Gigerenzer illustrates how the key concept centers on rules of thumb and how such rules serve us well in the analytical process. He explains why rules of thumb and intuition are such powerful decision-making tools.

As director of the Max Planck Institute, the author draws on nearly a decade of research to show how we have derived rules and intuition from our environment and experiences. He says they are the result of unconscious processes. Their value, in part, comes because they take into account only the most useful bits of information. They don’t attempt to evaluate all possible factors.

Gigerenzer notes that gut feelings correspond to neural processes that have evolved over thousands of years, and the decisions they give rise to are usually sound. Without them, we would drown in a sea of information. He also argues that hunches and facts should be equally valid reasons for a search warrant.

Sometimes, the answer to a complex problem can be reduced to one easily recognizable factor. Unconscious rules often help us decide who to marry, which stock to choose, or the answer to a million-dollar game show question.

Note that gut feelings in some areas should be examined further. These areas may include trusting a doctor without taking into account fear of a malpractice suit. It is possible to learn how to spot those situations and how to hone our intuition. Sometimes, however, the learning is in the school of hard knocks.

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gigerenzer.

Thaler Group has high-profile clients such as Aflac. (They created the duck.)

Placing others’ needs on the same level as your own, they write, will get you everything you want. Studies show that nice people are luckier in love, make more money, and are healthier.

Their Power of Nice principles:

• Positive impressions are like seeds. Kindness can come back to you in unexpected and profitable ways. Once, Thaler made a special effort to make Melania Trump comfortable when she was in one of the agency’s commercials. Later, when Thaler was a judge on The Apprentice, Donald Trump returned the favor by describing her firm as one of the hottest ad agencies in the country.
• You never know. Treat every person you meet as the most important person in the world. A woman carried a stranger’s bags up five flights of stairs and was invited to a farmhouse gathering, where she socialized with Clint Eastwood.
• People change. Be nice to everyone including competitors and junior employees who could later send you business.
• Small gestures can have a big impact. One company lost out on a huge contract because its executive didn’t help the client with her bags at the airport.
• Thaler and Koval say even helping opponents is a good way to boost a career. And being genuine produces better results than game playing.

A pleasant read, this book is well thought-out and presented. Don’t miss the forward by Jay Leno.

The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World With Kindness by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, Currency, 144 pages.

Gitomer has an excellent new way of hammering home the basics of positive thinking, self-improvement, and persistence. He declares: “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy!”

The Little Red Book was the first in his “Little” book series. The latest, the Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS just hit No. 1, and Gitomer will soon release Little Green Book of Getting Your Way: How to Speak, Write, Present, Persuade, Influence, and Sell Your Point of View to Others which everyone would like to do.

If you like the red, gold, and green books, watch for more of Gitomer’s work to come through the pipeline. He says he has enough ideas for half a dozen books and hopes to put out two a year for the next 10 years.

• Tasks. The ability to identify problems, devise solutions, and exercise good judgment in pursuing those solutions.
• People. Recognize people’s agendas and motivations, and anticipate their likely reactions to what you do and say. Recognize stakeholder needs. It’s the important ability to see others’ viewpoints and be able to balance among competing views.
• Oneself. Encourage feedback to reveal errors in judgment and make corrections. Know when to acknowledge mistakes and change direction. Recognize your own biases. Try to understand why executives make decisions and why they sometimes don’t work out.

To help the reader understand how and why executives make decisions, and why they aren’t always good ones, Menkes asks you to consider this:  The brain recognizes previous experience and relates it to the present. Sometimes it doesn’t work because it masquerades as logical reasoning. Sometimes people tend to give too much weight either to the most readily available information or the most recent they have heard. Menkes calls it the “last person to get the boss’s ear phenomenon.” Sometimes bosses see links and patterns that don’t exist. The mind develops short cuts and some of the time serves us well. But variations, when not recognized, can be harmful.