Annie Duke on How to Decide

Oct 11, 2020

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Annie Duke first guested on Behavioral Grooves on Episode 31, which was released on September 30, 2018. For some reason, the three of us hit it off and we’ve had the pleasure of each other’s company for several more episodes (more than any other guest). She even asked Kurt and Tim to provide some feedback on an early draft of her latest book.

With that background, Kurt and Tim sat down with Annie to talk about the new book (hitting the store shelves on October 13, 2020), the key themes in it, and the decision tools a reader can put to use in their own life. We love it and we hope you get a copy of “How To Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices.”

“How To Decide” is really the first of its kind as a book that offers decision tools that the reader can try out through Annie’s guided narrative and exercises. Better decision making can lead to all sorts of improvements in your life, including more happiness, and our guest is all about people living happier lives.

As much as we love books describing the neuroscience behind decision making and the behavioral consequences of the biases and heuristics that impact our decisions, we find “How To Decide” to be a fantastic journey into the practical world of the tools to help you make better decisions.

To emphasize these principles, Annie talked about the Archer’s Mindset, Free Rolls, and how negative thinking can be a boon to your goal setting and goal achievement. Of course, there’s a mention of Jack White, her musical hero, and lots of pop references from the mind of a certifiable news junkie (at least these days).

We hope you enjoy our conversation with Annie, and we ask that you take a moment to subscribe to our Patreon page. For the price of one coffee per month, you can advance our mission to bring insights from thought leaders, researchers and practitioners to those who are curious about behavioral science.

We hope you go out and find your groove this week with the help of Annie’s decision-making tools.

[Photo of Annie by Jessica Evelynka]

Links

Annie Duke: https://www.annieduke.com/

“How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices”: https://amzn.to/3FraukT

Alliance for Decision Making: https://www.alliancefordecisioneducation.org/

False Dichotomy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma

Robert Cialdini, PhD: https://www.robertcialdinibf.com/

Michael Phelps on the Worst Case Scenario: https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/michael-phelps-uses-this-mental-trick-to-prepare-for-any-difficult-situation.html

Cass Sunstein & Annie Duke on Free Rolling: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3658663

Common Biases & Heuristics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit

Perry Mason (2020 TV series): https://www.hbo.com/perry-mason