Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World is Noreena Hertz’s practical, cutting-edge guide to help you cut through the data deluge and make smarter and better choices, based on her highly popular TED talk.
In this eye-opening handbook, the internationally noted speaker, economics expert, and bestselling author of IOU: The Debt Threat and Silent Takeover reveals the extent to which the biggest decisions in our lives are often made on the basis of flawed information, weak assumptions, corrupted data, insufficient scrutiny of others, and a lack of self-knowledge.
To avert such disasters, Hertz persuasively argues, we need to become empowered decision-makers, capable of making high-stakes choices and holding accountable those who advise us.
In Eyes Wide Open, she weaves together scientific research with real-world examples from Hollywood to Harry Potter, NASA to World War Two spies, to construct a path to more astute and empowered decision-making in ten clear steps. With a razor-sharp intellect and an instinct for popular storytelling, she offers counter-intuitive, actionable guidance for making better choices—whether you are a business-person, a professional, a patient, or a parent.
This game-changing book empowers readers to become confident, independent, wise decision-makers— savvy to how our emotions, moods, and habits can trip us up.
An investor wonders whether to put his money into the stock market or to keep it in a savings account. A patient is torn between opting for surgery and trying an experimental drug therapy. A college-bound student questions whether to take on debt to attend an Ivy League school or to choose a public institution with low tuition.
We face momentous decisions with important consequences throughout our lives. We have never had better access to information and expertise, yet this data deluge has become a double-edged sword. Which sources of information are credible? How can we separate the signal from the noise? Whose advice can we trust?
All of these questions are reasons for us to become empowered decision-makers capable of making high-stakes choices ourselves. Whether you are a politician, a businessperson, a professional, or a parent, now is the time to take a radically different approach. In Eyes Wide Open, the bestselling author and visionary thinker Noreena Hertz shares insights from the latest research along with practical advice, including
- why looking at information in black and white rather than in color can lead to better decisions
- why it's smart to be skeptical about experts' pronouncements, and how to identify the best among them
- why it's crucial to carve out time to think, even in moments of crisis
- how and why you should regulate your emotional thermostat to make smart decisions
- why you need to shake up your social network if you don't want only to reinforce what you already know and amplify the beliefs you already have
It's time to make decisions with our eyes wide open—for the sake of our health, our wealth, and our future security.
"Hertz's Eyes Wide Open is the go-to handbook for thinking intelligently and keeping your wits about you in an increasingly complicated and digital world."
