I read this book because it was on The Modern Mrs. Darcy's list of books she wishes she could download into her brain and I can totally understand why! It's such an amazing guide to making decisions and opening up our minds to the variety of ways we can look at the choices in our lives and avoid narrow thinking. I appreciated that the examples shared in the book weren't only related to the business world and that there was a great one-page summary of the principles taught in each chapter - I just want to copy each of those pages to keep for ready reference!

The anecdotes mixed with the decision-making principles made this book really enjoyable to read (yes, I actually READ it!). I'd definitely recommend this.

Most of us, when faced with a major decision, tend to make lists - whether on paper or mentally - of pros and cons. Occasionally we go so far as to use the Benjamin Franklin method and weight these lists, but that's often as far as rational decision making goes. We fall back on decisions where "it feels right" or "I have a gut instinct about this one".

That's not a great method, but it's usually the best we've got. In [b:Decisive|15798078|Decisive How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work|Chip Heath|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351213453s/15798078.jpg|21521013], Chip & Dan Heath explain, demonstrate and teach new practices which are easy to implement and which use a simple 4-step process.

First you're introduced to "The Four Villains of Decision Making", and then shown four strategies to combat them. There's no one-size-fits-all solution for how these are implemented; for me, this is the strength of the book. Each chapter offers numerous ways to put these strategies into effect. Actively seeking out disagreement, looking for options that can be run in parallel (AND not OR), setting a tripwire, expanding a "Should I...?" to "What's the best way to...?" and creating mental distance by looking 10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years ahead with each path (what they call 10/10/10) are all part of it. In fact, all but one approach (using a mission statement to create focus) were completely new to me and very different from any other decision-making process I've seen before, and so obviously useful once they were pointed out.

Unlike many books of this type, this isn't targeted to one specific audience, not is it a book for people in the business/finance sector. It doesn't require concentrated attention to understand, or for you to read long chapters in one sitting to follow a complicated chain of logic. It's broken into quick-to-read sections with bullet-point summaries and references to all the studies backing up their claims. The variety of scenarios, set in the music industry, in business, and in personal lives, and the variety of angles all serve to ensure that something is directly relevant to the reader, and all illustrate the Heaths' theory perfectly. There are even some "clinics" (practice scenarios) for you to consider at the end, along with some common question/answers.

Even if all you read is the introduction and Chapter One, you'll find yourself able to think and decide in a different way. If you want an overview, skim through the book and read the "in one page" summaries which conclude each chapter. It won't take long, and you'll still get some benefit (and hopefully you'll go back and read the rest). This is one I'll be rereading. No doubt it will take practise for this new decision style to become instinctive rather than a conscious choice, but that's the way of all things.

Wonderful book with a lot of examples - most of them from the business world! This book improved my decision-making process, and the next step would be applying the lessons with a decision journal. I’ve enjoyed the three case studies from the final part of the book!

Despite the fact that a lot of the concepts presented in this book seem common sense and elementary, seeing them all together on paper in a systematic order was incredibly helpful for me personally to consider ways to make decisions more effectively. As someone who tends to be unnecessarily indecisive, this was the perfect book to combat that tendency.

There have been studies that show story telling is a highly successful means to teaching and conveying a message. I firmly believe this. While Chip & Dan do a great job weaving stories consistently throughout the book, my only gripe would be that I felt the length of the book was needlessly extended by the excessive use of stories. I can appreciate using more than 1 story to present an idea from multiple angles, but 3, 4, sometimes more for the same topic? Probably could have been condensed a bit more. Though I would like to reiterate that I found the use of storytelling helpful in solidifying the ideas conveyed.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a practical set of techniques for approaching decision making. I also suggest that if you "get" the point being conveyed after 1-2 stories in a chapter, feel free to move forward and know that you likely aren't missing any additional information relevant to the techniques being discussed.

My husband recommended this book to me after having been positively impacted by it, and it proved to be a powerful read.

If you don’t like having things broken down very systematically, formulaic strategies, instruction through repetition, and concept modeling via anecdotes (although there is no shortage of cold hard facts/data), you probably won’t like this book.

I absolutely love this style of communicating concepts and strategies, particularly when the subject matter can get complex in ways that are outside my typical frame of reference, so this was a treat for me.

The Heath brothers provide a handy-dandy mnemonic device to simplify the decision-making strategies they detail:

W - widen your options
R - reality-test your assumptions
A - attain distance before deciding
P - prepare to be wrong

They provide a wide range of anecdotes that detail the decision making process of different individuals in a variety of situations, allowing for effective modeling of how strategies can be applied (and what happens when they aren’t).

Some key takeaways that really stuck with me were:

- Don’t oversimplify things. It limits you. It’s often not a “this or that” decision. It could be “this AND that” or “this, that, and a third” or “neither this nor that but a third option entirely.”
- If you’re really having trouble deciding something, the best friend method will likely get you where you need to be, and fast. (i.e. if your bestie was mulling over the same thing, what advice would you give them?)
- Base rates > blind optimism. Research the problem. Look at the statistics of success rates. Believe them beyond the idea that you are magical one that will always beat the odds. Sure, sometimes you might be. But if taking that risk comes at great cost, it is likely not sound to let blind optimism lead you to incur great loss.
- Don’t always feel like you have to dive in if you’re unsure. Run experiments! Test-drive, proverbially, whenever possible!
- Conduct premortems so you don’t have to conduct postmortems. That is, before you going into something, imagine the worst-case: it fails. Parse through that hypothetical failure. What all went wrong? Use that information to allow you to account for as many of those variables as possible on the front end.
- Stay vigilant of confirmation bias. Deliberately seek out people with opposing viewpoints and varied experiences.
- Not all decisions are flat out right or wrong for eternity. What is absolutely right today, could continue to be right for the next two years, but beyond that could be wrong. Set “tripwires” to drive action after a decision as been made so that you have the opportunity to check in periodically to reevaluate the status of a decision. Then decide whether to carry on, shift gears, or quit altogether.
- When in doubt, use the 10-10-10 method. Ask yourself, if I take xyz course of action, how will I feel about it in 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 years?

There’s so much more beyond this, and this book is such a valuable tool in being more self-evaluative and reflective in the way you approach every choice you make, from the simplest to the ones with the most gravity.

Another must read! This was another good summer read. This book opened my eyes to the process of decision making. We all make decisions thousands of times a day so in many ways we are experts. However, what I like about this book is that it helped me to understand decision making process and what goes into our every decisions.

The authors go into the system on how to make valid decisions. They walk you through the steps of how to make a proper decision and how to identify the the issues that can cause us to make incorrect decisions.

I took down a ton of notes on my Evernote page. I look forward to having a Twitter chat on this book and the ideas. I have found this book to being pivotal at a time in my life when I had a major decision to make. Using the tools and questions provided I feel that I made the right choice.

If you have read the other books by these authors, then you know what you are going to get. Quality writing with useful ideas that anyone can implement.

Another solid read and will be using these skills and tools over and over and again!