The Art of Thinking Clearly

Swiss writer Rolf Dobelli devotes 99 short chapters to the thinking errors people make most often, covering envy and social distortions as well as cognitive biases. His examples are familiar: putting more time into something that, in hindsight, was not worth it, or carrying on with a habit known to be harmful. Dobelli's premise is that knowing these errors and learning to spot them makes it possible to avoid them and choose better, whether in a personal problem, a business negotiation, or decisions about saving and making money. The chapters began as weekly newspaper columns in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. It spent 80 consecutive weeks in the top ten of Der Spiegel's best-seller list.

Robert B. Cialdini endorsed it, praising the eloquence with which Dobelli examines common failures of decision-making and the good sense of his advice on countering them.