JUNE 2021 - AudioFile
Jonathan Todd Ross is an expert narrator who keeps listeners engaged throughout this densely researched book about how we make decisions and, in doing so, sometimes make mistakes. He sets a measured pace that helps listeners keep track of the many complex ideas, anecdotes, and data explored. Ross has the delivery style of a gifted professor. He is steady, consistent, and clear while, at the same time, allowing listeners to consider the impacts of clouded decision making in the numerous scenarios presented. For those seeking to understand more about human behavior in general and those wanting to make better choices themselves, this is an informative and enjoyable listening experience. M.R. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
03/15/2021
Psychology professor Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow), business professor Sibony (You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake!), and legal scholar Sunstein (Too Much Information) team up for this fascinating exploration of the bias and “noise” that cause errors in human judgment. Noise, they write, is “variability in judgments that should be identical” that, when combined with one’s own biases—conscious or not—can cause human error. The authors offer no shortage of noise-reduction strategies: “decision hygiene,” for example, involves sequencing information to cut back on the possibility of confirmation bias, a technique used in forensic science analyses, where examiners get “only the information they need when they need it.” The authors also suggest breaking down complex decisions into “multiple fact-based assessments”; avoiding group discussions, which increase noise, instead collecting individual opinions beforehand; and appointing a “decision observer” to identify bias. Though the writing can be jargon-heavy, readers will find plenty of insight and useful exercises. The result is dense and complex, but those who stay the course will be rewarded with an intricate examination of decision-making and sound judgment. Agent: Max Brockman, Brockman, Inc. (May)
From the Publisher
"A tour de force of scholarship and clear writing."—New York Times
“Well-researched, convincing and practical...Every academic, policymaker, leader and consultant ought to read this book. People with the power and persistence required to apply the insights in Noise will make more humane and fair decisions, save lives, and prevent time, money and talent from going to waste.”—Washington Post
"Compelling...A humbling lesson in inaccuracy."—Financial Times
"Noise may be the most important book I've read in more than a decade. A genuinely new idea so exceedingly important you will immediately put it into practice. A masterpiece."—Angela Duckworth, author of Grit
“The gold standard for a behavioral science book is to offer novel insights, rigorous evidence, engaging writing, and practical applications. It’s rare for a book to cover more than two of those bases, but Noise rounds all four—it’s a home run. Get ready for some of the world’s greatest minds to help you rethink how you evaluate people, make decisions, and solve problems.”—Adam Grant, author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife
"Noise is an absolutely brilliant investigation of a massive societal problem that has been hiding in plain sight."—Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics
"In Noise, the authors brilliantly apply their unique and novel insights into the flaws in human judgment to every sphere of human endeavor: from moneyball coaches to central bankers to military commanders to heads of state. Noise is a masterful achievement and a landmark in the field of psychology."—Philip E. Tetlock, coauthor of Superforecasting
“The earth has been so fully explored that scientists can’t possibly discover a previously unknown mammal the size of an elephant. The same could be said about the landscape of decision-making, yet Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein have discovered a problem as large as an elephant: noise. In this important book they show us why noise matters, why there’s so much more of it than we realize, and how to reduce it. Implementing their advice would give us more profitable businesses, healthier citizens, a fairer legal system, and happier lives.”—Jonathan Haidt, NYU Stern School of Business
“Choices matter. Unfortunately, many of the choices people make are fundamentally flawed by the presence of noise, the subject of this absolutely fascinating and essential book. It is deeply researched, thoughtful, and accessible. I began it with a sense of intrigue and concluded it with a sense of celebration. We can make better choices in business, politics, and our personal lives. This book lights the way.”—Rita McGrath, author of Seeing Around Corners
“The influence of Noise should be seismic, as it explores a fundamental yet grossly underestimated peril of human judgment. Deepening its must-read status, it provides accessible methods for reducing the decisional menace.”—Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion
"Brilliant! Noise goes deep on an under-appreciated source of error in human judgment: randomness. The story of noise has lacked the charisma of the story of cognitive bias…until now. Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein bring noise to life, making a compelling case for why we should take random variation in human judgment as seriously as we do bias and offering practical solutions for reducing noise (and bias) in judgment." —Annie Duke, author of Thinking in Bets
"Noise completes a trilogy that started with Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge. Together, they highlight what all leaders need to know to improve their own decisions, and more importantly, to improve decisions throughout their organizations. Noise reveals a critical lever for improving decisions, not captured in much of the existing behavioral economics literature. I encourage you to read Noise soon, before noise destroys more decisions in your organization."—Max H. Bazerman, author of Better, Not Perfect
JUNE 2021 - AudioFile
Jonathan Todd Ross is an expert narrator who keeps listeners engaged throughout this densely researched book about how we make decisions and, in doing so, sometimes make mistakes. He sets a measured pace that helps listeners keep track of the many complex ideas, anecdotes, and data explored. Ross has the delivery style of a gifted professor. He is steady, consistent, and clear while, at the same time, allowing listeners to consider the impacts of clouded decision making in the numerous scenarios presented. For those seeking to understand more about human behavior in general and those wanting to make better choices themselves, this is an informative and enjoyable listening experience. M.R. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2021-03-17
A sprawling study of errors in decision-making, some literal matters of life and death.
You go to a doctor complaining of chest pains. The doctor orders an angiogram. The hospital requires a second opinion before authorizing surgery, and the second doctor disagrees on the extent to which a specific blood vessel is blocked. These unpredictable disagreements over the same data are what Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein call “noise,” a species of human error that happens whenever such higher-order judgments are involved. Noise, they write, is rampant in medicine, where “different doctors make different judgments about whether patients have skin cancer, breast cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, depression, and a host of other conditions.” Noise is especially prevalent in psychiatry, they add, where subjective opinion is more pronounced than in other disciplines. A cousin of bias, noise is difficult to isolate and correct. In forensic science, the authors write, noise is implicated in nearly half of all misidentifications of perpetrators and wrongful imprisonments. Unlike some categories of error, noise is often not helped by the introduction of more information. Writing in often dense but generally nontechnical prose, the authors offer strategies for reducing noise. One is to average out predictions in, say, stock market performance, since “noise is inherently statistical.” Another is to consult the smartest people you can find; while they may not be flawless, “picking those with highest mental ability makes a lot of sense.” Since error combines with snap decisions, the authors endorse rigorous review and other strategies for noise reduction and “decision hygiene” as well as developing habits of mind that acknowledge both bias and error and favor examining the opinions of those with whom one disagrees as dispassionately and fairly as possible. “To improve the quality of our judgments,” they urge, “we need to overcome noise as well as bias.”
Abundant food for thought for professionals of all types as well as students of decision science and behavioral economics.
