Wired for Survival: The Rational (and Irrational) Choices We Make, from the Gas Pump to Terrorism [Hardcover]

Margaret M. Polski (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0132420287 | ISBN-13: 978-0132420280 | Publication Date: September 19, 2008 | Edition: 1

Lessons from the Cutting-Edge of Neuroscience: “Remapping” to Thrive in the New Global Economy!

“Do you ever wonder how you think? If you do, this book will fascinate and inform you. If you don’t, you will after reading this book. Either way, you’ll enjoy learning how we don’t usually do it as we think we do, how we may do it better for that very reason, and how we may do it still better once we understand.”

—Thomas C. Schelling, 2005 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus, University of Maryland

 

Drawing on cutting-edge research in the neurosciences, Wired for Survival illuminates the surprising security implications of rapid change in the emerging economies and develops practical, technically sound ways to face the challenges of global change.

 

Researcher and consultant Margaret M. Polski begins by uncovering the remarkable neurobiological underpinnings of policy. Polski reveals why the most effective political and economic policies are codified not in law, treaty, or culture, but in the networks embedded in our bodies and brains...and how protecting our prosperity requires us to adapt those networks to radically new realities.

 

Next, Polski applies these fresh insights to three critical security issues: how best to defend our national interests; to take offensive action to protect our interests; and to strengthen our financial system. Finally, she provides “rules for the road” that can be applied to a world of problems: how best to compete in global markets; to build stronger, more secure communities; to manage energy and other key resources; to invest in and secure critical infrastructure; to address the structural impacts of trade; and to manage tomorrow’s catastrophes, both natural and man-made.

 

As a political economist, executive, government advisor, and consultant, Polski has spent more than two decades devising strategies for surviving change in the global political economy. Now, drawing on the breakthrough research in social neuroscience, she offers insights that will help you thrive, not just survive!

 

“First, kill all the pundits and policy wonks...”
Why you’ll make better decisions by thinking for yourself–and how to do it

 

Thinking in the wild

Uncovering the intuitive interactions between our minds, bodies, and 21st century environment

 

Overcoming our biases, our histories, and our vulnerability to groupthink
Mastering the deep motivations that traditional economics doesn’t understand

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A longtime political economist at the forefront of the interdisciplinary field of neuroeconomics, Polski's iconoclastic treatment of orthodox economic models (which treat people like "hyper-rational Vulcan brainiac Dr. Spock") combined with her witty observational style ("our brains are like jazz musicians in search of a good groove") opens up this important but complex survey of modern decision-making and its pitfalls in the face of the world's thorniest problems: highly competitive global markets, terrorist attacks, and environmental threat. Beginning with a dry but brief overview of world markets and the human nervous system, Polski goes on to illustrate, fascinatingly, how "sustainable growth and change involves changing the way we think and choose," moving away from a system of intuitive thinking ("unconscious spontaneous activity" developed to avoid falling rocks) and toward a new map of transparent, logic- and community-based thinking (and the end of "fruitless control strategies such as fiat, proselytizing, finger-wagging, sanctions, side-payments, and force"). Polski carefully delineates the characteristics of intuitive and logical thinking, the way that minds learn and interact with each other, and the real-world possibilities opened up by her peculiarly outsider economic perspective.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Margaret M. Polski is a political economist with research interests in growth, innovation, regulation, and security. She has more than 25 years’ experience developing and implementing transformation initiatives in business, government, and civic affairs. Dr. Polski has a Ph.D. from Indiana University, an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.E.S. from the University of Minnesota. She is a Research Affiliate at the Center for the Study of Neuroeconomics at George Mason University and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Strategies at the School for Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (September 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132420287
• ISBN-13: 978-0132420280
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,292,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars definitely thought-provoking, November 21, 2009

By 

Douglas A. Samuelson (Annandale, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wired for Survival: The Rational (and Irrational) Choices We Make, from the Gas Pump to Terrorism (Kindle Edition)

Margaret Polski, a political economist, with substantial experience in national security issues, got interested in why organizations full of smart people make dumb decisions. This question led her to study how individual human brains work. Contrary to the assumptions of most decision-making methods, she explains, we aren't all that focused on examining facts and reasoning things out. Emotions direct our attention, color our perceptions, change our thinking in response to subtle environmental cues, and impel us toward some judgments and away from others. Mr. Spock is a fictional character, and even in Star Trek he was a rarity from a planet and species different from ours. "We need a model of intuitive choice," she suggests, if we really want to understand how to improve decisions.

She approaches this daunting topic with refreshing candor and open-mindedness. As a result, like the topic, the book tours all over the landscape. We learn about the neural structure of the brain, experiments on how brains work, effects of incentives, and various ways of structuring organizations to correct for individual lapses, ending with recommendations about how to improve such organizational structures. Those who insist on a nicely packaged, linearly flowing presentation, or who simply must view it from within the perspective of any one established discipline, probably will not like this book. There are some annoying leaps from sketchy appreciation of a complex situation to a bold summary of it, especially in the first chapter's discussion of the global economy and various macroeconomic theories. Fortunately, the book gets better as it goes. Perhaps Dr. Polski is unwittingly illustrating one of her main points: we are more likely to trip up in subject areas we think we know well, as we overlook our own blind spots and fail to appreciate what our audience should not be assumed to know. As she gets into the new "this is your brain when discussing money" research (it's called neuroeconomics, at least for now; new fields tend to change names as they grow) and what we can learn from these new studies, her presentation gets both more solid and more interesting. Her concluding recommendations about how we can learn to govern better will not evoke immediate consensus but do merit serious consideration and discussion.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Quite possibly the worst book I've ever endured, December 20, 2008

By 

Matthew Mulligan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wired for Survival: The Rational (and Irrational) Choices We Make, from the Gas Pump to Terrorism (Hardcover)

I picked up a hardcopy of this book in Changi Singapore airport and basically read it in one go. The reason I read it in one go is because first of all it is rather short but more importantly it is so appallingly written that I simply could not believe FT Press has actually published this book. In my mind the ever occurring thought that the next chapter must surely compensate for the prior chapter's nonsense made me endure one chapter after another until the last chapter came to an end and I put down the book, dumbstruck as to what abysmal writings manage to get published by reputable publishing houses.

The book's core hypothesis, obfuscated by partisan, belligerent and unfounded statements, sprinkled with a litany of ill fitting classical quotes and a nauseous degree of name dropping, is the following:

Many human decisions and actions are driven by the networks embedded in our bodies and brains [which in turn are a function of our biology and actual and perceived experiences]

This is an interesting hypothesis and, besides the fact that the book is rather short, the only good thing this author has to offer. The book itself fails miserably even in its feeble attempt to put forth a coherent let alone convincing argument or theory as to why the hypothesis holds.

The main line of reasoning, repeated many many times throughout the book, is that humans do not always act as the rational individuals that classical economists or game theorists like to postulate. Yes, anyone with any exposure to any social science field will agree with this statement. But in itself the statement is about as valuable as stating that maps of the world are wrong, as the real world is three dimensional and cannot be portrayed on a piece of paper.

Besides stating the book's core hypothesis it is actually rather difficult to summarize the book, as there is no coherent storyline. The first chapter randomly quotes periods of historical GDP growth rates and makes uninformed statements about "free and liberal countries", of which the author believes there are exactly and no more than three (the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia). The very first chapter itself is already misleading, full of factual errors and seen through an exceptionally narrow minded view. The second chapter is titled "Bits and Pieces", which would have been a more appropriate title for the book itself, seeking to explain the biological foundation of the brain in the wider sense. Subsequent chapters randomly summarize scientific contributions or ramblings of individuals with no apparent linkage besides the fact that they showcase not all decisions are made on the basis of rational computational choices weighing costs and benefits (covering as much ground as Pavlovian dogs, the author's sufferings of jetlag, as well as various US soldiers' experience with hostile foreign environments). Unfortunately this summary cannot be written more coherently as the book itself is in no way coherent.

In terms of style, here are some of the more irritating traits of the author: Shameless name dropping, partisan interpretations and simple factual errors. I won't list them all out as I don't wish to revisit the book, but here are some of the examples that stuck in my mind. Around a dozen times, the author starts a particular section with "as Nobel Laureate XYZ states". Sometimes what follows is vaguely related to what the Nobel Laureate contributed scientifically to earn the Nobel Prize, more often than not what follows is a largely unrelated rambling of the author. The name dropping does not stop here, as silly quotes are liberally scattered throughout the book, in fact the book itself ends on three quotes - one by Basil Henry Liddell Hart, one by Octavio Paz and one by Albert Camus - tellingly the quotes are not related in any manner. With respect to partisan interpretations, suffice to say that there will be many well governed, liberal and economically successful countries that will laugh at the author's statement that only the US, UK and Australia are "inclined to limit government involvement in economic matters". Other countries are labeled "nanny states" and "authoritarian states". According to the author, Keynes is the ideological force behind "nanny states". Apparently Keynes also is a Economics Nobel Laureate and his full name is John Maynerd Keynes [sic]. In reality, the Nobel Prize is never awarded posthumosly, hence Keynes was never awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics that was only introduced in 1969. Admittedly he would have been a strong candidate but that is surely besides the point. His middle name is Maynard.

So where does this leave the reader? Having shut the book, it left me with the personal anguish of wasting time on a book that ought not to have been published in the first place. I did a quick internet check on the author, who appears successful and well educated. I do not know what went wrong here. It is one of the very few books I've ever come across that I would have given the lowest mark in all conceivable categories, be it style, coherence, novelty or insight. In fact even in such basic categories such as factual accuracy or typographical errors this book fails to deliver against any sanitary thresholds.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing look at contemporary neuroscience's view of thought, March 11, 2011

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wired for Survival: The Rational (and Irrational) Choices We Make, from the Gas Pump to Terrorism (Hardcover)

This book's short length is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, neuroscientist Margaret M. Polski's brevity and clarity make the book an accessible overview of how contemporary cognitive science views thinking and decision making. On the other hand, it is so brief that Polski leapfrogs through a great deal of material very quickly. Some readers may seek a more fully developed explanation of how economic events - like the power struggles between energy producers and energy consumers - relate to research in neuroscience. Issues such as how rationality affects cultural systems like liberal democracy deserve more attention. This lack of connective tissue makes this slender volume pretty episodic, but it also is rich with illustrations drawn from sources ranging from contemporary politics to the classic comedy of Monty Python. The result is enjoyable and useful, if a bit disjointed. getAbstract recommends Polski's book to strategists who are planning for times ahead, to leaders who seek to understand their organizations, and to people who want to understand themselves.