I’ve just finished reading How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. Anyone involved in IT should benefit from additional insights into the decision making and problem solving process. This book fills the bill. He draws on recent advances in neuroscience – modern imaging techniques are making it possible to identify which parts of the brain are active when specific tasks are performed. He also provides problem solving examples involving things like fighting forest fires, landing broken airplanes, and winning at poker.
The main theme is that we employ two different approaches to decision making – the rational logical approach we all claim to use and the emotional intuitive approach we often use. When we are faced with a problem we’ve never faced before and have no knowledge of, the best approach is usually to stay calm, ignore our emotions as best we can, and use the rational mind to solve the problem. Unfortunately, the rational brain can handle but a limited number of variables or facts at one time – conventional wisdom tells us seven plus or minus two. Meanwhile, since our subconscious mind has built up a history of actions and events that have led to good and bad outcomes in the past, we are often wise to go with our feelings in cases where we are familiar with the problem domain. The trick then becomes how to decide which part of the mind to listen to in a particular situation.
While I can’t compress a 265 page book into a few hundred words, I can quote a few tips Lehrer offers near the end of the book. Simple problems involving few variables require reason. Novel problems also require reason. Complex problems often call for an intuitive approach or a mixed approach. It’s important to embrace uncertainty and to evaluate the argument going on inside your brain. Explore the competing approaches to the problem, consider carefully what you know and what you don’t know, and consciously decide how to attack your problem.
The book is fairly simply written. It’s interesting and entertaining. I recommend it.
© Charlie Wertz, June 2009
Filed under: Innovation
