 "Insightful Intelligent Introduction to Practical Neuroscience" | 2009-10-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZPN6SP1WLCHO |
| This was an excellent book. I will start by mentioning it's prose is simply well-written. It's clear, it's precise, it's interesting, yet it's not boring or dry or quirky in some annoying way. It's just very good writing. Next is the very broad coverage of this book. The author really did a great job of finding tons of interesting facts and recent scientific findings. The book was quite interesting and relevant for me beyond merely the topic of decision making. He also touches on forecasting and memory and cognition in general. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was something that probably would be the part that appeals most to others and that's his sports anecdotes. After the first couple of pages, I thought, Oh no, this guy's a football fan and I find that boring. Well, he talked about golf and poker too which I find even more boring. But it turns out that it was all to good effect. He made his points quite well with those kinds of stories. The whole book certainly wasn't about golf or anything and I got over it because what really stood out was the fascinating topics presented in a well-organized interesting way. One weird thing was the use of sub chapters. This lead to some navigation uncertainty, for example, when I saw a big number 3 on page 49 and then a slightly bigger big number 3 on page 57. Didn't I just read chapter 3? Ah, that was chapter 2's chapter 3. See what I mean? But it was fine. If you want to get a better understanding of how the human mind does what it does, this book is a way to get a lot of information about that in a way that is not overwhelmingly technical. |
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| "Love Amazon" | 2009-10-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: ASVPXPBO1MVD2 |
| I was so pleased with the quick service and condition of the book. As always, I can count on Amazon dealers to be reliable and courteous. Very refreshing. Thanks so much. |
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| "Learn things that affect our decision" | 2009-09-28 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ITQ98CCGQF40 |
From birth to death, human beings constantly make decisions among the available options. In fact, a decision-making is the most frequent activity that people do in every day life. Unlike any other living organisms, from a simple bacteria to highly intelligent chimpanzee, human beings are the only creature that can use both rationality and emotion as the basis for the decision making process. Due to this inherent difference, it has been especially complex and difficult to determine the pathway that leads to a decision.
"How we decide" by Jonah Lehrer did an excellent job in explicitly describing how each factor can affect the decision making process. In fact, he reasoned his argument with numerous scientific background and clinical results. While he was doing his explanation, Lehrer also tried to write the book so that most people can easily understand the content. For instance, in one chapter Lehrer explained how Dopamine neurons are responsible for detecting the change and its influence on the decision-making process. He used an appropriate example, the case of Lieutenant Commander Michael Riley who instinctively distinguished a radar blip of cruise missile from that of returning American fighter jet to save HMS Gloucester. Lehrer went on to explain a rather complex mechanism of Dopamine neurons and put it to easier words saying, "The brain is designed to amplify the shock of these mistaken predictions. Whenever it experiences something unexpected - like a radar blip that doesn't fit the usual pattern, the cortex immediately takes notice". He even went on further to conclude that people recognize smart choices based on its previous experience and stay away from trouble thanks to Dopamine neurons. Not only the readers will gain the scientific knowledge, they will rarely find themselves having hard time to understand what is going on in the book.
Another brilliant job that Lehrer did in the book is the smooth transition from a chapter to chapter. Lehrer usually started a chapter with one concept of decision making process and then ended with a possible question that can be raised by the readers. In the preceding chapter, he revisited the previous chapter and tried to answer the proposed question by introducing another new concept. In this way, it was hard to get bored while reading possibly due to a bunch of unrelated concepts.
The most interesting part of the book was ironically the very first chapter of the book. Although most books put the most important facts, result, or conclusion at the end of the book, Lehrer did exactly opposite. In the first chapter, Lehrer carefully corrected the common misconception of "emotion hinders rationality and leads one to make a poor decision". Two clinically proven facts about human beings were used: 1) more rational people are not more likely to make better decisions and 2) emotionless people are unable to make any decision. Based on the facts, he wrote without emotion, "...we lose access to the wealth of opinions that we normally rely on..." The message is clear. Without emotion, there is no decision.
One drawback of "How We Decide" is that it did not propose any new concept of decision-making process. The book is more like a review for people who are new to the field of neuroscience. Although Lehrer did a good job in gathering all the info about how people make decisions, he did not go further to explore more about still unrevealed area of the decision making process.
Overall, Lehrer's "How We Decide" is an excellent book explaining the decision making process at the introductory level of neuroscience. A lot of clinical examples he used in the book are pleasure to read and easy to understand. Also, they are often very informative. In fact, readers will be often shocked by the number of commonly misunderstood facts about the decision-making process. The flow and structure of the book are smooth enough that readers will not get bored while reading. Unless you are an expert about the decision making process and neuroscience behind it, I really recommend "How We Decide" as the book literally covers every bit of aspects that is related to how really we decide.
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 "How to make a brain book" | 2009-09-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A27WBFFUHISM4P |
1. Pick a trendy mental function: decision making, memory, addiction, etc.
2. Collect a few juicy scientific experiments on the subjects
3. Sprinkle with as many pop anecdotes as possible - Sports, Television, Finance and the occasional disaster are the most palatable. Don't worry if they are not related as long as they are entertaining
4. Crush a few philosophers - Descartes and Plato make for the best effect.
5. Layer brain transmitters (Dopamine oblige) and brain areas (the dorsolateral prefontal cortex or DLPFC is particularly impressive) to give some substance
6. And don't forget to top with some evolutionary psychology icing
Et Voila! The reader is now full and you haven't even used a single ingredient of your own... |
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| "Simplistic thought" | 2009-09-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A44VWQQIS8A0U |
I have long been fasicnated with the science behind the choices we make. However, this book is just way too simple, it is quite clear that he is trying to mimic the success of The Tipping Point, etc, and this shows on almost every page.
I recommend Read Montague's, Your Brain is(almost)Perfect. It is written for a broader audience, and doesn't make the reader feel like a child. |
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| "One of the best in the field of neuroscience" | 2009-09-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A19UY9P18OQF1L |
"If you're going to take one idea away from this book, take this one: Whenever you make a decision, be aware of the kind of decision you are making and the kind of thought process it requires."
If you think about a book on human behaviours, unexpected findings, and researches, you could probably think of a lot of them. If you add neuroscience to the mix, you would probably think of a few. But if you think of that kind of book with a practical and solid guideline for you to change how you live your life, I doubt you could find that many. And "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer falls in that category.
The book is about `decisions' and how they are made by rationality and emotions from you brain (there are lots of parts within the frontal cortex but I'm not sure which). This is another typical book of this genre but let me tell you why should you `decide' to get this book.
Contents
The Quarterback in the Pocket
The first story starts with the 2002 Super Bowl and how Tom Brady made the decision that led the team to victory. Lehrer moved onto stories of Plato and the very interesting one is the man who had a brain damage and lost emotions and eventually, he just could not `decide'. This chapter focuses on `emotion' and how it is crucial to decision making.
The Predictions of Dopamine
The chapter begins with the story of Lieutenant Commander Michael Riley who commanded a British destroyer and decided to do something vital during the Persian Gulf War (I'm not going to spoil the story). The author also wrote about Bill Robertie, a chess master, a widely respected poker expert, and a backgammon champion. By the way, this is not my field but Dopamine is the brain region (or cell, or neurons, or whatever) that links our emotion to expectations.
Fooled by a Feeling
Emotions cannot do everything. The author wrote about Ann Klinestiver, a Parkinson teacher who became a slot machine addict (and lost literally almost everything in life) AFTER her Parkinson's disease `treatment'. The chapter moves onto basketball player's hot hands, stock investment, and a game show `Deal or No Deal'. The epic part of this chapter is about credit card (I am personally moved by this part and it sent shiver down my spine). The core of this chapter that wild feelings or emotions can bring us down.
The Uses of Reason
The story of a firefighter who survive the thick wall of raging fire starts the chapter perfectly because it is about how reasons are crucial at certain times. There is also another heartfelt story about a young girl, Mary, who were a brilliant and bright girl with bright future but one day she became different and ruined her life drinking, sleeping around and became angry a lot. She was eventually infected by HIV because of her brain tumor! Another great story in this chapter is how Captain Al Haynes of the United Airlines Flight 232 could maneuver the plane without basically everything working except the thrust levers.
Choking on Thought
The chapter begins with the opera singer Renee Fleming and how her career went downhill. Likewise, Van de Velde, a golf pro, could not recover from the career slump because of their `thoughts'. There are numerous researches in this chapter along with the MRI machine that failed to treat back pain. The point of the chapter is that we can think too much because our brain is not designed to calculate, take into account, and make a decision of 10 choices with 20 factors each.
The Moral Mind
This is also one of my favourite chapters starting with John Wayne Gacy, a psychopath who murdered thirty-three boys. The crucial aspect is how he thought and decided to commit those `evil' (put your baddest word here) crimes without a wink. There are many researches including the one on war. There is also a very eye-opening story about `autism'.
The Brain Is An Argument
Within a decision, there are numerous parts of your brain working at the same time and you are likely to decide based on which part is winning be it choosing a political party candidate, shopping, or pundits. There is a story about decision-making failure during the 1973 war in the Middle East.
The Poker Hand
This chapter is mainly about Michael Binger, one of the world's best poker players and how he applied different tactics in each different round. The chapter ends with the simple guidelines (with explanations, of course)
SIMPLE PROBLEMS REQUIRE REASON
NOVEL PROBLEMS ALSO REQUIRE REASON
EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY
YOU KNOW MORE THAN YOU KNOW
THINK ABOUT THINKING
Coda
It's the conclusion with another great story
...
I'll compare "How We Decide" to an ideal business book in my personal opinion a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.
Ease of Understanding: 9/10: From the briefing above, you will see that there are so many stories and they make it easy to understand the content and the way Jonah Lehrer wrote is a breath of fresh air. Each chapter has its core concept and the explanations are clear. The only confusion comes from the neuroscience. If you are not familiar with the brain parts, you might struggle a bit but that's minor.
Distinction: 6/10: What can I say? I have read some researches in the book from other books and this book is not the breakthrough of a major finding on neuroscience. However, this book is different in the aspect that it tells you why you did what you did and it tells you how should you do, which brings us to the next part.
Practicality: 9/10: When I first picked up "How We Decide", I did not have much hope in practicality but this book exceeds every expectation of mine. I might be biased but since I read the chapter on credit card, I really stopped using my credit card (except for online purchases) because the book told me what I thought and it was like a lightning struck on your head. The stories and researches will make you think of yourself and the world around you differently.
Credibility: 8/10: There is no need to not believe the book because of the tons of highly advanced scientific researches regarding the activity in your brain. Every explanation and analysis is written in plain language but scientific proofs are always there.
Insightful: 7/10: When I think of this book, I can think of so many stories (this is probably the book which has stories that I can recall most). I spent hours telling my friends about the stories in this book. There are lots of stories and lots of researches. Yes, it's pretty insightful.
Reading Experience: 10/10: I love the book. The book changes the way I spend and that alone is much great than the $25 price tag of the book. I changed the way I think of an unfortunate autistic person I know personally because in the past, I think of feeling and emotion for granted but this book says `don't, you don't have a clue'. Moreover, the book has (I said it for the millionth time) great stories that you will remember.
Overall: 8.2/10: I love the book. Bias? Possibly. "If you're going to take one idea away from this book, take this one: Whenever you make a decision, be aware of the kind of decision you are making and the kind of thought process it requires." And trust me that if you start from that idea, you'll get countless of invaluable ideas, for life. |
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