The idea of writing a book on the myth of experience arose during a retreat at Robin’s 450-year-old country house in Avinyonet de Puigventós, a small village in the northeast corner of Spain. Every day, we went on long walks in the morning and sat comfortably near the fireplace at night, jotting down thoughts and planting the seeds.
Between the two of us, we had the advantage of having accumulated a wide range of insights and experiences over many years. Hence, we had a pretty good idea about what we would write. That part was relatively easy. How to write things, however, is another matter. Luckily, we had help from a diverse group of people as we shaped, reviewed, and reshaped the content. They criticized, verified, refuted, and ultimately improved our examples and arguments.
Among them are prominent scholars in decision science. We are grateful, in particular, for comments received from Irina Cojuharenco, Harry Davis, Linda Ginzel, Reid Hastie, Natalia Karelaia, Spyros Makridakis, Johannes Müller-Trede, and Paul Schoemaker.
We also sought advice and feedback from many readers and decision makers with different backgrounds and specialties. Mehmet U. Soyer expertly and passionately advised and guided us through thick and thin. For their comments, we’d like to thank Hale Soyer, Ipek Aktar, Neelum Khalsa, Emily Mathews, Çiğdem Doğruoğlu, Sasnuhi Muşlıyan, Tahir Öztürk, Eray Yücel, Utku Özmen, Soner Beyhan, Bora Gökbora, Megan Ford, Mahmut Gökbora, Saadet Öznal Gökbora, Savaş Özdemir, Zübeyir Kurt, Angelica Minaya Akyıldız, and Seha İşmen Özgür.
Our agent Jane Dystel and her team supported us admirably through the whole process. Our editor Clive Priddle and assistant editor Anupama Roy-Chaudhury steered our efforts, skillfully uncovering our blind spots and helping us demonstrate our strengths. They also introduced us to Karl Weber, whose invaluable and inventive inputs lifted the book to its final shape prior to the gloss provided by Kate Mueller´s fine copy-editing skills.
Finally, we are greatly indebted to our families. Without their emotional, intellectual, and physical support, we wouldn’t even be able to imagine writing this book. Thank you so much!