Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most
Written by Steven Johnson
Narrated by Steven Johnson
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
The hardest choices are also the most consequential. So why do we know so little about how to get them right?
Big, life-altering decisions matter so much more than the decisions we make every day, and they're also the most difficult: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war. There's no one-size-fits-all approach for addressing these kinds of conundrums.
Steven Johnson's classic Where Good Ideas Come From inspired creative people all over the world with new ways of thinking about innovation. In Farsighted, he uncovers powerful tools for honing the important skill of complex decision-making. While you can't model a once-in-a-lifetime choice, you can model the deliberative tactics of expert decision-makers. These experts aren't just the master strategists running major companies or negotiating high-level diplomacy. They're the novelists who draw out the complexity of their characters' inner lives, the city officials who secure long-term water supplies, and the scientists who reckon with future challenges most of us haven't even imagined. The smartest decision-makers don't go with their guts. Their success relies on having a future-oriented approach and the ability to consider all their options in a creative, productive way.
Through compelling stories that reveal surprising insights, Johnson explains how we can most effectively approach the choices that can chart the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. Farsighted will help you imagine your possible futures and appreciate the subtle intelligence of the choices that shaped our broader social history.
Steven Johnson
Steven Johnson is the internationally bestselling author of several books, including How We Got to Now, Where Good Ideas Come From, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map and Everything Bad is Good for You. The founder of a variety of influential websites, he is the host and co-creator of the PBS and BBC series How We Got to Now. Johnson lives in Marin County, California, and Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and three sons.
More audiobooks from Steven Johnson
The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Innovator's Cookbook: Essentials for Inventing What Is Next Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Farsighted
Related audiobooks
High-Stakes Leadership: Leading Through Crisis with Courage, Judgment, and Fortitude Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHard Decisions Made Easy: How leaders in large organisations make complex decisions that stick Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStop Playing Safe: Rethink Risk, Unlock the Power of Courage, Achieve Outstanding Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win at Work!: The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Right Fight: How Great Leaders Use Healthy Conflict to Drive Performance, Innovation, and Value Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRead This Before Our Next Meeting: How We Can Get More Done Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Leaders Decide: A Timeless Guide to Making Tough Choices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeading Through Uncertainty: How Umpqua Bank Emerged from the Great Recession Better and Stronger than Ever Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChange: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Fear of Failure: Real Stories of How Leaders Deal with Risk and Change Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5HBR's 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So You Want to Start a Hedge Fund: Lessons for Managers and Allocators Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfinished Leader: Balancing Contradictory Answers to Unsolvable Problems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Benevolent Dictator: Empower Your Employees, Build Your Business, and Outwit the Competition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fourth Decision: The Maximized Entrepreneur Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Discussions of Never Split the Difference By Chris Voss with Tahl Raz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lead from the Future: How to Turn Visionary Thinking Into Breakthrough Growth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strategy in the Age of Disruption: A Handbook to Anticipate Change and Make Smart Decisions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Success Secrets of Millionaire Hustlers: 33 Mindset Secrets For Making Money in Any Economy Without Working So Hard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaking Smart Risks: How Sharp Leaders Win When Stakes are High Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Secrets to Planning the Perfect Speech for Broadcast Journalists: How to Plan to Give the Best Speech of Your Life! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDecision Quality: Value Creation from Better Business Decisions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Exit Right: How to Sell Your Startup, Maximize Your Return and Build Your Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon't Get Mad At Penguins: And Other Ways to Detox the Conflict in Your Life and Business Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Psychology For You
What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You’re Not the Only One F*cking Up: Breaking the Endless Cycle of Dating Mistakes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How To Win Friends And Influence People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Seduction: An Indispensible Primer on the Ultimate Form of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Starts with Self-Compassion: A Practical Road Map Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated For the Next Generation of Leaders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Highly Sensitive Person in Love: Understanding and Managing Relationships When the World Overwhelms You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spritual Growth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Banish Your Inner Critic: Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt to Unleash Your Creativity and Do Your Best Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn’t Designed For You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Create: Tools from Seriously Talented People to Unleash Your Creative Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Farsighted
23 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book was recommended by Fareed Zakaria and I saw the author interviewed on that show. The book is interesting as it gets into the decision making process for big decisions that may have long term consequences. He deals with the usual involvement of data, pros and cons, length of time, predictability, etc. He does bring in the use of literary novels for decisions that are not cut and dry. Because we don't have data on how people react to big decisions, Johnson says that literary novels and the myriad of scenarios that they depict can give us information that will help us in our life decisions. This was not a long read but it also didn't come up with real clear processes for decision making that I hadn't considered. He does use the capture of Osama Bin-Laden as a constant example of the decision making process which I found interesting.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I don't really have any takeaways from this book -- nothing that improves my decision making, at any rate. It benefits from using, for the most part, current examples of the process. It ties in literary novels as a part of the process that I'll have to consider a bit more.