The Decisive Moment: How The Brain Makes Up Its Mind
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Review
'A tour de force of limpid writing, well-marshalled anecdotes and conclusions that overthrow conventional wisdom. This book could change the way you think about thinking.' Observer
Review
'Engrossing...gripping...moving...full of fascinating facts. ... Lehrer's on similar territory to Malcolm Gladwell's BLINK and James Surowiecki's THE WISDOM OF CROWDS but more than earns his place on the shelf alongside them.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
"The Irrationality of human beings" pop-science/social science market is getting a bit crowded, but this is still a good read
15 April 2010
Format:Hardcover
In recent years, there has been a glut of books like The Decisive Moment hitting the non-fiction market, and many parts of this book felt familiar. Like both Outliers: The Story of Success and Sway The Decisive Moment retells stories of white-knuckle decision-making being made by airline pilots in seriously desperate situations; like Switch many 'classic' social-psychological studies of human behaviour are poured over to illuminate how human beings make irrational choices.
What makes Lehrer's book interesting is his use of neurobiology to really tease out how different parts of the brain contribute towards the decision making process, and while many Critical Psychologists and/or Philosophers of Mind might cringe at his anthropomorphizing of (say) dopamine-expressing neurons, the author certainly brings something different to the table. Other reviewers have caricatured his linkage of mental states with neurological activity, but I found his writing both sober, informative and quite engrossing (he has none of the swagger of say, Steven Pinker, who has covered similar pop-science ground but with a political agenda). Having a somewhat cursory, patchy knowledge of brain anatomy, I didn't find his brain discussions to be too indulgent, although some simple vector drawings of the brain might have helped orientate the reader at different points of the discussion.
The book does end with a somewhat wishy-washy self help chapter on how people can apply these insights to their lives, although it sort of feels like He Man's moral message at the end of the Masters of the Universe cartoon from the eighties- a bit tacked on to appease a certain demographic. If using this stuff for self help is your bag, then you'd do well to check out Brain Rules alongside this, although I think that Lehrer writes slightly better.
On a final note, whoever designed the cover (complete with an embossed rubber "don't press" button) deserves recognition- this is brilliant cover design that really makes the book jump of the shelves.
What makes Lehrer's book interesting is his use of neurobiology to really tease out how different parts of the brain contribute towards the decision making process, and while many Critical Psychologists and/or Philosophers of Mind might cringe at his anthropomorphizing of (say) dopamine-expressing neurons, the author certainly brings something different to the table. Other reviewers have caricatured his linkage of mental states with neurological activity, but I found his writing both sober, informative and quite engrossing (he has none of the swagger of say, Steven Pinker, who has covered similar pop-science ground but with a political agenda). Having a somewhat cursory, patchy knowledge of brain anatomy, I didn't find his brain discussions to be too indulgent, although some simple vector drawings of the brain might have helped orientate the reader at different points of the discussion.
The book does end with a somewhat wishy-washy self help chapter on how people can apply these insights to their lives, although it sort of feels like He Man's moral message at the end of the Masters of the Universe cartoon from the eighties- a bit tacked on to appease a certain demographic. If using this stuff for self help is your bag, then you'd do well to check out Brain Rules alongside this, although I think that Lehrer writes slightly better.
On a final note, whoever designed the cover (complete with an embossed rubber "don't press" button) deserves recognition- this is brilliant cover design that really makes the book jump of the shelves.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you thought you knew how rational and considered were your decisions, this book will blow that myth to pieces. Well researched and with impressive references, and through an insightful use of examples and metaphors, the author identifies the importance of the brains "massively parallel" emotional processing. It also highlights the critical importance of thinking consciously about the methods you use (thought processes you go through) in decision making.
It may be filed under "Popular Psychology" but I believe it has a lot to say to the academic audience. Being effortlessly readable doesn't make it trivial!
It may be filed under "Popular Psychology" but I believe it has a lot to say to the academic audience. Being effortlessly readable doesn't make it trivial!
44 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Much,much better than all these Gladwell and his ilk ,pretensious 'got something to say'books. Really does have something to say and is based firmly in reasearch rather than conjecture. Makes some good points and is easy to read. Lots of books around about cognitive bias and decision making but this is the most accessable I've read for a while.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fascinating stuff
After a while, if you read enough popular psychology, behavioural economics, and other similar books you start coming across the same studies being quoted, but that isn't... Read more
Published 19 days ago by A. Skudder
How we work
As good an explanation about the intricasies of the mind as one is likely to read. Expressed, for the most part, in language that the layman can understand. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Terry Rusk
Badly written woolly minded twaddle. Hear Hear.
This terrible book is a mish-mash of anecdote and "just-so" conclusions lacking any rigour. It is extremely misleading to suggest the degree of certainty about brain function that... Read more
Published 19 months ago by T. Doris
Interesting
The book uses examples and anecdotes to give a clear and readable description of what is likely to be going on in our heads when we weigh up decisions, some of which is quite... Read more
Published 20 months ago by E. McLachlan
A Book which is enjoyable and raises self-awareness
This is an enjoyable book to read and provides an interesting insight into how we go about making decisions in our lives. Read more
Published on 20 May 2010 by Jean Michel
why did i buy this ?
I read a review in the sundays about this book and i thought i would give it a go as it sounded mighty interesting. Read more
Published on 2 May 2010 by Jon Warrender
A book that makes you think about thinking
What happens when we make a choice? How do we decide which brand of jam we want in the supermarket, or what to do when we're piloting a crashing plane and have no instructions on... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by M. K. Burton
Great information, well written
Some of the material in this book will be familiar to those interested in the field, but it is still well worth reading. Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2010 by Tim Bright - OneWorld Consulting
Understand your decisions and error
This is an excellent book for anyone who really wants to understand more about how their brain works and why they make the decisions they do. Read more
Published on 23 July 2009 by N. Slessenger
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Captain Al Haynes had not been trained to deal with an exploding engine and a total loss of control. The manual contained nothing and the engineers on the ground were stumped. Read more
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