What I'm reading

{Image via JonahLehrer.com}

I received How we Decide by Jonah Lehrer as a birthday gift a couple of months ago and I've finally started to read it. The book explores what happens in our brain when we make decisions and why some of us make better decisions, or make them more easily than others. This book is to brain science what Freakonomics is to economics. It's approachable and fascinating.I heard Lehrer do an interview on NPR a few months back in which he explained his inspiration for the book:

The revelation occurred in the cereal aisle of the supermarket. I was sent to the supermarket with what seemed like simple instructions, which was buy a box of Cheerios. And it wasn't until I got the supermarket that I realized that there were 20 different kinds of Cheerios. There were original Cheerios. There were honey-nut Cheerios, apple-cinnamon, multigrain, the yogurt-with-the-berry thing, and then of course there are all the generic varieties of Cheerios.

Lehrer went on to describe how it took him over 30 minutes of deliberation in the supermarket to decide on some cheerios. He describes himself as "pathologically indecisive." We all know people that suffer from the "paralysis of analysis" (some of us are people like this) and I've never read anything quite like this.

I am less than halfway through the book and it is blowing my mind. One of the most compelling things that research has shown about decision making is that emotions are a positive component to our ability to make decision. This is evidenced by victims of brain damage, specifically those who have damaged the part of their brain that exhibits emotions. They don't associate feelings with good or bad choices, so they often make strictly rational decisions, which often have negative consequences. Lehrer asserts that without the emotional sting of failure attached to their decisions, success becomes impossible.

The best part about reading a book about behavior or the brain is that we often receive scientific evidence or confirmation that our instincts were correct. Think of all the little sayings we have about failure building one's character and making success all the sweeter. Turns our there is a dopamine explanation for all of that. Gotta love a little brain science.