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A review by tigerknitting
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
3.0
Nonfiction books often make for fascinating reading. You can read someone's life story, learn about different cultures, or learn more about how things work.
In the learn about how things work category is the book How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. This is a book about how the brain works, in particular, how we make decisions. Lehrer makes the current research on the brain accessible to lay readers.
For many years philosophers and scientists thought that we either decided through logical processes or by using feelings. Now, scientists are beginning to understand that the process is not that simple. It is a balancing act between gut feelings and thought out decisions. They are also finding that both types of decision making have their place. Learning when to make thought out decisions and when to trust your gut is the trick to making the best decisions.
Some key take-aways (at least in my opinion) are: its ok to make mistakes...that is how our brains learn to make better decisions, sometimes complicated decisions are best made with our emotional brains (too much information can overwhelm the logical brain), our dopamine receptors like to be happy, the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed in teenagers so they are going to make mistakes (it helps their brains learn, after all!), sleeping on it can actually work, and learn to think outside the box.
This book is written for non-scientists, so don't be afraid to read a "science" book. It is entertaining and enlightening.
In the learn about how things work category is the book How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. This is a book about how the brain works, in particular, how we make decisions. Lehrer makes the current research on the brain accessible to lay readers.
For many years philosophers and scientists thought that we either decided through logical processes or by using feelings. Now, scientists are beginning to understand that the process is not that simple. It is a balancing act between gut feelings and thought out decisions. They are also finding that both types of decision making have their place. Learning when to make thought out decisions and when to trust your gut is the trick to making the best decisions.
Some key take-aways (at least in my opinion) are: its ok to make mistakes...that is how our brains learn to make better decisions, sometimes complicated decisions are best made with our emotional brains (too much information can overwhelm the logical brain), our dopamine receptors like to be happy, the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed in teenagers so they are going to make mistakes (it helps their brains learn, after all!), sleeping on it can actually work, and learn to think outside the box.
This book is written for non-scientists, so don't be afraid to read a "science" book. It is entertaining and enlightening.