decision

Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions
$15.99
Unfortunately, I have to burst your bubble. "Smart Choices" isn't a very good book on the topic of decision making. There is a book called "Managerial Decision Making" that is much better, although it is written at a higher level. "Smart Choices" is written at a 7th grade level.

Great Decisions
$18.00
This magazine has well-researched and written articles that deal with timely global issues. Each publication covers eight key foreign policy issues. All are written by leading experts & edited by the Foreign Policy Association. It provides the reader with the information they will need to help you assess the eight discussed global issues of concern today.

Executive Decision Bookshelf Game
$29.99
I recently discovered that "Executive Decision" was made available again. I have enjoyed board and card games ever since I was 8 years old, for the last 56 years. This has been my favorite board game because it leaves nothing to chance. You have to judge the business acumen and the possible irrational behavior of your opponents individually, understand that not everyone is able to or willing to calculate optimum gains and play accordingly.

This is not a toy and not a game for kids. I would suggest 16-99 years. I also think that it can be used to educate your children 12 and above, to make quick calculations in their minds, without using calculators, and to be able to look through other people's eyes.

You can have short or long games for a lot of fun with social and business friends. It is a game which does not require any stakes to make it more exciting.

The only other game which is as exciting but which almost requires stakes is a card game called "Gops."

How We Decide
$14.95
Jonah Lehrer does an excellent job of weaving biological neuroscience with the areas of the brain that control various mental processes. He gets a bit deep in the medical terminology but does a good job of describing research experiments that serve to probe various brain areas and the processes they govern. I really enjoyed reading the psychological experiments that he references and his summation of how they affect our daily lives as well as how we react to others around us. The case study on LTC Riley's decision to launch Sea Dart missiles at ambiguous radar blips in a time critical Gulf War situation was very informative as to how the human mind can synthesize the the available information and make the correct decision more times than not. Other studies dealt with single elements of decision making such as how paying with credit cards provides the immediate gratification response in the brain with minimal negative feelings that would be experienced with paying in cash and how dopamine regulates these emotions. Hence we tend to overspend when using credit cards because that is the way the brain is wired. Other studies explain how we can over-analyze the "problem" and as a result end up with bad outcomes. In one study supporting this theory he introduces us to how lower back pain treatment has been much more aggressively treated since the introduction of the MRI which gives physicians access to far more data on the spine and inter-vertebral discs than ever before. The study explains how the physicians are able to pinpoint the source of the pain and treat it using surgery and other invasive therapies whereas prior to having this advanced information the patients were usually prescribed bed rest. Ironically, the two treatment options produced the same results in that the patients usually got batter in about 7 weeks. It was shown that the MRI surgeons were able to see anomalies in the discs and associated them with the back pain instead of realizing that they were normal aging phenomenon that required no intervention. The place where the book didn't work well for me was toward the end where Lehrer summarizes the importance of the rational mind competing effectively with the emotional mind to obtain the best decisions. I understand his premise and how he reaches it but I am confused as to which should be allowed to dominate in the final decision and when. In summary, it is a fascinating read that will have you cutting up your credit cards, not playing slot machines and looking at the world around you through a new lens of understanding but maybe just a little confused as to which strategy works best in a particular decision making process.