While this is my least favorite of the Thomas Sowell books I have read so far, it's still very good. Despite its old publishing date, the information and lessons learned are rather timeless. Sowell gives clear and concise examples of how easily information can be distorted in today's society which skews knowledge and, therefore, decisions.

It's funny because there's so many books out today on decision making from authors such as Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely and Tim Harford which have become extremely popular. As a result, I feel like this book was far ahead of its time which is a testament to the quality work that Thomas Sowell brings.

Most books inform or entertain. This book goes farther and expands the mind. Mr. Sowell does a great job of exploring the foundations of decision making as an individual, nation, bureaucracy or as an academic. He explores who has what knowledge in an economy and how that knowledge is exercised. He explains why bureaucracies do the things they do, why governments do the things they do, why individuals do the things they do and why intellectuals do the things they do. All in all this book sets a good foundation for thinking about economics, government, freedom and politics.

I def vibe with the idea that economics is about decision-making, and can thus offer insights into many political and business matter. The role processes, individual decisions, and feedback play into effectively managing resources under risk and uncertainty was the central premise of the book. Now, I am not sure how we got from discussion about the dysfunctional nature of bureaucracy into the Civil War being a major blowback to Federalism and Brown v Board of Education being the beginning of the end for decentralized decision-making….At times I was not clear on whether Sowell was trolling in order to be provocative given how much time he spends hating on pretentious liberals. It was def a great Econ book, but it dripped of weird political positions on issues that felt ancillary to the central subject of the book.

I will give full overview of my thoughts on Sowell once I’m done with the two other books. He’s def a brilliant thinker, but some of his ideas are just plain weird. It’s not just what he believes in that is weird: it’s the fact that he cares so much about making claims over subjects that seem tangential. He seems excessively concerned with dismantling flawed liberal ideologies that he ends up in weird places.

One of the greatest works on decision-making theory ever written. Combines a thoroughness of research with a clarity of writing style. Thomas Sowell is one of the great minds of our time.