An essential guide to practicing the cognitive skills needed for making better decisions in the age of data, algorithms, and AI.
Data promised to make decisions easier. Algorithms promised to reduce how many decisions we need to make. AI promises
-
or threatens
to make human decisions obsolete. Yet, the opposite is happening because modern data makes decisions harder and AI makes human judgment more
not less
valuable.
All decisions contain an implicit prediction about the future which seems increasingly unpredictable, even chaotic. Data is supposed to help but it doesn't if it's too complex for humans to find meaningful. Data that is confusing, inaccessible, or ambiguous will leave humans relying on their intuition. The result is an evolutionary mismatch between how we think and how machines help us decide.
Make Better Decisions
contains 50 nudges that have their lineage in scholarship from behavioral economics, cognitive science, computer science, decision science, design, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. Each nudge prompts the reader to use their beautiful, big human brain to notice when our automatic decision-making systems will lead us astray in our complex, modern world, and when they'll lead us in the right direction.