Why do we stay until the end of the play or movie even when it’s clear from the first moments that it’s bad? What is the connection between torn scrolls, medieval rats and dinosaur bones? What classic psychological finding was discovered by a tug-of-war competition?
Beyond getting answers to these intriguing questions, there are at least two good reasons you’ll read this book. First, because it’s not really a book, it lacks a unifying narrative or an evolving plot, it’s just a stylized collection of short, light-hearted descriptions of biases that affect our day-to-day thinking and surprisingly that’s a great reason to read it. Since there is no need to spend special reading time following a deep idea that develops throughout the book, you can simply choose from the list of biases the one that interests you most at this moment and read the chapter that describes it.
The second reason is that it is actually the most comprehensive popular book published in Hebrew about thinking biases and cognitive traps. It enumerates and illustrates one by one fifty-one biases and erroneous thought patterns drawn from behavioral economics, social and cognitive psychology, organizational behavior, and more.
Popular books in decision-making are usually written by experienced journalists (Jonah Lehrer, Malcolm Gladwill, Michael Lewis) or professional researchers who choose to make their teachings accessible to the general public (Dan Ariely, Daniel Gilbert, Uri Ginzi). Against this background, Rolf Dubley stands out as an entrepreneur and investor with an education in philosophy and experience writing two novels in German. Dubley began gathering thinking biases to learn to properly manage the money he earned from his two novels. Very quickly, the list grew into a collection of recommendations embedded with examples from the content worlds that interested him – entrepreneurship, history and culture.
The list began circulating among friends and was eventually compiled into a complete book. Explaining the encyclopedic and practical nature of the book, each bias is briefly described and illustrated with subtle humor by an interesting historical anecdote or experiences from the author’s experience. The book also lacks academic pretensions, so unlike in this genre of literature, there are no references to the original articles from which the biases are taken, and there is also no concept key, which is not bad at all considering that each of the fifty-one biases is described in a separate chapter dedicated only to it.
The lack of sources hides a scandal that took place behind the scenes of the book when bestselling author Nissim Nicholas Taleb and psychologist Daniel Simmons accused Dubley of plagiarism. To Dubley’s credit, he mentions Taleb repeatedly throughout the book, and Taleb even signed a reading recommendation on the book’s cover.
So if we ignore for a moment the title of the puzzling book, and the scandal behind the scenes, it is certainly possible to adopt Nissim Nicholas Taleb’s poignant recommendation that “Dubli was blessed with imagination and understanding of reality, a combination that has been difficult to find since the Renaissance in the sixteenth century.”
The book is a great tool for those who want to improve their day-to-day conduct and also an excellent guide for those interested in the world of content biases and decision making. And tech lovers even have a compatible app available for a nominal fee.
Happy reading!
