The Importance of Small Decisions by Michael J. O'Brien - ISBN: 9780262039741
Hardcover
How people make decisions in an era of too much information and fake news.

$49.94

  • Hardcover

    160 pages

  • Release Date

    12 March 2019

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Summary

How people make decisions in an era of too much information and fake news.Humans originally evolved in a world of few choices. Prehistoric, preindustrial, and predigital eras required fewer decisions than today’s all-access, always-on world of too much information. Economists have largely discarded the idea that agents act rationally and the market follows suit. It seems that no matter how small or innocuous a decision might seem, there’s almost no way to guess the effect it might have. The a…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780262039741
ISBN-10:0262039745
Author:Michael J. O'Brien, R. Alexander Bentley, William A. Brock, John Maeda
Publisher:MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:MIT Press
Format:Hardcover
Number of Pages:160
Release Date:12 March 2019
Weight:332g
Dimensions:203mm x 137mm x 17mm
Series:Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
What They're Saying

Critics Review

An excellent study of human psychology, evolution, modes of thinking. Read this book.

Greg Laden, Greg Laden’s Blog

An enticing digest, with shades of (and references to) Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow and James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds.

Financial Times

A neat little primer on an evolutionary approach to decision theory.

Diane Coyle, Enlightenment Economics

“Why worry about the underlying causes of global warming when we can see what tens of millions of our closest friends think?” ask the authors, building to a fine, satirical climax…. There is much fun to be had reading the garrulous banter of these three extremely smart academics.

New Scientist

About The Author

Michael J. O'Brien

Michael J. O’Brien is Provost and Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio and the coauthor of I’ll Have What She’s Having- Mapping Social Behavior and The Acceleration of Cultural Change- From Ancestors to Algorithms (both published by the MIT Press).R. Alexander Bentley is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee and coauthor of I’ll Have What She’s Having- Mapping Social Behavior and The Acceleration of Cultural Change- From Ancestors to Algorithms (both published by the MIT Press).William A. Brock is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Research Professor at the University of Missouri, and a member of the National Academy of Science.An internationally recognized leader at the intersection of design and technology, John Maeda is Executive Vice President/Chief Experience Officer at Publicis Sapient. He was the 16th President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He is the author of Design by Numbers, The Laws of Simplicity, and Redesigning Leadership, all published by The MIT Press.

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