NOISE - A flaw in human judgment!

" Wherever there is judgment, there is noise -- and more of it than we think" The book starts with the assumption and ends up realizing your own biases and noises. More than that, it teaches you how to correct and how much to correct.

"Noise - A flaw in Human judgment" is a well-written thoroughly researched book. More often you will feel like reading a research paper and the expectations are also the same. You will have a far better understanding of the decision process. How, why and what influences your judgment? How can you correct that? and How much you can correct that?

Entrepreneur Rating: 9/10 Very helpful to understand what happens when you grow? How can you handle noise and build an efficient system and process? A new perspective will emerge after reading this book.

General Rating: 7/10 Very helpful to analyze your personal life. One can apply things in day-to-day life and benefit. The book also demonstrates how different processes such as forensic science, doctors, DNA analyst, and others areas. Though there is a high chance that the book will bore you as the writing might turn difficult and the language is more academic.

Domain-specific rating: 9.5/10 The book is more like a long research paper with few stories. No doubt about you will get a fair hand on how we make judgments? What are the parameters that affect you? How do things combine, amplify, and reduce biases in a process ? and many more insights.

Here is a brief summary :

The personal experiences that made you who you are are not truly relevant to a particular one you are going to make. The goal of judgment is accuracy, not individual expression.

Your judgment depends on what mood you are in, what cases you have just discussed, and even what the weather is. You are not the same person at all times.

Judgments are like a free throw: however hard we try to repeat it precisely. it is never exactly identical. Every decision needs to have its context and thought independently.

Early popularity plays a role. In a group of five, the idea which was spoken first is more likely to be popular and adopted by the other four.

Algorithms are the way to have judgment with zero noise. But first, we can't have an algorithm for everything and second, not all noises are bad. Some give positive results as well.

What makes internal signal important --and misleading-- is that it is constructed not as a feeling but as a belief. The emotional experience masquerades as rational confidence in the validity of one's judgment. We think I know even if I do not know why?

The world is a messy place, where minor events can have large consequences. So long-term predictions about specific events are simply impossible. Unforeseeable events are bound to happen, and the consequences of these unforeseeable events are also unforeseeable.

The process of understanding reality is backward looking.

Intelligence is only part of the story, however. How people think is also important. Perhaps we should pick the most thoughtful, open-minded person, rather than the smartest one.

The second opinion is not independent if the person giving it knows what the first opinion was. And the third one, even less so: There can be a bias cascade.

Rankings are less noisy than ratings as doing relative error analysis is much better and easier.

Job performance depends on many things, including how quickly the person you hire adjusts to her new position or how various life events affect her work. Much of this is unoredictable at the time of hiring. This uncertainty limits the scope of interview and so far there are no ways to predict it.

Interviewers tend, often unintentionally, to favour candidates who are culturally similar to them or with whom they have something in common including gender, race, and educational background.

Creative people need space and so do the less creative people.people aren't robots. Whatever your job, you deserve some room to maneuver.

Think statistically, and take the outside view of the case.

Intuition need not be banned, but it should be informed, disciplined, and delayed.

If you are a manager or an entrepreneur or someone who has to make strategic decisions, then this is the book you should definitely read ! I share one book review every week with notes. Subscribe to the newsletter for more.