Decisive — How to make better choices in life and work

Chip Heath is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford, and his brother Dan is a journalist. They have written several business books, but I think this one is their strongest, and unusually good for a business book. From my notes. this is a short overview: 4 villains of decision-making 1. Avoid narrow framing - Narrow framing is a tendency to define our choices too narrowly 2. Confirmation bias - when we want something to be true, we spotlight the things that support it and then draw conclusions from those spotlighted scenes. 3. Short-term emotion - Being swayed by emotion that will fade 4. Overconfidence - people think that they know more than they do about how the future will unfold. solution: wrap 1. Widen your options - Is there a way to do this AND that? - How can you expand your set of choices? - Think about the opportunity costs - Vanishing options test: What if your current options disappeared? When our options disappear, we are forced to move out spotlights. 2. Reality-test your assumptions - How can you get outside of your head and collect information that you can trust? 3. Attain distance before deciding 4. Prepare to be wrong I've found number 1 (widen your options) especially powerful in my life