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The Importance of Small Decisions
Book

The Importance of Small Decisions

Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life Series

MIT Press, 2019 Mehr


Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Overview
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Living things, groups and societies evolve biologically and culturally as they adapt to changing circumstances as specific as, for example, the fate of lion cubs when a lightning strike kills their mother. Michael J. O’Brien, R. Alexander Bentley and William A. Brock address today’s information-processing and decision-making challenges and put them into a larger evolutionary context. They discuss changes in how people adapt and make decisions, and they illustrate these shifts with examples as ancient as stone axes and as contemporary as National Football League star quarterback Tom Brady.

Take-Aways

  • Small changes accumulate to create cultural evolution.
  • To understand evolution, you must understand the terms involved.
  • Economic models of decision making have changed.

About the Authors

Michael J. O’Brien, PhD, is provost and professor of history at Texas A & M–San Antonio. R. Alexander Bentley, PhD, is chair of anthropology at the University of Tennessee. William A. Brock, PhD, is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.