The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise your Thinking and Make Wiser Decisions

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The final stage of expertise, when we can pause and analyse our gut feelings, basing our decisions on both intuition and analysis. If you’re in charge of a global team, someone with high cultural intelligence might be a good choice because they’ll be able to negotiate through many social conventions more easily. A study examined the journals of 1,700 scientists and found that 75% of articles with conclusions that contradicted their prior beliefs were never published. We fail to keep track of how much we know and how much we have forgotten; we assume that our current knowledge is the same as our peak knowledge. Be more curious: When you’re curious, you’ll want to seek out new information and challenge yourself.

Rather than positive or negative, they are simply points of interest that you should direct your attention to. The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power. Thank you to Netgalley, WW Norton, and the author for allowing me to read an ebook arc copy of this book. Drawing on their work as well as interviews with other scientists, Robson offers an unusually readable, wide-ranging survey of today’s best thinking on thinking, including an intriguing overview of the emerging science of “evidence-based wisdom,” which is generating practical strategies to improve decision-making in high-stakes situations. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary.Named after the ancient Israelite king, Solomon’s paradox describes our inability to reason wisely about our own lives, even if we demonstrate good judgement when faced with other people’s problems.

Someone who has been brought up to distrust scientific evidence may then be more susceptible to quack medicines and beliefs in the paranormal, for instance.One of the most widely accepted personality measures is where we fit on the continuum between introversion and extroversion. The writing is very easy to follow and the pace on how the book is presented makes a lot of sense - it is divided into four parts. By paranormal, I understand observations and experiences that conflict with a purely materialist world view. David Robson’s prime example is Conan Doyle — doctor, author, inventor of the arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes and, latterly, passionate spiritualist.

Hear in-depth radio and podcast interviews on ABC All in the Mind and ABC Nightlife, BBC’s Beyond Today, Radiolab, Curious Minds, Adam Connover’s Factuallyand Slate’s The Gist. To become better decision-makers we must be willing to challenge our assumptions and beliefs, seek out diverse perspectives and information and engage in critical thinking / reflection. In fact, the book I would really recommend on this topic is The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making – it contains all the stuff you need to learn with none of the crappy case study examples of people being idiots - often in aeroplanes, for some reason. The title makes it sound a little bit like the DaVinci code but actually, it’s full of actionable information.Similarly, key in 'Sheldrake and Smart 2003', then download Experimental Tests for Telephone Telepathy; then one can key in 'Jim B Tucker 2008' and download Ian Stevenson and cases of the Reincarnation Type. It may include the confirmation or myside bias (preferentially seeking and remembering information that suits our goal) and discomfirmation bias (the tendency to be especially sceptical about evidence that does not fit our goal). But it isn’t, since the first premise only says that “all living things need water”—not that “all things that need water are living. Frank believes strongly that if we can improve the way we think, the actions that follow also improve. Other notable biases include framing (the fact that you may change your opinion based on the way information is phrased), the sunk cost fallacy (our reluctance to give up on a failing investment even if we will lose more trying to sustain it), and the gambler’s fallacy—the belief that if the roulette wheel has landed on black, it’s more likely the next time to land on red.