These are the books I've been enjoying lately: Stumbling on Happiness; Fooled by Randomness; Freakonomics. Now I've picked up The Halo Effect, which may be the best of the lot. These are all books which show the staggering number of ways in which we delude ourselves about the world we live in.
Phil Rosenzweig, the Halo author, kicks off one chapter with this George Bernard Shaw line, which resonates strongly with me:
The difference between a lady and a flowergirl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated.The chapter shows how the appearance of success leads us to a whole series of unjustified assessements about the causes of it and makes a larger point about what I'd call the Cult of Leadership. If you happen to be at the head of a successful company, you acquire a halo. So you get rated for having all sorts of great qualities. Whether you have them or not seems fairly immaterial. Rosenzweig has some compelling examples of how leaders are described as Dr Jekyll duing upswings and Mr Hyde when performance is down. They haven't really changed character, it's basically a delusion in the minds of the observer.
Rob May gives more detail.
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Comments (6)
Interesting post Johnnie,
I happen to be reading a few books at the moment and recently I too had the sudden realisation that they were all related: They discuss the decision-making processes of human beings. Have a look at my post, 'How many decisions do you make everyday? What methods do you use when making your life choices?' The books are 'Blink', 'The Wisdom of Crowds', and 'Like a Flowing River'...Read any of these?
Cheers,
Jesse
June 18, 2007 14:48 Permalink for comment
Hi Jesse: Yes, I've read Blink and Wisdom of Crowds but I'm going to look up Like a Flowing River which sounds intriguing! Can't get through to your blog at the moment but will try later...
June 18, 2007 17:46 Permalink for comment
I've got this related book on my Amazon wishlist: Why Choose This Book: How we make decisions. I look forward to reading Fooled by Randomness as well.
June 18, 2007 20:47 Permalink for comment
Throw in The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, I suspect a first cousin of being fooled by randomness.
June 19, 2007 05:53 Permalink for comment
Morriss: Another one I'm tempted by. Earl: Taleb is the author of both, as it happens!
June 19, 2007 08:17 Permalink for comment
Hi Johnnie,
My blog was having some technical issues at the server end. It's back online now if you want to take a look at that post.
Cheers,
Jesse
June 25, 2007 04:58 Permalink for comment