#Reality is absolutely relative. (2008-09-16) At first glance, the title of Dan Ariely s book seems to be an oxymoron. (It certainly catches one s attention. ) Can irrational thought and/or behavior be predicted? Perhaps if it is repetitive? (The judgment and behavior of at least some people can be repetitive and thus predictable. ) So I began to read his book with curiosity but also, yes, with some skepticism. Here are a few of my reactions. First, he learned a number of lessons from what he calls experiments in his life, each of which struck him as being counterintuitive. For exam...

#People Are Predictably Interested In More Than Money (2008-04-22) Only a professor of behavioral economics would conclude that when people respond to motives other than money they are being predictably irrational. If you want to see some clever experiments that demonstrate that people are interested in things other than money, read this book. I would like to observe, however, that such experiments have to be taken with a grain of salt when people know that they are experiments or reflect unexpected questions rather than serious looks at on-going behavior in areas where people have a ...

#Excellent book - controversial, but well founded (2008-04-03) Predictable Irrational is probably one of the most remarkable books after Freakonomics. This is a book about the paradoxes of human judgment. All people, regardless who they are, country they live in, jobs they have, or language they speak, make standard mistakes because our brains work in certain ways. Predictable Irrational is not the first book about such phenomena. My other favorite books on this subject include The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz and Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gige...

#State of the Art on Behavioral Choice Theory (2001-09-19) Suppose we wanted to predict how an expert billiards player would hit a certain shot. We would measure the angles and distances, get the coefficients of elasticity of the balls and the bumpers, and we would solve a set of differential equations. But is that how the billiards player figures out what to do? Of course not! We don t know exactly what he would do, but if the authors of this book had their way, we d give up on the differential equations (optimization theory) and find the ",fast and frugal heuristic", actuall...

#Instructional Tool (2003-12-20) This is an excellent book for teaching and learning the basics of critical thinking.

#Beyond Feelings is an Effective, Educational Tool (2003-09-23) This is a book in informal logic. It initially sets out to explain how our opinions are influenced by our environment (the process of socialization), and then proceeds to explain the logical stuff, which is the core of the book. There is a lot of content here, and every chapter could be expanded upon significantly with further clarifications and examples. However, the mission of the book is to give an introduction to the subject, and it succeeds in this mission. I used this book to teach a critical thinking course. I ...

#Basic critical thinking made easy (2001-06-24) Ruggiero sets down a good basis for beginning critical thinkers and is innovative in his categorizing of logical errors. His explanations of knowledge and relativism are insightful and great for a basic overview of those particular topics. He nearly contradicts himself in a few places, that is the only major flaw in this text. I agree with many things in this book and disagree with a few things too, but I believe that this book will open up the world of critical thinking and philosophy for anyone who is just beginning to delve into ...

#Arsenal For Attacking Flawed Presentations (2003-09-22) A presentor is usually happy when people pose questions, as long as they are not critical questions. Most of the time the audience doesn t pose any questions because they simply don t know what questions to ask or how to formulate those questions. The prinicipal points of this book:Establishing the issue and the conclusion. - Knowing and agreeing with the counterpart on the issue prevents us from veering off away from the subject of discussion. People like chaning the issue when they feel trapped. - Listening to the person s con...

#If You Are Intimidated by Critical Thinking, Try This! (2002-11-05) ",Critical thinking", can seem like an intimidating task (and that is a shame, because the world would be such a better place if more people could learn to think critically!). My guess is that this book was written for people with just such fears, and so I am grateful it exists. There are very few books that can introduce a beginner to the thrill of critical thinking in a way seems fairly uncomplicated, and yet that fosters progressive competency. Just as the ",user friendly", title implies, each cha...