My wife sent me a picture of a stack of books from a post that called them “20 Books To Read In Your 20s”.



I’d read three already (and can only really recommend one of those, McRaven’s Make Your Bed), so I decided to see if there was any merit to the rest of the stack. I tried to imagine what a twenty-something me would take away, and of course, the current me informs how I read it now.

As I make my way through the list, I’ve mentally sorted them into “No”, “Qualified No”, “Qualified Yes”, “Yes” categories. One of the books gave me pause and I had to add a new category: “Not Only No, But…”.

This one is a Qualified Maybe* One of the best things Mr. Dobelli says in this book is “This is not a how-to book. You won’t find “seven steps to an error-free life” here.” Yet, I guess all or most of the 99 essays came from blog posts, which might explain the short, attempted everyman approach with a veneer of accessibility dressing that doesn’t quite cut it.

Dobelli also says in his Epilogue, “I have listed almost one hundred thinking errors in this book without answering the question: What are thinking errors anyway? What is irrationality? Why do we fall into these traps? ”

What he also doesn’t do is explain the fallacies, biases, heuristics very well, and he has scattershot examples for each of his targets that don’t always follow… he does a poor job of tying together those examples (the short format might be to blame.) I think a good example would be his essay on the clustering illusion and references to pareidolia without identifying it (save a poor example in his notes). He jumps off that into seeing patterns where they aren’t before redeeming himself (this time) with “When it comes to pattern recognition, we are oversensitive. Regain your skepticism. If you think you have discovered a pattern, first consider it pure chance. If it seems too good to be true, find a mathematician and have the data tested statistically. And if the crispy parts of your pancake start to look a lot like Jesus’s face, ask yourself: If he really wants to reveal himself, why doesn’t he do it in Times Square or on CNN?”

As a book on critical thinking, its chief value is in applying your knowledge of critical thinking to what he has cobbled together. But be warned, you’ll soon tire of having to check pretty much everything he says.

So, Qualified Maybe if you want to bounce your learning off of a different book, but look elsewhere if you want to learn about logical fallacies. ( )

A good summary of irrational thinking. ( )

Good book and a wonderful companion to "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. ( )

I’ve been intrigued by the way people think since I was a very young adult. I even made a professional career out of dissecting people’s faulty thinking and teaching them how to challenge those irrational thoughts. So, I’m always interested in learning more thinking errors for my own personal growth as well as the population I serve.

Rolf Dobelli is a Swiss author who originally began his writing career as a novelist. In The Art of Thinking Clearly, Dobelli examines the cognitive biases, or thinking errors, we engage on a daily basis. I listened to the audiobook and can definitely see how a physical copy of this book would be super helpful. He identifies 99 cognitive biases in relatively short chapters. The large number of errors discussed in audio format made it difficult for me to remember them for the best application. Dobelli explains each concept thoroughly and provides understandable and relatable examples. There are times where he uses math, statistics, and probabilities to illustrate his point. Well, I have a serious aversion to anything math related. I suck at it and likely always will. So, those examples were naturally hard for me, but may be very helpful for others skilled with numbers. Overall, I enjoyed this and am glad I read it. ( )

Best book for me to understand cognitive biases. A book I plan to reread (re listen to) every year because these concepts need to be constantly refreshed in one's mind. ( )