, ethics, and the emerging synthesis of evolutionary and biological thinking
Gerd Gigerenzer on rationality and what informs our choices

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Business, Audiobook, Self Help

432 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2013

About the author

John Brockman is an American literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. He established the Edge Foundation, an organization that brings together leading edge thinkers across a broad range of scientific and technical fields.

He is author and editor of several books, including: The Third Culture (1995); The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years (2000); The Next Fifty Years (2002) and The New Humanists (2003).

He has the distinction of being the only person to have been profiled on Page One of the "Science Times" (1997) and the "Arts & Leisure" (1966), both supplements of The New York Times.

Reviews

[Peter Gelfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a book editor and novelist, I constantly have to remind my clients and myself that wondering is more interesting than knowing. Readers want to know, and writers like to teach, but what would happen to the author-reader interaction if, on the first page, we obligingly told readers whodunit, why, and the meaning of it all? Not knowing is what revs up our cognitive engines and moves us into new territory; knowing gives us a moment or two of satisfaction before shutting the engine back down. Even the most engaging nonfiction is structured not as summarized knowledge but as the narrative of a series of questions in search of answers. The old cliché “it’s not the destination but the journey” may be just sour grapes, but it’s often true that the destination means little without the journey.

Thinking, a collection of transcribed talks and conversations by some of today’s smartest cognitive scientists and philosophers, takes this nonfiction mode a step further. It describes the questions they are currently working on, so far without firm answers, but with a lot of fascinating hypotheses and lines of inquiry. In five or ten years we may see some answers in books. But why wait when we can listen in on the process of discovery and buff up our brains and outlook along the way?

The topics discussed include how we reason, make decisions, predict, judge morality, and why we so often completely screw it all up even if afterwards we convince ourselves we were right all along.

The talks are delivered in plain, lively English rather than soporific academese, and each one is short enough to digest in one sitting. While some of the unedited, extemporaneous speech, although refreshingly spontaneous, lacks the organization and clarity of premeditated and edited writing, that’s a small price to pay for a sneak preview of what these thinkers will be writing books about in a few years.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please Note: This is a review for an advance copy.

Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction is the newest Brockman essay collection featuring well-known cognitive scientists, psychologists, and philosophers on cognition, intuition, and moral psychology. While I was already familiar with most of these writers, there was still enough new material so it wasn’t like reading through a bunch of book summaries.

Most of the essays were very well done; however, the Edge conference transcripts were the best part of the collection. Simon Baron-Cohen’s talk on the effects of fetal testosterone levels on social behaviour and autism was very new and interesting and the science of morality transcripts could’ve very well made an excellent book on its own (just wish they would’ve included the Q&A sections).

While there were some very strong essays, there were also several weak and even sloppy contributions. I’m hoping this is just an issue with the advance copy because Ramachandran’s essay and Bruce Hood’s contribution are in dire need of an editor! For example, Ramachandran rambled on about the same old subjects (phantom limbs and synestesia) but he also managed to repeat the same sentence four times within the same essay (come on!) and many of the sentences were awkward and hard to read. Although, I hold no hope for any improvements on Bruce Hood’s essay after slogging through his terrible mess of a book, The Self Illusion (I’ve never read a more frustrating book: weak thesis, sloppy sentences, and unforgivable typos). Alva Noë’s essay also stuck out but not in a good way. His Chopraesque explanations on consciousness and cognition made me wonder why he was even asked to contribute.

Overall, it was pretty good (three stars) just needs to be edited a bit more.

[Nabeel Hassan]

ان هذا الكتاب يقدم أفكارا مبتكرة لعلماء النفس وعلماء أعصاب وفلاسفة رائدين يسهمون في زيادة فهمنا للتفكير الانساني بشكل جذري ان ما يتناوله هذا الكتاب في طياته سيبهر الكثيرين وفي الوقت نفسه سوف يكون مبهما وغامضا للكثيرين فهو يحتوي على مصطلحات وأفكار مبتكرة سوف تحدث تغييرا كبيرا في كثير من المفاهيم المتعلقة بالتفكير في أذهاننا ولكن من الجميل اظهار شيء جديد يضيف الى ذخيرة الفكر الانساني هذا الشيء الجديد يقوم بحل الكثير من الطلاسم القديمة ويتيح رؤية مستقبلية متكاملة لكل امكانات التفكير بداخلنا

[Amy Neftzger · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, I really enjoyed the content of this book. It's essentially a collection of essays that appear to be transcriptions from verbal presentations at a conference. With that understanding, a reader can skip around to different chapters without missing anything. Although the pieces are connected through their relationship to thought and decision-making processes, a reader can pick and choose essays without having to read the whole book.

While there was a lot of very interesting information in this book, I wish it had been polished for publication more. It does read like a conference transcript instead of a written work. If you're simply after the information - this is a great resource. However, if writing style is important to you this may not be the best source of information since language use differs between spoken and written word.

[Leo Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure why I checked this book out of the library -- I've read the books of 75% of the authors, and was familiar with the material -- I ended up liking it a lot. Because it took the best bits of dozens of books I've read over the past five years and distills the ideas into a single volume.

The problem for me, though, was the format. Though some of the material is essays by famous cognitive scientists, a lot of the sections are transcriptions of speeches given at assorted Edge Conferences. Which means that the speaker often repeats him or herself... like we do when speaking.

But....

For anyone wanting a one-volume overview of what cognitive science looks like today, you cannot go wrong. There is an examination of how we make decisions. And a compelling look at the nature/ nurture issue, only this time the argument is over what the current scientific data says about biological bases for our morality.

Recommended. However, I had to check out the audiobook after struggling with some transcriptions, which began to predominated about 1/3 in. It was only then that the stutters and back-steps, painstakingly recorded by the transcriber, made sense.

I was lucky that my local library had the audiobook in their Overdrive account. Otherwise, I am not sure I would have finished the book.

Good material. But because of the poor editing, three-stars.

[Jeff Swystun · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first question you need to ask yourself is why are you reading this review? Is it because you are reading all reviews to gain a holistic, qualitative view or was my review the most recent posted or did it's title intrigue or all of the above? One of the least fair questions ever posed is, how do you make a decision? The tangled factors that go through our brains when buying a can of beans or deciding to marry or wrestling with a theory are of head scratching complexity.

Perhaps I should share why I read this book. I am speaking on critical thinking and the speed of decision-making at the Canadian Marketing Association's national convention. I was looking for cool source material. Thankfully, I found some brainy bon mots amongst the exceedingly dense essays compiled. The entries were not in competition with each other nor did they necessarily flow in subject matter. What they proved is our brain and how we employ it remains a mystery.

What Thinking reaffirmed was how we create cognitive illusions or biases and how we build stories to explain our actions. I believe I am smarter for having read it and will now make better decisions yet, the reality is I may actually be foggier for the effort and am now confused into indecision. Who knows?

[Rick Presley · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is so much that could have been done to make this book better. I listened to the audio version of it and every single talk was cut off before it finished. Would have been nice to have the whole thing.

Would have been nice to have two narrators. One to read the titles and introduction. The other to read the articles. That way I would know where one left off and the other begins. There was nothing but a brief pause. At least the narrator could have announced when he was reading the author's words instead of the introductory material.

The content itself was very thought-provoking, sometimes contradictory, and often controversial. I liked that part of it. I would have appreciated it more if it had been formatted for the media type it was. It was a transcript rather than a book. Could have benefited greatly from a print editor having a hand in its production.

Summary: Worth reading, but could have been done a LOT better.

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mind-boggling book! @_@

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and very engaging - like being at a conference listening to these presenters.

[Ninakix · Rating 3 out of 5]

usually I love these Edge collections, but this one was a bit tired: a lot of people just recounting research or things that are already familiar to me, which was fine if you're a fan, not so great if you're not. Still, some good essays in there and stuff I hadn't been familiar with, and some new ideas. Just not as much as I would've hoped.

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

El título (en castellano) engaña mucho; parece un manual de coaching para emprendedores cuando nos encontramos ante un conjunto de artículos acerca de temas de psicología social y moral. Se cuentan ideas muy interesantes.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book of essays that by all accounts feature the best responses to Edge.org's annual question. Whilst nearly all of chapters follow this format, one is in the form of minutes from one of Edges conferences.

The subject matters focuses primarily on decision making with diverse discussions ranging from predictions, morality to philosophy. Each chapter is written by a distinguished thinker in their field, most of which do a good job of bringing their research down to a level that is relatively easy to understand.

Whilst most of the chapters are readable, they can be quite heavy making me 'drift' on occasion. Any reader should be willing to tackle fairly academic topics, but not in traditional essay form.

Very much worth a read, but more of a 'thinky' read than one for the beach. You might need a holiday after finishing it to bring your brain back into it's normal state.

[Nawar Youssef · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I found this book an interesting one, it includes many topics in one book with some interesting points of views and researches. I enjoyed some of its chapters.

However, the main drawback is that this book was written as it is based on conference speeches. So the language used and the way the topics been presented is meant to be for a conference speech not for a book. I found it difficult for me to follow and what it makes it more difficult is the fact that English is my second language.

[Steven Blais · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting observations and commentary from some of the more brilliant cognitive and behavioral psychologists around, ending with Daniel Kahneman. Brockman collected a series of speeches and talks that the various contributors did at conferences and presentations so the language is very casual as though talking directly to the reader which in a sense is what is happening. Lots of good ideas and explanations of why we think the way we do and why we are not as rationale as we think we are.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book assuming, perhaps not unnaturally, it would be about Thinking. It is not. Not really. Or only in so far as everything has to do with thinking.

Okay, so it is about decision-making, problem-solving and prediction as the subtitle claims. Not really. In one article someone tells the story of how he wanted to find out how firemen make their decisions. And found out they never make any decisions at all. Or so they claim. They only follow procedures. Interesting. The bulk of the book (90 pages) seems to contain lectures on the “new science” of morality. All of them I found uninspiring.

There is no introduction to this book, so I do not know how and why these articles have been chosen. They are certainly a mixed bag.

It starts with Daniel Dennett’s The Normal Well-Tempered Mind. This is a kind of summary of all the thoughts he ever had but not one of them is developed in any way. It reads like a collection of introductory remarks to particular themes with nothing to follow. Very strange.

A lot of the other articles also contain things you already know if you know the author. Ramachandran talks about phantom pain, Taleb about his black swan (still maybe the best article in the book), Kahnemann about his Linda (you know, the feminist Bank accountant) and Everett of course about the Pirahã. Why the Pirahã don’t have Numbers. (Actually this was the real reason I bought the book.) Only he does not give any reason at all. He only says that it is not because of inbreeding. It is interesting but there is not much you do not know if you have read his book on these strange people. They are using canoes but they do not build them. Out of principle it seems. They trade them. But how can you do trading without any concept of numbers? Also, one of his critics says they do have names for colours (something Everett denied). The word for red really means like blood. Okay. But is this not how language works? Using metaphors?

All in all, a waste of time.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eclectic mix of really interesting discussions about thinking. As this is a collection of different perspectives and approaches to such a complex topic rather than just one idea being discussed at length, it was challenging to get much information on any one facet. The best use for the chapters in this book is to consider each of them as a starting point for further reading. Average rating of 3.69 stars is approximately accurate.

[Pete Welter · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Thinking" is another collection by Edge.org's John Brockman, who specializes in getting leading edge people from various fields and putting them together - in discussions, in conferences and in books like this one. In this case, the topic is decision-making - how and why we make discussions, and to what end.

My favorite section was "The New Science of Morality," a multi-faceted discussion of moral psychology by some of the leading thinkers in that field. The book is worth it for that chapter alone. This is not the "what a good morals vs. bad morals vs. relative morals" debate that has been the hallmark of most moral discussions to this point. Moral psychology looks at the deeper question of why we even think morally in the first place. When do we start thinking morally, how much is learned vs. innate, what purpose evolutionarily do morals have, and finally, how can groups of of people with seemingly different moral worldviews work with to each other. Is there a rational version of morality than might supersede all others? And are the moral frameworks we have - driven by evolution to this point - appropriate and useful for dealing with a very changed world?

There are a few others that I particularly enjoyed. Philip Tetlock on whether we can actually forecast usefully (sorta, but really, not very well, and Dan Gilbert on what happens when we actually get what we want - do we actually enjoy it?

The chapters are mainly transcripts of talks, so they sometimes aren't as linear or concise as you would expect of an essay. Still, the consistently high level of the authors more than makes up for that, and there places where crosstalk is happening between authors that add to the discussion.

If you've read the books by some of the authors, then you will already be familiar with much of their chapters. For example, Daniel Kahneman summarizes "Thinking Fast and Slow" and Nassim Nicholas Taleb covers similar ground to his "Antifragile" book. Even if you've read those other books though, these chapters provide a concise review of those ideas. On the other hand, some authors, like Jonathan Haidt, go beyond their previous publications here.

If you are interested in an excellent survey on the state of the art thinking on decisionmaking, then I would highly recommend this book.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed hearing summaries of papers and books I've read over the years from some of my favorite authors. The research papers, discussions and debates following each of the topics was excellently compiled thus a 4 star. I've added a couple more books to my 'to-read' list after completing this one.

[Apricity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two takeaways -

"Affective forecasting"
Your prediction of how happy something will make you (e.g. vacationing at a certain resort, working at a particular job) is probably less accurate than a random stranger's experience with the same because humans are unable to anticipate all of the factors that determine happiness.

"Intuition"
Experience >> patterns - decision points and what should happen after a particular decision (i.e. you know what to watch, what to ignore, and what to expect) >> mental simulation of how taking a particular path at a decision point will go
Mistakes in intuition can be corrected by going through the pattern and exposing the erroneous decision point (e.g. an inability to land a new kind of plane - go through the process, stop at the problematic decision point and demonstrate how each path will go)

[Sal Coraccio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of informative talks, of a length you'd find at a conference attended by experts.

Essentially a transcript of such an event, so the flavor words and the occasional stumble are there, intact. Most of these folks are familiar to each other and there are some references to "Tom's work", for example, so you may find yourself needing Google on occasion to fill in some background. Not necessary, but I found that helpful.

Some of it exploratory, some familiar, some controversial - all fascinating.

Whenever cognitive psychology and philosophy intersect, as happens here, how can one not be transfixed? Slowly, the philosophy gives way as the mechanisms of [perceived] choice are understood - the science isn't there yet, but it's fun to listen to the discussion.

[Eric Lawton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the Edge series of annual collections. This one is worth getting. I was so impressed by what I learned, and I still have 18 stickies marking the pages. I gave this to my science undergrad. niece when she came for Christmas 2014 and she just sat there reading it, so I'm not the only one who found it a page-turner. It's subtitle (New Science...) is a good summary and it has short essays from many of my favourite authors on this topic. It is unlikely you will read it and not learn something that will help you practically with the subtitle topics, it picks on the weak points many of us humans have so although you may start from a somewhat better position than I, it's unlikely you have all of these sussed out already.

[عبدالرحمن عقاب · Rating 3 out of 5]

هذا الكتاب هو عبارة عن توثيق لمؤتمر علمي ، تحدّث فيه المشاركون عن أبحاثهم ونتائجهم وتساؤلاتهم.
وهذا ما أعطى الكتاب تنوعًا داخليًا في المواضيع والطروح ، وباستثناء القسم المعني بالأخلاق فلا تكاد تجد وحدة موضوعية للكتاب وهذا ما يجعل من العنوان مضللا وغير دقيق.
وهذا عينه ما يجعل الكتاب يترواح بين الجيد والرديء بحسب المتحدث وأسلوبه وموضوعه
أيضًا ساهم عدم التحرير في إضعاف المحتوى والأسلوب
فللقول أسلوبه وللكتابة أسلوبها
أظنّ أنّ الكتاب في مجمله مفيد وغني بما يستفاد منه وبه، غير أنّ ما ذكرته قد أفسد على الكتاب وقارئه. وكم أتمنى أن أجد تسجيل صوتي أو مرئي لهذه الجلسات
مما يجعلها أكثر متعة وحضورًا .

[Colm Gillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays written by academics on the issues related to human thought and sometimes (un)-thought. It would be near-impossible to give a synopsis of the whole book. However, there was a good variety of essays. No two essays seemed the same and I can honestly say there were many gems contained in practically every essay. Also, the essays weren't merely promoting a raw physicalism or materialism, which I had thought would have been the case when I started reading. A great book to get an insight into the current state of research on the human mind and one definitely recommended.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when authors glean all the latest research and expert thinking for me, and then deliver it in a very readable package--entertaining, even. Watered down? No--I don't have time to find this level of info in every field that interests me. I'd say compact instead.

I found some key nuggets. For example, info on prenatal levels of testosterone and the effect on our preference for systems or being empathetic seems to fit with how Jung described the two preferences people have for decision processes, Thinking and Feeling.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice collection of works previously published on edge.org. Some of the pieces are transcripts from videos, so the writing is a bit clunky at times. In particular, I enjoyed reading:

Smart Huristics (Gerd Gigerenzer)
Essentialism (Bruce Hood)
Testosterone On My Mind and In My Brain (Simon Baron-Cohen)
Insight (Gary Klein)
The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
The New Science of Morality (Jonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, and others)

This is worth a read.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brockman compiled an excellent introductory reading for those wishing to understand contemporary theories and trends regarding thinking itself. Though some of the chapters may not be particularly accessible or relevant to everyone (such as those focused on forecasting), every single one accomplishes to be enlightening about the subject at hand--and from the words and works of the best people in their respective fields. Ultimately, this is a work tailored to get one thinking differently about thinking.

[Bison · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Evolutionary theory, of course, shows the forces of natural selection operated on human beings. Psychoanalytic theory argues that our childhood experiences mold us in certain ways and give us outlooks on the world. Our early relationships with our parents lead to unconscious structures that can be very powerful. But both theories led to a lot of absurd conclusions, and both are very hard to test rigorously… too often, there’s a very loose kind of theorization that goes on, where people just tell a story and assume that it’s true because it kind of makes sense."

Take that, Freud!

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of thought provoking essays. Less of a cohesive book of curated essays with a central theme than a compilation of individual authors' works. It could have used HEAVY editing for readability. If the section wasn't an article reprinted as a chapter it was often a transcript of a public speech or a symposium. My heaviest criticism isn't for the content, but instead for (re)presentation. I expected the collection of essays to be making a larger point, but they never "hung together" for me. It survived on a three-star rating by virtue of content alone.

[Plamen H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книгата по-скоро клони към 3 звезди, заради същността си - сборник с манускрипти от лекции на редица популярни учени. (Една от главите в книгата дори я има визуално в youtube :D).
Ако търсите бързо резюме на книгите на Талеб, Рамачандран и други - това е пряката пътека за вас. Защото в общи линии "Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction in Life and Markets" e точно това - набързо нахвърлени есета относно съответните изследвания на авторите.

4-тата звезда е за маркетингов boost - няма да е лошо повече хора да я прочетат.

[Troy Blackford · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Brockman sure loves curating large volumes of interesting content from people I enjoy reading, and this installment is no different. Mostly amazing, it did contain two articles I didn't really agree with, but it was still interesting to hear different views. A large chunk of this has to do with moral psychology, but still largely focused on the decision-making issues mentioned in the title. Kahneman's ending piece alone is worth the price of admission. These are transcribed from talks, which gives it a 'chatty' feel. I highly recommend it to people interested in these topics.