Irrationality – Stuart Sutherland

Humans are faulty computers, amazing but irrational

Sutherland’s book examines the body of evidence for human irrationality amassed during close to half a century psychology research. The book provides an elegant account of research into our perception and reasoning errors. ADHD brains work differently, we perceive and reason with different emphasis, so Irrationality throws light on some of these differences. It shows how societal pressure and self-interest influences decisions and explains why mental shortcuts, faulty logic and statistical reasoning can lead to irrational conclusions.

Due to Irrationality lives are lost, money wasted and projects fail because of bad decisions due to pride, prejudice, misinterpreting facts in ones own favor, by fear of non-conformity and many other irrational reasons. Sometimes it seems these executive functions can create problems that are fortunately less prevalent in the ADHD brain?

With clear examples the Sutherland illustrates types of irrational behavior and how they lead to poor decisions, such as the “availability error”, where too much weight is given to what comes first to mind, and the “halo effect” where too much emphasis is put on first impressions. If you want to improve you own decision making or to understand how easily people can make flawed decisions this book offer great insight in rational thinking.