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    FarsightedSteven Johnson

    Farsighted

    Steven Johnson · 2018

    Author Steven Johnson uncovers powerful tools for honing the important skill of complex decision-making. 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. -- Adapted from book jacket. "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.

    Business & ManagementEconomics & FinancePolitics & Society
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    0recommend
    2mentions
    2people
    2020–2026years
    100% neutral

    Mentions per year

    2020202120222023202420252026

    What Hacker News says

    1. jt2190Jul 2026
      This is an essay that discusses the following works:

      - “Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most” by Steven Johnson

      - “Big Decisions: Opting, Converting, Drifting” by Edna Ullmann-Margalit (2006) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/royal-institute-of-p...

      - “What You Can’t Expect When You’re Expecting” by L. A. Paul (2013)

      - “Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming” by Agnes Callard

      thread
    2. ChrisHardman29May 2020
      I agree that (like most studies) it could be more robust but what I think is more interesting is the underlying explanation (which, like any theory, may not be correct). Making complex decisions is notoriously challenging - e.g. you are comparing factors across different scales and timeframes (see the book 'Farsighted' by Steven Johnson) - and no single rule should be wholly relied upon, but I think that being aware of the potential impacts of loss aversion / status quo bias during the process can only be helpful.
      thread

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