Sources of Power

How People Make Decisions (The MIT Press)

By: Gary A. Klein

Narrated by: Mike Fraser

A modern classic about how people really make decisions: Drawing on prior experience, using a combination of intuition and analysis.

Since its publication twenty years ago, Sources of Power has been enormously influential. The book has sold more than 50,000 copies, has been translated into six languages, has been cited in professional journals that range from Journal of Marketing Research to Journal of Nursing, and is mentioned by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink. Author Gary Klein has collaborated with Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and served on a team that redesigned the White House Situation Room to support more effective decision making. The model of decision making Klein proposes in the book has been adopted in fields including law enforcement training and petrochemical plant operation. What is the ground-breaking new way to approach decision making described in this modern classic?

We have all seen images of firefighters rescuing people from burning buildings and paramedics treating bombing victims. How do these individuals make the split-second decisions that save lives? Most studies of decision making, based on artificial tasks assigned in laboratory settings, view people as biased and unskilled. Klein proposes a naturalistic approach to decision making, which views people as gaining experience that enables them to use a combination of intuition and analysis to make decisions. To illustrate this approach, Klein tells stories of people - from pilots to chess masters - acting under such real-life constraints as time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and shifting conditions.

This first ever audio edition of Sources of Power is masterfully narrated by Mike Fraser, a listener favorite.

Produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont. ©2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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

©2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Intuitive ideas confirmed with evidence

it started slow for me. didn't enjoy the first half much. but the second half was all bookmarks. the power of the team mind, storytelling and such are fascinating ideas to explore in an organized, methodical fashion. will certainly read it again.

Humble and brilliant

I recommend reading alongside with Thinking, fast and slow. I wish I had read it long time ago.

Timeless Classic

I’ve read the hard copy book and listened to this audio book at least three times. I have Kliens other books and audio books too

I'm a nerd.

I'm pursuing an advanced education in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. The book provides an interesting outline for concepts related to OJT.

Listened Back To Back As There's A lot Of Info

I day trade stocks and I am always open to improvements on my thinking. This book confirms some day trading mind flow. Would have been great to have had a trader involved such as the chess players. overall it's worth your time and open mindness.

This is a classic for a reason

The author is a great writer and his tidbits of humor spice up the book.
The narration is excellent
The only improvement I would suggest is he studies the teamwork among police dispatchers and police swat teams

Must read for wild land firefighters

Wish I had read years ago, thanks to Steven Kotler for referencing the book in the “Art of Impossible.” This book helps name and understand what we do but do not fully understand. Thank you for the amazing book!

It's not a book - it's a super long white paper

This is the first time I give up on a book. Usually even if it's not a good book - I can finish it, but this one was just too much:
1. First, this isn't a book - it's an incredibly long white paper with all references carefully footnoted (and diligently read by the narrator). Yes, you will literally have to listen though things like this one: "where a=1, b=2, c=3..." (I am pretty sure I got the point!) "d=4,e=5..." (at which point I just had to skip ahead).
2. The author is mostly talking about a single thing - his RPD model. Though this idea seems to be generally useful and different chapters give more or less different perspectives - it becomes repetitive by chapter 5 and by chapter 10 I just gave up - density of useful information dropped below the reasonable amount. And funny enough - I can recall different critique on the model and why the author thinks it still is a good model, but I can't recall what does the RPD stand for - seems to be rather absurd to abbreviate the name of the thing you are writing about (and even more absurd for the narrator to keep reading abbreviation instead of producing what does it stand for).
3. The narration lacks any acting whatsoever. I bet if you feed this to text-to-speach engine it will do a better job. Of course this isn't a novel, so the bar is low - but at the very least you can make pauses between paragraphs; emphasize the beginning of a new chapter, etc.

Snooze fest

I struggled to get through half of it and caught myself day dreaming and drowning out the monotone narrator. do not recommend.

Some things don’t get better with age

Probably a great book for the time but it’s age is showing and the performance doesn’t help. This was a struggle from the first to the last chapter. Maybe it was a seminal work at the time of initial publishing but the concepts and data are well known now and considered common sense. Don’t waste your money.