Anfenwick

I may try this book again later. It does contain a laundry list of things about human beings that every human being should know.

The 'giving up' or 'failing' of the title is really about moving on. That's not the problem. The trouble is, the authors didn't work out the full implications of their own assertions when they started explaining why we're bad at it. They said: if you prime human beings with ideas of their short-comings they will respond less optimally than they might otherwise. Then they went on to do just that. There are ways of presenting the exact same truths that prime human beings with the possibility of improvement and avoidance or disaster. But the authors didn't. Every time I picked up this book, it made me feel depressed, and, sensitive soul that I am, it interfered with my work.

Also, it does not, actually, have the big pay-off at the end which it keeps promising as reward for reading all that's less than optimal about us. The only answer is to bear in mind the reasons why you might be making less than optimal decisions.

I find it odd, and disturbing, that this book should be in the public library of one of Britain's more challenged neighborhoods. I expect the librarians didn't read it themselves.