Steven Johnson

Plenty of books offer useful advice on how to get better at making quick-thinking, intuitive choices. But what about more consequential decisions, the ones that affect our lives for years, or centuries, to come? Our most powerful stories revolve around these kinds of decisions: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war. Full of the beautifully crafted storytelling and novel insights that Steven Johnson's fans know to expect, Farsighted draws lessons from cognitive science, social psychology, military strategy, environmental planning, and great works of literature. Everyone thinks we are living in an age of short attention spans, but we've actually learned a lot about making long-term decisions over the past few decades. Johnson makes a compelling case for a smarter and more deliberative decision-making approach. He argues that we choose better when we break out of the myopia of single-scale thinking and develop methods for considering

How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most

Farsighted

Andrew Marti

I love Steven Johnson. I love the things he thinks about and the ways he approaches the world. This book discusses ways we should should approach big, complex decisions. 

Two points resonated. 1) “Homogeneous groups - whether they are united by ethnic backgrounds, gender or some other worldview like politics - tend to come to decisions too quickly.” In other words, diversity leads to better decisions. 2) Johnson points out the necessity for a “full spectrum analysis” to understand the problem from many variables. One of his suggestions for capturing that full spectrum, was surprising and old fashioned. Johnson recommends the novel as the oldest and best way to gain new and unique perspectives and to simulate different/complex experiences.

Andreas Holmer

Having read several of Johnson’s previous books (I loved the Invention of Air!) I had high hopes for this one. It delivered, albeit it in unexpected ways. The experience of reading the book was honestly a bit underwhelming. Perhaps it was my high expectations, but I felt like Johnson’s previous books all served up nuggets of wisdom on each page, whereas here those nuggets where spread across... I dunno, every 5 page or so, if that makes sense? But. I also found myself referencing the book in several conversations this past week. It’s highly topical and very timely. And so while it is a light and easy read, it proved itself to be well worth the investment.

My only point of contention, really, is that Johnson never once referenced Design Thinking. The link isn’t obvious if you haven’t read the book but the steps involved in complex decision making that the book outlines aligns very nearly with the DY process. That’s interesting! And it seemed worthy of at least a passive mention. Maybe something for me to write about about more detail at another time.

Farsighted How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most

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