Daphne Gordon

Who doesn’t want to make Amazing Decisions?

Dan Ariely’s book helps explain why people usually do the right thing… and why they sometimes don’t

If the educational animated series Schoolhouse Rock mated with the academic field of Behavioural Economics, the two would have a baby named Amazing Decisions.

The author of this inventive book, Dan Ariely, is a professor of cognitive psychology at Duke University, where he founded the Center for Advanced Hindsight. The research he conducts there puts human beings in situations that test their decision-making, and he’s written several books to explain the results of his studies.

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Daphne Gordon

Digital Minimalism questions the productivity imperative

Cal Newport’s book about minimizing screen time convinced me to do less in the digital universe

Call me a convert.

I casually picked up Digital Minimalism, thinking, maybe, just maybe, I might possibly think about reducing my screen time next year. And thanks to Newport’s storytelling, fact-gathering and simple prose, I’m now a devoted digital minimalist.

As a computer science professor at Georgetown University, Newport is no luddite. He’s been experimenting with different ways to hack technology to improve productivity and study for years, as the author of Deep Work and a blogger at Study Hacks.

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