Simple Rules for Thriving in a Complex World, and Irrational Things Like Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and Other Essential Puzzles

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22086
AuthorStephen R. Goldberg,David M. Cannon
Published date01 September 2015
Date01 September 2015
97
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22086
Simple Rules for Thriving in a
Complex World, and Irrational Things
Like Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and
OtherEssentialPuzzles
David M. Cannon and Stephen R. Goldberg
BOOKS REVIEWED
Sull, Donald, and Kathleen M.
Eisenhardt, 2015. Simple Rules:
How to Thrive in a Complex
World (Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt)
Ariely, Dan, 2015. Irrationally
Yours: On Missing Socks, Pickup
Lines, and Other Existential
Puzzles (New York, NY:
HarperCollins)
The first book selected for
review explains how simple
decision‐making rules fre-
quently outperform complex
decision‐making models. The
second book is a humorous
and lighthearted illustrated
anthology containing answers
to everyday questions that pro-
vide readers with insights to our
sometimes irrational minds and
approaches to better decision
making.
SIMPLE RULES
Complex problems don’t
necessarily require complex
solutions. This premise under-
lies Donald Sull and Kath-
leen Eisenhardt’s new book,
Simple Rules. In this time of
sophisticated analysis and
“BigData” approaches to
complex problems, the authors
advocate a simple approach,
demonstrating that simple rules
often outperform sophisticated
algorithms and models.
The diversity of situations
to which simple rules may be
applied is well documented
in the book. For example, the
Jesuit religious order was able
to expand throughout a grow-
ing world with their adoption
of simple rules, as opposed
to the multitudinous highly
detailed rules of other orders.
Their simple rules afforded
flexibility that allowed them
to adapt to diverse, far‐flung
cultures and political environ-
ments. Medical triage, designed
to allocate limited resources
effectively in the face of the
chaos and confusion associated
with large numbers of seriously
injured and sick people, is based
on simple rules. The complex
and seemingly coordinated
behavior of flocks of birds, bee
colonies, and insect swarms
can be explained by individuals
within these groups following
a few simple rules. The authors
note that Harry Markowitz,
father of Modern Portfolio
Theory, utilized a simple rule
dating back to the Babylonian
Talmud to allocate assets in his
retirement plan, and eschewed
the sophisticated models that
are based on his work. This
Talmudian approach apparently
results in superior returns over
the long run than highly sophis-
ticated models.

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT