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Richard T.

I Think I've Blundered This Before

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2012

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This book is a great "beach book." And I mean that literally. I read this work over two afternoons on the beach this past summer.

Zachary Shore reviews what he considers to be seven major foibles of human nature that contribute to our poor decision-making, our blundering. He labels these personality flaws as: exposure anxiety, "causefusion," flat view, "cure-allism," "infomania," mirror imagining, and static cling. Each of the seven receive just explanations and examples from the lives of Shore and others.

Although I found his insights amusing, I can't say that I found them to be original. In many ways the concepts he highlights are a rehashing of quirky problems that many of us have identified in the personalities of others. Here he gives them cute names. Reading this book is a bit like poring over a sociology text. Both discuss and give names to concepts with which you've long been familiar.

However, the book is entertaining in that he brings to the fore some human eccentricities in reason for which we can all be on the alert, either in others or in ourselves.

Baylee Byers

Enlightening read

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2018

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I used this book in my Public Policy course and wow what a change of pace. This was a completely different perspective from the other materials our professor had us read, but it was such a lighthearted and informative read. Learning about the key mistakes great decision makers made aids the process in shaping the decision makers of the future.

Rod Anderson

Woefully anecdotal

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2020

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Really doesn’t provide the kind of broad tour d‘horizon needed to explicate this quirky topic. As a believer in the value of “lessons learned” I was very disappointed at this effort.

JP

Light-reading introduction to Human Decision-making errors.

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2014

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Very readable, good historical perspective, although it's style does not convey have scientific rigor (although I'm sure the author did this by design). His technique of making up words like causefusion detracts slightly from the academic rigor, but as a pop-psychology book designed for a wide audience, the technique works well in communicating his points.

If you like the topic - "Thinking, Fast and Slow" is a better, albeit longer and denser, book on the same subject.

Minnesotan Air Force Family

A challenge for your mind you will enjoy

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2010

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Zachary Shore's book reads as if he were speaking to you. This is the highest praise I think I can offer. The book flows from beginning to end, which must have been a hard task due to the multiple historical references used throughout. Though the book is really a study of different cognition traps people can and have fallen into throughout history, you find yourself examining your own life for similar patterns. 'Blunder' allows you to compare yourself to some of the great minds of history and discover that they are only human too.

T. Scott

Required q Reading?

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2020

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This exposure of how we can avoid bad decisions is critical to success. The examples are some of the most vexing problems we face politically in the US. À

Joshua C. Packard

Interesting self-help guide to avoiding blunders

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2010

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In "Blunder", Zachary Shore examines a variety of historical blunders and tries to dissect their etiology. He makes up some new words in characterizing certain cognition traps such as exposure anxiety, causefusion, flatview, cure-allism, infomania, mirror imaging, and static cling. He does a good job discussing the examples in a way that they are understandable and interesting to a general reader, but does not dumb them down either. My only dig is that he discusses a few current examples in medicine and psychology which are outside the domain of a historian. For example, I thought Shore missed the mark while talking about the cause of depression. He claims that the medical community (of which I am a part) is too focused on depression solely being caused by biological factors. Perhaps this was true in the past. Today, behavioral health providers are aware the cause of depression is multifactorial, but he does not do a good job of making this clear. However, Shore really shines while discussing subjects more comfortable to the historian such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, the Iraq War, the Cold War, American foreign policy in the Middle East, and globalization. Since he sticks with what he knows best through most of the book, I highly recommend it to anyone trying to be more open-minded or empathetic - two of the solutions Shore advocates to avoiding the cognitive traps he discusses.

YW

Great read!

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2016

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Every organization should have its employees read this book. While you don't need to read through the entire chapters to understand the issues the author presents, some of them are very interesting. Great read!