I really liked it.

Main idea of this book by Sowell, "the most fundamental question is not what decision to make but who is to make it-through what processes and under what incentives and constraints, and with what feedback mechanisms to correct the decision if it proves to be wrong.”

Sowell is one of my favorite intellectuals because he clearly presents arguments that he supports them with evidence, data, and reasoning. Even if one disagrees with him, which I often do, the arguments and evidence should be known and considered.

Sowell has a strong bias for personal freedom and free markets.

Here are a couple excerpts from Sowell that will sell his book better than I can.

"An economic system is a system for the production and distribution of goods and services. But what is crucial for understanding the way it functions is that it is a system for rationing goods and services that are inadequate to supply all that people want. This is true of any economic system, whether it is called capitalism, socialism, feudalism, or by any other name… A utopia would not be an economic system, for the same reason… What makes them all economic systems is that they have systematic procedures for preventing people from getting goods and services, denying them access to natural resources, tools or equipment for production, and limiting their ability to work at the tasks they would prefer. Capitalist systems use capitalist methods of denial, socialist systems use socialist methods of denial, but all economic systems must use some method of denial."

"If resources… were not scarce, there would be no economics. We would bein an Eden or a utopia. Similarly, if each resource had only one possible use… the only economic problem would be deciding which particular individual should produce it or consume it. But economics is much more complicated than that because, in the real world, the same resource can be used to produce a wide variety of products."

This is a main idea for Knowledge and Decisions. There are inherent constraints. Economic systems exist to rationalize and efficiently manage resources and scarcity.

Once again, “the most fundamental question is not what decision to make but who is to make it-through what processes and under what incentives and constraints, and with what feedback mechanisms to correct the decision if it proves to be wrong.”

AN "EARLY" BOOK BY SOWELL, REPUBLISHED WITH A NEW PREFACE

Thomas Sowell (born 1930) is an economist, social theorist, political philosopher, columnist, and author (known particularly for his books on race and economics, such as Black Rednecks and White Liberals, Race And Culture: A World View, Ethnic America: A History, etc.), who has long been associated with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

This book was first published in 1980. Sowell observes in the Preface to the 1996 reprint, "At the time when it was first published, 'Knowledge and Decisions' was by far my most important and comprehensive book. None of my subsequent writings has surpassed it... Here the focus is not on particular people or their beliefs, but on social processes and the constraints within which these processes operate... How a variety of social institutions and processes coordinate innumerable scattered fragments of knowledge, enabling a complex society to function, is the central theme of the first half... The second half looks at how different kinds of decision-making processes have been evolving and how particular decisions once made in one kind of place are increasingly being made in other kinds of places---in the schools, rather than in the home, in the courts rather than in the marketplace, and so on... the implications of such changes in the locations of decisions are examined... in terms of what it all means for human freedom."

In a theme often explounded in his later books, Sowell asks, "The most basic question is not what is best but WHO SHALL DECIDE what is best." (Pg. 79)

He criticizes John Rawls' book A Theory of Justice: Original Edition on the grounds that "Social decisions are not a zero-sum process, so the 'distribution' of benefits ('justice') cannot be categorically more important than the benefits themselves, as Rawls' central thesis suggests." (Pg. 331) He adds cynically that "It is to the self-interest of intellectuals as a social class to benefit themselves economically, politically, and psychically, and for each intellectual to benefit himself similarly." (Pg. 339)

For my part, I think Sowell has more effectively made the points he makes here in his later books; but this book still has considerable value to all those interested in following Sowell's development.

helped me come to peace with how people can logically choose to remain ignorant and make decisions that will ultimately hurt them

Somewhat longer and more technical than the other books of his I have read, this book considers society more widely from economic, political and legal perspectives with consideration as to how various social institutions have evolved over time.

Published originally in 1980 (and revised in 1996), one might consider the book somewhat out of date although it is not hard to see some of the trends that he describes have only continued to the present day. Sowell insists that we think about institutions and organisations in society in terms of the structure of incentives and constraints in which they reside and not in terms of their ideals or hoped for results. He considers the problems that can be caused when they are insulated from the feedback from the success and failure of the results of their decisions and how such knowledge might be transmitted.

I'm barely touching the surface of what is discussed in this book but the above gives you a flavour of what the book covers. Sometimes it was hard work and not particularly easy reading and I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but if you want to really get an insight into Sowell's understanding of socio economics then this is well worth a read.

One of the finest books I've ever read from Sowell with immense wisdom laid out in this tome. I had to go back and read certain parts again because some of his arguments were so profound that it took me awhile to absorb, digest and then think of how it had undoubtedly changed my perception on things. Forces reflection on decisions made throughout our modern civilization and how it has brought us to where we are today. It may be three decades old, but still remarkably relevant today.

Solid discussion of the usual mix of Sowell ideas and examples through a Hayekian distributed knowledge/decision making frame. Lots of discourse on changes in American judicial power over tile.

Relistened to this one while driving. He’s such a good systematic thinker - foreseeing so many of today’s problems decades before they become more apparent. He can spot a hypocrisy or flawed logic from a mile away.

Mostly, I appreciate how he focuses on systems over outcomes or wishes.

This book took a long time to read. The information in it is so dense that you have to take a rest once in a while to ponder what it said. Thomas Sowell knows how to think outside the box and explain what is going on out there for those of is inside the box thinkers. I think if a liberal read this book they might take umbrage with what is said here but at the same time they would have to admit that they learned a lot.

My favorite line at the very end of the book:

“consider what is at stake in terms of human freedom. Historically, freedom is a rare and fragile thing. It has emerged out of the stalemates of would be oppressors. Freedom has cost the blood of millions. A frontal assault on freedom is still impossible in America, and in most of western civilization. Perhaps no where in the world is anyone against it, though everywhere there are those prepared to scrap it for other things that shine more brightly for the moment. That something that cost so much in human lives should be surrendered piecemeal in exchange for visions and rhetoric seems grotesque. Freedom is not simply the right of intellectuals to circulate their merchandise, it is above all the right of ordinary people to find elbow room for themselves and a refuge from the rampaging presumptions of their “betters.”

Knowledge and Decision is a bit hard to categorize. It's about decision making, asymmetric information, incentives, and public policy. It's also, sneakily, an introduction to economics and economic thinking. It's the sort of book that makes economics look like a fun and interesting topic, as well as a disciplined science.

Sowell isn't an ideologue, and he backs his claims with data, and with wonderfully chosen examples. It's a fun read, as well as a highly illuminating one.

Knowledge And Decisions by Thomas Sowell is a reissue of his classic study of decision making, which includes a preface by the author, updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America's most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that actual knowledge is being replaced by assumptions based on an abstract and elitist social vision of what ought to be. Knowledge and Decisions, a winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize, was heralded as a landmark work and selected for this prize "because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government." In announcing the award, the center acclaimed that the "contribution to our understanding of the process of regulation alone would make the book important, but in reemphasizing the diversity and efficiency that the market makes possible, [this] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant." Anytime you tackle a book by Thomas Sowell, you know your brain is about to have a workout; Knowledge and Decision fulfills that expectation!

There is so much wisdom packed into this book it is hardly surprising that Thomas Sowell, a prolific visionary writer, considers this his most important work. The depth makes this a book one must digest slowly. The breadth of topics within the framework of individual learning and decision-making, the influence of intellectuals (see also Sowell's book "Intellectuals and Society"), the costs of acquiring knowledge, and those forces moving to reduce individual freedoms and liberty in general is extensive. Originally written in 1980 and reissued with editorial changes in 1996, this book clearly shows those trends which have become in 2023 entrenched in the move toward totalitarianism in America.