How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices

Annie Duke

Oct 2020 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Through a blend of compelling exercises, illustrations, and stories, the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets will train you to combat your own biases, address your weaknesses, and help you become a better and more confident decision-maker.

What do you do when you're faced with a big decision? If you're like most people, you probably make a pro and con list, spend a lot of time obsessing about decisions that didn't work out, get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly seek other people's opinions to find just that little bit of extra information that might make you sure, and finally go with your gut.

What if there was a better way to make quality decisions so you can think clearly, feel more confident, second-guess yourself less, and ultimately be more decisive and be more productive?

Making good decisions doesn't have to be a series of endless guesswork. Rather, it's a teachable skill that anyone can sharpen. In How to Decide, bestselling author Annie Duke and former professional poker player lays out a series of tools anyone can use to make better decisions. You'll learn:

  •  To identify and dismantle hidden biases.
  •  To extract the highest quality feedback from those whose advice you seek.
  •  To more accurately identify the influence of luck in the outcome of your decisions.
  •  When to decide fast, when to decide slow, and when to decide in advance.
  •  To make decisions that more effectively help you to realize your goals and live your values.

Through interactive exercises and engaging thought experiments, this book helps you analyze key decisions you've made in the past and troubleshoot those you're making in the future. Whether you're picking investments, evaluating a job offer, or trying to figure out your romantic life, How to Decide is the key to happier outcomes and fewer regrets.

Ratings and reviews

Highly recommend this book, but the actual system could use more refinement. When I put the "3 P's" (which, in my opinion, should be 4 P's: possibilities, preferences, payoffs, and probabilities) into a decision tree program (Freeplane), the pieces didn't fit cleanly together. I modified the system slightly to make it work for me and I'm sure more iterations will be needed to tighten it up more. That said, there are many great ideas and concepts presented in this book.

About the author

Annie Duke is an author, corporate speaker, and consultant in the decision-making space. Annie's book, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts is a national bestseller. As a former professional poker player, Annie won more than $4 million in tournament poker before retiring from the game in 2012. Prior to becoming a professional player, Annie was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Annie is the co-founder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. She is also a member of the National Board of After-School All-Stars and the Board of Directors of the Franklin Institute. In 2020, she joined the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative.