The subject is a very difficult one, because most of it is and always will be speculative. Gigerenzer is not only an expert but writes like one. This is not a populistic book written for someone with short attention span (such as 90% of American population) but for people who seriously want to expand their horizon. Take your time to read and you will find a new insight into yourself and how and why you do the things you do. You might find Jeff Hawkins' [[ASIN:0805078533 On Intelligence]] interesting if you want to know how the brain actually does what it does.
Damasio, Gigerenzer and Hawkins show us how special we are, how unique each human being is and that it is irrelevant if God or nature created us. The beauty is within and human emotion and intelligence can neither be copied nor put into a machine.
Love and intuition make us who we are.
Our emotions are our strength.
No one can take that from you!
I once saw some slow motion film of some world-class cricketers. Some of the best batsmen closed their eyes in the face of a ball hurtling towards them at over 100 miles per hour. Yet they still hit the ball with remarkable accuracy. There are similar puzzles in baseball. You can describe the trajectory of the ball with all kinds of clever mathematics, but the clever outfielder knows little about such arcane mysteries. He watches the flight of the ball and automatically keeps the angle between his eyes and the ball constant.
A neuroscientist consulting with a major car manufacturer showed them a way to develop a very simple proximity sensor based on the nervous system of a locust. When locusts swarm, they somehow avoid bumping into each other. It turns out that the circuit involves only four neurons. But saves the locusts - and weekend motorists - an ocean of hurt.
The cricketer, the baseball player and the locust represent three examples of ways in which the nervous system uses simple rules to allow us to functions in complex situations. If we had to use all of our brainpower to solve every problem we would never get out of bed.
Gerd Gigerenzer is a well-known and influential figure in neuroscience: he directs the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Plank Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany. He is a superb presenter who is much in demand at major international conferences and he has won numerous awards including the American Association for the Advancement of Science Prize for Behavioral Science Research. He is also the author of the seminal work: [[ASIN:0195153723 Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World (Evolution and Cognition Series)]].
In this book he discusses the way in which simple rules form the basis of much of what goes on beneath the level of conscious awareness and may also form the basis of intuition.
I slightly disagree with this last point: what Gerd is really talking about is instinct rather than intuition.
The publicity surrounding this new book makes much of Gerd's role in providing some of the science and theoretical underpinning of Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book and perennial favorite: [[ASIN:0316010669 Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking]]. On this occasion the marketers have got it right.
Gerd Gigerenzer illustrates his book with many fascinating examples that show the accuracy of instinct. He also makes an important and often-overlooked point: instinctual decisions are not impulsive: they have their own brain-based rationale. The rules and principles that guide instinct are unsophisticated but surprisingly accurate. This is why people can often make good choices on topics outside their area of expertise. I have seen this with top level scientists and marketers, who can look at something about which they know very little, but still come up with remarkably perceptive answers. There has also been much recent discussion about the success of private investors who pick their own stocks and shares, when compared with professionals. He argues that what we feel in our gut is informed by a brain that relies upon thousands of years of experience.
Since this book went to press, more empirical data has come out that suggests that he is right when he says that reason may no be the best decision-making tool at our disposal. That most certainly does not mean that we should trade in our brains for our feelings. It may indeed be that complex decisions are best made using unconscious processes, but we still need to use reason to see if we have come up with the right answer!
Gerd writes extremely well, and his style is fluent and engaging. Particularly commendable is someone whose first language is not English. Many of the examples that he chooses have immediate applications in our own lives.
Very highly recommended.
Richard G. Petty, MD, author of [[ASIN:0595458017 Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life]]
