Writings About Decision- Making

A trial lawyer lives in the world of poor decision-making: company leaders make the wrong choice under pressure; groups and individuals take shortcuts that lead to catastrophes; boards fail to see troubled waters ahead. And sometimes juries evaluating this conduct similarly disappoint, inventing facts (while ignoring others) so as to justify a desired outcome. In studying these events and piecing together conduct, I wondered why smart, motivated people made head-scratching decisions.

This curiosity lead me to the emerging science of decision-making. Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman and his colleague Amor Tversky laid the foundation for this field, relentlessly challenging the idea that human beings are motivated to—and do—routinely make rational, logical decisions.

Kahneman’s 2011 best seller, THINKING, FAST AND SLOW summarizes Kahneman’s and Tversky’s work. The book describes a lifetime of cognitive and social psychology research about the multiple ways humans predictably and without awareness commit errors in logic and reasoning.

In my own writing, I’ve sought to use these insights and ideas for improving decision-making by juries, by boards, and by our leaders. I plan to dive more deeply into how the tools of behavioral and cognitive science might be used to protect against catastrophic decisions.

Thank you for reading.