Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us

As a published, self-taught sociologist among whose mentors are some of the same people at Columbia as Watts It is no accident that I find many of the ideas and examples in the book familiar. However, it is hard to describe my passionate excitement as I read almost every page. I believe the ideas are important and it is wonderful to see them organized in such an accessible way. Sometimes one can look at the world almost as the gestalt drawings that can be seen as either a drinking glass or two faces. I suspect that some (many) readers of this book will see one view and not be able to see the other. In fact, I read with great interest some of the other reviews and could see that was the case. One reviewer talked of how "liberals" and "conservatives" would react to the book. I would have thought he might have first suggested some method of verifying his opinion especially in the light of the part of the book that refers to studies that show that our judgment of others' political beliefs are a mirror of our stereotypes. Another viewed the books as being about decisions and referred to a rational choice economist even though many chapters of the book built up to a strong argument against rational choice, not just because we are irrational, but it is a bias and heuristic we use to view the world that is fundamentally flawed. That being said, the conclusions of the arguments out of context might seem so radical that they would be silly at first glance: the Mona Lisa is not as great a painting as it is cracked up to be, Steve Jobs is overrated in Apple's success, for instance. But even if when you think about it you are not surprised by his ideas that people get rich as much luck as hard work and talent, books become best sellers for essentially random reasons, there many not be any such thing as "influentials", experts and predictions are usually wrong and other such things he goes beyond a deconstructionist program. He suggests some ideas to measure the results of what do and to clarify what are just stories and what are things we can hang our hats on. One thing that only implies and I recommend considering is how it affects us as individuals. It suggests a way of thinking that can remove a weight from us. For instance, he talks about how meaningless the idea of an "economy," or a "nation" and so on is. I would go farther and point out that "Obama" is just a story we make up out of fragments of information. He does explain in several places about how we paint over the complexity of the world with coherent stories that hide the complexity. If someone can ask the question "why doesn't Obama fix the economy?" the book explains well why the idea of an "economy" is not something we can get our hands on and why we do not have any way of knowing when something happens in society what caused it. Thus, the idea that a person could cause something to happen that affects so many people in any determined way is absurd. I suspect that people that want simple deterministic explanations will feel uncomfortable with the idea that we are hundreds of years from learning enough about the social world to make much of a dent, much less "fixing the economy." On a personal level it is liberating to realize this. It is hard to get too upset at made up people's effect on imaginary objects. It is like getting really mad at the hunter for killing Bambi's mom. You have to get over it. The tests he carefully develops about what we can and can't know are useful in day-to-day life and help create perspective. If we spend our time being angry at congress, Obama, liberals, conservatives or whoever we choose to blame we wind up in a situation of learned helplessness that numbs our senses and robs us of motivation. Though the project is huge this book suggests how the Internet, new communication technology, advancement in modeling and our thinking about the social world is putting us at the threshold of things we can do that can make a difference. The dogs that were shocked in the learned helplessness experiment that could turn off the shock thrived. This book provides a useful ideas of things we can actually do to improve the social world that creates us.

It took me three stages of reading this book to finally get through it. I can't tell you why, either, as this last sprint (starting a week ago) has been so enjoyable. I must've enjoyed it well enough after having first started it as well because I'd bought a copy for my brother in law that Christmas. I remember distinctly recommending it many times to many people. Yet it took forever. Maybe life got in the way. Perhaps it was too slow at times. It could've been the length coupled with other external items. The reasons, in this case, are not so obvious. What is, though, is how well written this read is, chalk full of great case studies and insights. Highly recommended.

For the content of the book, it is great, I loved reading it, the only problem I have with the book is the paper and the typography, the letters in the book are too big and the paper is too thick, it is a big book that doesn't carry a lot of information, it makes me feel like there is a lot of loose weight only to make the book look good and for it to be a little more expensive.

Having worked for many years in agriculture, where the ideas of interdisciplinary needs are central, it is a great joy to read Duncan Watts' book. His easy transition across all areas of learning is an object lesson. His skill is that he does it with such amazing ease. He he walks amongst the big questions with all the skills of a scientist who understands the needs for rigour, but accepts that the human (whether they be in policy, research or dinner table discussions) is supremely adaptable, especially when it comes to paradox, consistency, and commitment over time. I hope this becomes a widely used text for students and educators. It is rich in ideas and his footnotes and references provide a great signpost to further reading for people with all sorts of parochial interests. Read it, and I am sure you will be tempted to grab a pencil and underline more than a few well argued comments and conclusions.

Duncan Watts is one of the 3 most influential thinkers on Network Theory in my opinion. In this volume, he has distilled much of what has come to be understood in network theory in the last decade, but the focus is challenging the notion of common sense by embracing an empiricist view of causailty. Through the chapters, Watts casts strong doubt on Rational Choice Theory conclusions, inspires the reader with a rallying call that experiment and measure is the path to enlightenment, and surprisingly hits on political philosophies to assess their plausibility. I really enjoyed understanding his" thinking about thinking" on the financial crisis, the potential polarization of society in America, and how sociology measures up to physics as a science. Watts is a polymath, and your understanding of the world around you is likely to be transformed by tapping into his knowledge. After reading, I'm left pondering many questions, and motivated to employ the techniques he lays out in my own research and work. I will reccommend this book to colleagues and friends, personally one of the best books I've read this year.

C’est un fait : notre bon sens est au cœur de la plupart de nos décisions. Or celui-ci n’est fiable que pour des décisions simples de la vie quotidienne, nous alerte cet ouvrage. Lorsque nous l’utilisons pour gérer des situations complexes, il nous conduit à des erreurs de raisonnement dont nous n’avons pas conscience, car nous sommes l’objet de biais cognitifs et d’erreurs de jugement. L’auteur nous invite à prendre le réflexe de nous interroger ce qui nous apparaît comme des évidences. Ce ne sont souvent que des constructions de notre cerveau qui nous permettent de donner un sens au monde qui nous entoure. Par des expériences de psychologie sociale passionnantes, il démontre que nous pensons faire des choix rationnels, mais que ces choix sont en fait déterminés par des schémas de pensée difficiles à faire évoluer, par des préférences inconscientes ou encore par l’influence de notre entourage. Faut-il pour autant complètement désespérer de notre bon sens ? Certainement pas, car celui-ci se révèle particulièrement pertinent lorsqu’il est collectif. La sagesse des foules, ou la somme des bons sens individuels, s’avère finalement plus précise que les prévisions d’experts. Un livre passionnant, qui invite à la remise en question.

Explains information providing a new mindset on many of the taken for granted concepts held by much of the general population. Well written, at times a bit slow and hard to get through but for the most part a fascinating read. I read this book and then wanted to bring up the concepts in it in other areas so I bought it in order to reference the book.

The front cover was bend. Looks like it's been read by someone else.

Claro, original y muy interesante. Libro muy recomendable para cualquiera que quiera entender el mundo. Gran autor con una experiencia muy diversa que le hace ser crítico y creible.

Read this and you will be able to critique almost every other book putting forward an ill-researched thesis based on major 'success stories' like Google or Facebook or Harry Potter. For example, did you know that at one stage Google tried and failed to sell out for $1.6m ? This book documents the traps that our pattern matching brains fall into, and how we are strongly programmed to back-fit explanations onto observations. This leads us to massively underestimate the sheer randomness of events. Luck really does play a far more important role than we all think.