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mkesten's review
3.0
I found the first 200 pages of this book to be almost impenetrable and frequently forgot a sentence shortly after reading it.
That said, the book and its import improve.
If you’ve read Kahneman’s earlier work, Thinking Fast and Slow, you’ll be familiar with the use of a core metaphor to the argument. While the book says it’s about “Noise” it’s really about the statistical sources of bad judgments.
Noise is the shorthand systems engineers use to explain flaws in the system.
Kahneman et al want us to take a systems view of bad judgments, and bad judges. There is hope for them yet.
Forestalling judgment until the evidence is collected, breaking down complex judgments to their constituent parts, employing baseline comparisons, and employing objective referees will all yield better judgments in business, in law and medicine, and in life.
I certainly hope so. I have trouble just dealing with the volume of judgments I am called upon to make everyday in business.
There is a lot here to think about, especially about the people who are the experts we rely upon, and how they frequently get important things wrong.
That said, the book and its import improve.
If you’ve read Kahneman’s earlier work, Thinking Fast and Slow, you’ll be familiar with the use of a core metaphor to the argument. While the book says it’s about “Noise” it’s really about the statistical sources of bad judgments.
Noise is the shorthand systems engineers use to explain flaws in the system.
Kahneman et al want us to take a systems view of bad judgments, and bad judges. There is hope for them yet.
Forestalling judgment until the evidence is collected, breaking down complex judgments to their constituent parts, employing baseline comparisons, and employing objective referees will all yield better judgments in business, in law and medicine, and in life.
I certainly hope so. I have trouble just dealing with the volume of judgments I am called upon to make everyday in business.
There is a lot here to think about, especially about the people who are the experts we rely upon, and how they frequently get important things wrong.
kaydenj's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Somewhat oversimplified and repetitive with some work cited being outdated and incorrect but generally a good overview of the topic
vireogirl's review
4.0
Fairly academic, but well explained for the lay person. The decision hygiene concept makes a lot of sense and is helpful for making business predictions.
bluishgreen12's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
The book itself is repetitive both in examples and concepts. So repetitive that I scanned through the conclusion in search for something new that had not already been said 5+ times.
It makes a compelling argument that where there is noise there will be injustice and sometimes critical errors. What I thought was very unconvincing were the solutions which imply a monstrous bureaucracy. Even the writing style would seem to appeal to rule loving readers, as it is incredibly well structured and systematic. They exclude open minded people from being very likely to have biases. I would love it if the authors could undertake some studies to find out what happens when you introduce open minded, critical thinking people to mechanical rule based work environments, i wonder how many will still have a will to keep learning or live at the end of said hypothetical study. The best section of the book was the authors addressing criticism to the solutions for noise reduction, as in the critics pretty much winning at that debate. It was my impression that they undid the whole book with that part. Not as great as Thinking Fast and Slow.
It makes a compelling argument that where there is noise there will be injustice and sometimes critical errors. What I thought was very unconvincing were the solutions which imply a monstrous bureaucracy. Even the writing style would seem to appeal to rule loving readers, as it is incredibly well structured and systematic. They exclude open minded people from being very likely to have biases. I would love it if the authors could undertake some studies to find out what happens when you introduce open minded, critical thinking people to mechanical rule based work environments, i wonder how many will still have a will to keep learning or live at the end of said hypothetical study. The best section of the book was the authors addressing criticism to the solutions for noise reduction, as in the critics pretty much winning at that debate. It was my impression that they undid the whole book with that part. Not as great as Thinking Fast and Slow.
snommers's review
2.0
I'm normally a fan of Kahneman's books, but this fell flat. The premise of 'noise' affecting various decisions, diagnoses, forecasting, predictions, etc..., seems obvious (at least to me), but the book reads like a text book and bored me most of the time. When real examples of 'noise' were presented I was engaged, but there's a lot of manufactured examples of noise and use of statistics to prove the author's point.