Rolf Dobelli

Perhaps the best book on wisdom of life. There are several that highlight the common mistakes that we make but not many that prescribe a solution to these problems. This book covers pretty much all the mental follies along with simple but practical approaches to avoid those follies. The wisdom itself is now new but the approach is quite interesting. Each chapter is hardly 4-5 pages, very succinct, and self-contained.

People who worry about how to build character, how to be happy, calm, etc. should definitely read this book. I would recommend buying even a hardcopy as this is a book that you would read several times in a year.

For each of the techniques the author provides more information in the appendix from where it comes. Some of them are other books and some articles, essays etc. You can delve into more detail if you feel a need for it. However, in my experience, I believe if you take some of his suggestions as it as and simply implement them in your life; you would definitely see a remarkable improvement in your life satisfaction.… (mais)

My wife sent me a picture of a stack of books from a post that called them “20 Books To Read In Your 20s”.



I’d read three already (and can only really recommend one of those, McRaven’s Make Your Bed), so I decided to see if there was any merit to the rest of the stack. I tried to imagine what a twenty-something me would take away, and of course, the current me informs how I read it now.

As I make my way through the list, I’ve mentally sorted them into “No”, “Qualified No”, “Qualified Yes”, “Yes” categories. One of the books gave me pause and I had to add a new category: “Not Only No, But…”.

This one is a Qualified Maybe* One of the best things Mr. Dobelli says in this book is “This is not a how-to book. You won’t find “seven steps to an error-free life” here.” Yet, I guess all or most of the 99 essays came from blog posts, which might explain the short, attempted everyman approach with a veneer of accessibility dressing that doesn’t quite cut it.

Dobelli also says in his Epilogue, “I have listed almost one hundred thinking errors in this book without answering the question: What are thinking errors anyway? What is irrationality? Why do we fall into these traps? ”

What he also doesn’t do is explain the fallacies, biases, heuristics very well, and he has scattershot examples for each of his targets that don’t always follow… he does a poor job of tying together those examples (the short format might be to blame.) I think a good example would be his essay on the clustering illusion and references to pareidolia without identifying it (save a poor example in his notes). He jumps off that into seeing patterns where they aren’t before redeeming himself (this time) with “When it comes to pattern recognition, we are oversensitive. Regain your skepticism. If you think you have discovered a pattern, first consider it pure chance. If it seems too good to be true, find a mathematician and have the data tested statistically. And if the crispy parts of your pancake start to look a lot like Jesus’s face, ask yourself: If he really wants to reveal himself, why doesn’t he do it in Times Square or on CNN?”

As a book on critical thinking, its chief value is in applying your knowledge of critical thinking to what he has cobbled together. But be warned, you’ll soon tire of having to check pretty much everything he says.

So, Qualified Maybe if you want to bounce your learning off of a different book, but look elsewhere if you want to learn about logical fallacies.… (mais)