Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World

Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World
Noreena Hertz

In a fast-moving world we’re often overloaded with differing opinions, conflicting data and changing advice. In this essential guide, Noreena Hertz offers practical steps to how to make better, smarter decisions.Most of us think we make decisions for the right reasons: we scour books, we talk over options with our friends, we search the internet, we ask experts, we look at data or we trust our guts. But how hard do we scrutinise those we listen to? How much do we interrogate the information they provide? Are we open to new ways of tackling problems? Or are we swayed by how we’ve made decisions in the past?Noreena Hertz reveals the extent to which life-altering, business-affecting, policy-determining, and also health-defining decisions are being made based on partial information, assumed wisdoms, corrupted data and insufficient scrutiny. She provides a clear, practical toolkit for how you can be a smarter decision-maker and better problem-solver. Whether knowing when to trust experts and when to trust the internet or how you can be unconsciously swayed by certain behaviours or phoney stats, this books instructs you how to make better choices and more accurate predictions – through your personal life, your work and all your decisions.

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Copyright (#ufc35ab50-20fa-5b82-b206-9fdae6e0d1ec)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://www.williamcollinsbooks.com)

First published in Great Britain by William Collins 2013

Copyright © Noreena Hertz 2013

The right of Noreena Hertz to be identified as the author

of this work has been asserted by her in accordance

with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record of this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007467105

Ebook Edition © September 2013 ISBN: 9780007467112

Version: 2014-08-26

Dedication (#ufc35ab50-20fa-5b82-b206-9fdae6e0d1ec)

To Danny Cohen – the best decision I ever made

Contents

Cover (#u0dc2c425-d4fe-50eb-8935-b28ce729b0ec)

Title Page (#ud44629e4-1428-5a80-8f1d-0bed7169a374)

Copyright (#ulink_8133b205-cdd3-56fd-abd9-54b8d94cadbc)

Dedication (#ulink_b413d555-729f-53d4-a8b1-8ca260f28de9)

THIS DECISION WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

STEP ONE: Get to Grips with a World in Hyper-Drive (#ulink_9cdfc437-74ca-553a-935e-903c67bed37a)

KEEP YOUR EYES WIDE OPEN

STEP TWO: See the Tiger and the Snake (#ulink_453e10f4-7f35-5e3e-8b06-b6e461b9c76e)

STEP THREE: Don’t Be Scared of the Nacirema (#ulink_c236b74b-da37-57ca-86bb-2461232a4ddc)

BECOME YOUR OWN CUSTODIAN OF TRUTH

STEP FOUR: Ditch Deference and Challenge Experts (#ulink_6948724c-266b-52e5-992c-e00e6c319767)

STEP FIVE: Learn from Shepherds and Shop Assistants (#litres_trial_promo)

GO DIGITAL … WITH CAUTION

STEP SIX: Co-Create and Listen In (#litres_trial_promo)

STEP SEVEN: Scrutinise Sock Puppets and Screen Your Sources (#litres_trial_promo)

DEVELOP YOUR SURVIVAL SKILLS

STEP EIGHT: Overcome Your Maths Anxiety (#litres_trial_promo)

STEP NINE: Monitor Your Emotional Thermostat (#litres_trial_promo)

SHAKE THINGS UP

STEP TEN: Embrace Dissent and Encourage Difference (#litres_trial_promo)

EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)

Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

List of Searchable Terms (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Praise (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

By the Same Author (#litres_trial_promo)