Contents

Part I Introduction

Chapter 1 Decision Making Shapes Your Life

Chapter 2 The Search for Rationality

Chapter 3 Why It’s Hard to Be Rational

Part II How Do You Make Decisions?

Chapter 4 What’s Your Decision Style?

Chapter 5 Are You a Risk-Taker?

Chapter 6 Are You a Maximizer or Satisficer?

Chapter 7 Who Controls Your Destiny?

Chapter 8 Do You Procrastinate?

Chapter 9 Are You Impulsive?

Chapter 10 Can You Control Your Emotions?

Chapter 11 Are You Overconfident?

Chapter 12 Understanding Your Personality Profile

Part III Common Biases and Errors That Most of Us Make (and How to Overcome Them)

Chapter 13 How Can You Be So Darn Sure About That? Coping with Overconfidence

Chapter 14 Never Do Today That Which You Can Do Tomorrow: The Inertia Bias

Chapter 15 I Want It, and I Want It NOW! The Immediate Gratification Bias

Chapter 16 Where You End Up Depends on Where You Start: The Anchoring Effect

Chapter 17 I’ll See It When I Believe It: The Selective Perception Bias

Chapter 18 I Hear What I Want to Hear: The Confirmation Bias

Chapter 19 Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? The Framing Bias

Chapter 20 What Have You Done for Me Lately? The Availability Bias

Chapter 21 Looks Can Be Deceiving: The Representation Bias

Chapter 22 Seeing Patterns That Aren’t There: Coping with Randomness

Chapter 23 I Only Like Change That Jingles in My Pocket: The Familiarity Bias

Chapter 24 Gone Is Not Always Forgotten: Understanding Sunk Costs

Chapter 25 Keep It Simple: The Limited Search Error

Chapter 26 Losing Your Head in the Heat of Battle: The Emotional Involvement Error

Chapter 27 Who You Gonna Blame? The Self-Serving Bias

Chapter 28 Novelty Wears Off: The Adaptation Bias

Chapter 29 I Knew It All the Time: The Hindsight Bias

Part IV Advice Your Mother Never Gave You

Chapter 30 Clear Goals and Preferences Make Choosing a Lot Easier

Chapter 31 Sometimes Doing Nothing Is Your Best Option

Chapter 32 Choosing Not to Decide Is Still a Decision

Chapter 33 Decisions Are Not Made in Isolation

Chapter 34 All Decisions Aren’t Important

Chapter 35 More Information Isn’t Necessarily Better

Chapter 36 You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing

Chapter 37 Don’t Rehash Past Decisions

Chapter 38 Successful People Take Risks

Chapter 39 It’s Okay to Make Mistakes, or No One Has an Undefeated Season

Chapter 40 Experience Can Improve Decisions, But...

Chapter 41 Where You’re from Influences How You Decide

Part V An Epilogue

Chapter 42 Summary, or Why Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

Endnotes

Index