Why do we finally resolve to lose weight in the new year, but then reach for cream ice cream for dessert? Why do we decide that we want to put more on the high side, but at the end of the month we are even deeper in the red than usual?
After I was recommended the book “Thinking helps, but is of no use” from a reliable source, it was read through within a few hours. The realization that it is not reason that drives us after all, but that we act predictably irrationally, is sobering. We are crooks, even if we don’t take money directly from the till, but prefer to pack the cutlery together with the leftovers in the restaurant. We know that we are prone to procrastination, and the best way to respond to this is to let ourselves be told or at least commit ourselves at the beginning to when we have to deliver what. We prefer to spend more money on drugs, even if the generics that cost a fraction of the amount contain the same active ingredients and should have the same effect: Nevertheless, the expensive drugs have been proven to work better. After reading the book, one believes to understand this scientifically proven, everything is plausibly explained.
However, I was disappointed by the proposed solutions: Yes, it is of course good to understand why we make some decisions this way and not another. But I would also have liked to know how I could do it better, how I automatically recognize that it is not reason that guides me. Here the book is a bit thin, which wouldn’t be a bad thing if the cover text didn’t promise that the reader is shown the way to avoid the treacherous thinking traps.