Noise

By: Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein

Narrated by: Todd Ross, Olivier Sibony, Daniel Kahneman

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER‘A monumental, gripping book … Outstanding’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Noise may be the most important book I've read in more than a decade. A genuinely new idea so exceedingly important you will immediately put it into practice. A masterpiece’
Angela Duckworth, author of Grit

‘An absolutely brilliant investigation of a massive societal problem that has been hiding in plain sight’
Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics

From the world-leaders in strategic thinking and the multi-million copy bestselling authors of Thinking Fast and Slow and Nudge, the next big book to change the way you think.

We like to think we make decisions based on good reasoning – and that our doctors, judges, politicians, economic forecasters and employers do too. In this groundbreaking book, three world-leading behavioural scientists come together to assess the last great fault in our collective decision-making: noise.

We all make bad judgements more than we think. Noise shows us what we can do to make better ones.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

The Sunday Times bestseller (May 2021)

‘A tour de force of scholarship and clear writing’
New York Times

‘This is a monumental, gripping book. It is also bracing … The three authors have transformed the way we think about the world. They have looked beneath and beyond the way we make decisions and organise our lives. A follow-up of sorts to Thinking, Fast and Slow, it is a further step down the road towards a more complex and realistic grasp of human affairs that is replacing the crude simplifications of the recent past. Outstanding’
Sunday Times

‘As you’d expect from its authors, it is a rigorous approach to an important topic… There’s lots to surprise and entertain. Anyone who has found the literature on cognitive biases important will find this a valuable addition to their knowledge’ Danny Finkelstein, The Times

‘Noise is everywhere and is seriously disruptive. The authors have come up with a bold solution. The book is a satisfying journey through a big but not unsolvable problem, with plenty of fascinating case studies along the way. Humans are often bad at making decisions. But we can get better’
Martha Gill, Evening Standard

‘The greatest source of ineffective policies are often not biases, corruption or ill-will, but three “I”: Intuition, Ignorance and Inertia. This book masterfully demonstrates why the three “I” are so pervasive, and what we can do to fight them. An essential, eye opening read’
Esther Duflo, winner of a 2019 Nobel Prize

‘In Noise, the authors brilliantly apply their unique and novel insights into the flaws in human judgment to every sphere of human endeavour… Noise is a masterful achievement and a landmark in the field of psychology’
Philip E. Tetlock, co-author of Superforecasting

‘An electrifying exploration of the human mind, this book will permanently change the way we think about the scale and scope of bias’
David Lammy

Brilliant and clear

Important topic explored systematically and clear. a Book and concept worth thinking about in all aspects of life

A bit niche, but still a solid recommendation.

A fantastic treatise on an important topic. It's probably less generally applicable for most people than the author's other very popular book, Nudge, but a you might still find it enlightening even if you can't personally utilize the noise-reducing techniques within. Personally, I think it suffers a bit as an audiobook, because there are frequently long descriptions of hypothetical situations, sociological experiments, and maths which I personally feel like I need to relisten to sometimes so I can grok the necessary details, and that's just more easily done with text.

Not Thinking Fast and Slow

It's a lot like Thinking Fast and Slow but the aspect of Noise being harder to detect means it's considerably less interesting, literally the best think in the book is decision cascades which is honestly just bias with extra steps

Too complex for an audiobook

Trying to get through this but I just don't think the audiobook format works with books that are as complex... Not recommended for that reason alone -the topic is interesting but trying to digest everything whilst listening just isn't possible