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Noise

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Noise

By: Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein
Narrated by: Todd Ross, Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony
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THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ‘A monumental, gripping book … Outstanding’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Noise may be the most important book I've read in more than a decade. A genuinely new idea so exceedingly important you will immediately put it into practice. A masterpiece’
Angela Duckworth, author of Grit

‘An absolutely brilliant investigation of a massive societal problem that has been hiding in plain sight’
Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics

From the world-leaders in strategic thinking and the multi-million copy bestselling authors of Thinking Fast and Slow and Nudge, the next big book to change the way you think.

We like to think we make decisions based on good reasoning – and that our doctors, judges, politicians, economic forecasters and employers do too. In this groundbreaking book, three world-leading behavioural scientists come together to assess the last great fault in our collective decision-making: noise.

We all make bad judgements more than we think. Noise shows us what we can do to make better ones.

 Forecasting & Strategic Planning Management & Leadership Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Personal Development Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Stress Management Business Inspiring Thought-Provoking Management Leadership
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Critic reviews

The Sunday Times bestseller (May 2021)
‘A tour de force of scholarship and clear writing’
New York Times
‘This is a monumental, gripping book. It is also bracing … The three authors have transformed the way we think about the world. They have looked beneath and beyond the way we make decisions and organise our lives. A follow-up of sorts to Thinking, Fast and Slow, it is a further step down the road towards a more complex and realistic grasp of human affairs that is replacing the crude simplifications of the recent past. Outstanding’
Sunday Times
‘As you’d expect from its authors, it is a rigorous approach to an important topic… There’s lots to surprise and entertain. Anyone who has found the literature on cognitive biases important will find this a valuable addition to their knowledge’ Danny Finkelstein, The Times
‘Noise is everywhere and is seriously disruptive. The authors have come up with a bold solution. The book is a satisfying journey through a big but not unsolvable problem, with plenty of fascinating case studies along the way. Humans are often bad at making decisions. But we can get better’
Martha Gill, Evening Standard
‘The greatest source of ineffective policies are often not biases, corruption or ill-will, but three “I”: Intuition, Ignorance and Inertia. This book masterfully demonstrates why the three “I” are so pervasive, and what we can do to fight them. An essential, eye opening read’
Esther Duflo, winner of a 2019 Nobel Prize
‘In Noise, the authors brilliantly apply their unique and novel insights into the flaws in human judgment to every sphere of human endeavour… Noise is a masterful achievement and a landmark in the field of psychology’
Philip E. Tetlock, co-author of Superforecasting
‘An electrifying exploration of the human mind, this book will permanently change the way we think about the scale and scope of bias’
David Lammy
All stars
Most relevant
This is a great, if dense book but well worth a read. Ideally, I think, you need to read "Thinking Fast and Slow" first though, to fully appreciate the topic.

Noise, more important than you thought

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Having Read Thinking Fast and Slow I was very excited for this book, Kahneman references the work of his co-authors repeatedly and I could only imagine where a collaboration was goijng to lead. I didn't find it as edifying as Thinking Fast and Slow and at several times I thought this book is more of a signposting exercise to where you can find some interesting research, the sorts of statistics that you need to look into and some ancedotes about areas where Noise can be found. I'm pretty interested in the Superforecasters after this book and think that I'll probably look more into that area.

Whilst interesting in terms of seeing how inconsitent methodologies can cause more problems than bias where a miss in the system against a theoretical "true value" doesn't cancel out with a mistake made in the other direction, ie when you mis-price two stocks it doesn't matter if the errors are opposite, both are errors and it's only the magintude of the error that matters.

The authors seem to assume some familiarity with their previous work, talking about System 1 thinking without the background of thinking fast and slow might cause an issue for some readers. The audiobook also has an interview with the authors at the end which seems to be a quick summary of the points made in the book, it's about half an hour and doesn't add much to the text.

There's some practical advice at the end of the book about eliminating Noise in different areas which is interesting even though it might be hard to implement because it's hard to see the results. Author's refer to decision hygenie as you're fighting an invisible enemy through methodology which can't show what you might have been protected from, you just have to trust in the process.

Noise and how to be a little bit better

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Building on the observations and real life experience of the authors and many other great people, The book made me take a look at how we do things in our organisation and how much better we could be. From my approach to how we get things done. even during the read the book helps. I know my judgement has been flawed but also that there are really great and practical example of what to change and why it's better for the change.

It makes you think about the processes you stand by and how you inter act with the team, how we get things done and why we do some things in the first place. I loved it this is a book for the 21sdt century!

Nudge and Thinking Fast and Slow are both worth picking up as additional reading if this interests you amongst others..

Changing by understanding for the better.

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For me, Noise is best as an audiobook. There are sections which are riveting and others which are interesting but a little heavy to read in a book.

An excellent learning experience

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this book discusses the level of noise in the everyday decisions we make whether in a business environment or home environment.

noise is defined as elements that influence our decisions but which should not really be influencing our decisions. For example let's say we are thinking about hiring one person to do a job. Did you know that if during the process of the interview we are feeling uncomfortable too hot or too cold or perhaps we have had some level of displeasure about something or the other totally unconnected to the interview, or perhaps we have had some level of pleasure or happiness again totally unconnected to the interview, our decision about the individual we are actually interviewing is impacted by the side effects that our day to day living exposes us to.

a detailed research book that should be read by most people really because it will get you thinking about decisions you make whether in the family or business environment and how you can apply certain methods and decision hygiene to enable you to make the right decision and to reduce the undue level of influence on your decisions.

thoroughly enjoyable and extremely well-written very accessible and really an essential for your library and generations to come will find this book of immense utility.

decision making is noisy

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