Farsighted

How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most

De: Steven Johnson

Narrado por: George Newbern, Steven Johnson

The hardest choices are also the most consequential. So why do we know so little about how to get them right?

Big, life-altering decisions matter so much more than the decisions we make every day, and they're also the most difficult: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war. There's no one-size-fits-all approach for addressing these kinds of conundrums.

Steven Johnson's classic Where Good Ideas Come From inspired creative people all over the world with new ways of thinking about innovation. In Farsighted, he uncovers powerful tools for honing the important skill of complex decision-making. While you can't model a once-in-a-lifetime choice, you can model the deliberative tactics of expert decision-makers. These experts aren't just the master strategists running major companies or negotiating high-level diplomacy. They're the novelists who draw out the complexity of their characters' inner lives, the city officials who secure long-term water supplies, and the scientists who reckon with future challenges most of us haven't even imagined. The smartest decision-makers don't go with their guts. Their success relies on having a future-oriented approach and the ability to consider all their options in a creative, productive way.

Through compelling stories that reveal surprising insights, Johnson explains how we can most effectively approach the choices that can chart the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. Farsighted will help you imagine your possible futures and appreciate the subtle intelligence of the choices that shaped our broader social history.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Praise for Farsighted:

“Riveting... As a deep thinker and gifted storyteller, Johnson is the right author to tackle the topic. He’s at his best when analyzing impossibly complex decisions... One of Johnson’s thought-provoking points is that [people who excel at long-term thinking] read novels, which are ideal exercises in mental time travel and empathy. I think he’s right.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Johnson is explicitly focused on real-life decisions that (ideally) involve serious deliberation... [He]reminds us that, fundamentally, choices concern competing narratives, and we’re likely to make better choices if we have richer stories, with more fleshed-out characters, a more nuanced understanding of motives, and a deeper appreciation of how decisions are likely to reverberate and resound.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Johnson is well-placed to dig into these dilemmas of decision-making, as he gracefully serves up examples ranging from 17th-century urban planning to contemporary artificial intelligence.” —Financial Times

“[An] excellent book... altogether insightful.” —Brain Pickings

“An anecdote-packed, insight-laden exploration of what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to our most complex decisions, Johnson’s latest book makes a convincing case for adding more storytelling to the C-suite and beyond.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Johnson is a succinct, colorful, and skillful writer, and this book is one of those rare works that is highly relevant to the daily functioning of just about everybody.” —Publishers Weekly

Praise for Steven Johnson:

“Mr. Johnson’s erudition can be quite gobsmacking.” —The Wall Street Journal
“A great science writer.” —Bill Clinton, speaking at the 2013 Clinton Foundation Health Matters conference

“A first-rate storyteller.” —The New York Times

“A maven of the history of ideas.” —The Guardian

“Steven Johnson’s mind works in wondrous ways.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“[An] excellent book… altogether insightful.”

The Complexity of Making A Decision

The somewhat dry yet informative narrative in the first half of the book dealing with methodology and examples kindly reconciles in the later half with more broad views while continuing on already considered examples. It is scholarly and entertaining to the curious mind.

Decisions are hard.

Farsighted is an interesting book, but it seems to mainly illustrate just how very complex decision-making can be. These are not the single-variable, binary, yes or no type of decisions, but instead the complex and complicated type where changing types of variables are considered. Many of these decisions that matter the most are group or societal ones; I had hoped for more focus on individual decisions.

Enjoyed it - Not what I was expecting

I did enjoy this book. It wasn't what I thought. I thought it was going to be more "leadership" style narrative. i did really enjoy the use of the military references to show a point.

A soup to nuts explanation of choice

This is a very useful book. It will help you understand our natural limitations and inclinations when dealing with decisions that are not yet completely relevant to the immediate, lack enough data to focus our attention, or increasingly for the decisions of our day- are so big and have so much data as to overload our faculties and abilities to process. The ideas and understandings in this book should be taught to all. It utility spans the individual to a leader with great responsibility and authority.

Powerful Book for Business and Personal Decisions

This was an excellent book on how to make decisions. I’m taking away parts to influence my business life, others to influence my personal life and another part to help an 8yr old get ready faster in the morning.

Best of Johnson

I wish I had read this book years ago. Steven stimulates the brain. Personal stories are a welcome extra.

Farsightedness!

Wow, I've never thought of decision making as this book explains. Its profound and thorough explanation of being able to think farsighted gives a whole new perspective on the repercussions of your decisions. Great Book overall!

listen 2 times to it. considering buying print

listen 2 times to it. considering buying print copy. the review system is weird, requiring 15 words minimum

Great start with a lackluster finish

awesome capture of the science and history of decisions. The last few chapters get political and pretty far out leading to Steve not following his own earlier wisdom of considering alternatives and uncertainty of current doomsday predictions.

extremely interesting and thought provoking

the discussion around decision making at a variety of levels makes for an excellent follow on to Daniel K's book