Book Review
The Art of
Choosing
By: Hager Hamdy
W
hat is the first thing
that catches your
attention towards
a new book? Is
it the rating? Then a book of
3.83 on Goodreads with 4,807
ratings is a good choice.
Should it be the author? Then
you should know this about
“Sheena Iyengar”, the author
of The Art of Choosing. Sheena
is a blind Indian American
professor at the Columbia
Business School who has spent
her career studying choice –
why it matters, how we choose,
and how we can choose better.
“Sheena Iyengar’s work on
choice and how our minds deal
with it has been groundbreak-
ing, repeatedly surprising and
enormously important. She is
someone we need to listen to.”
Atul Gawande,
author of Better and Complications.
“No one asks better questions,
or come up with more inter-
esting answers.”
Malcolm Gladwell,
author of Outliers.
From her life and career
achievements to others’ opinions
about her work, we can conclude
that Sheena is a professional
researcher, a remarkable writer
and more importantly a fascinating
presenter for her work.
If it is not the rating nor the author,
would it be the title that is the first
thing to catches your attention?
The Art of choosing, it is not only
a musical title but also a simple
and revealing one, it also makes
a good attractive wrapping for
its content. The title makes you
wonder: what the art of choosing
would look like? Is it colorful? Is
it noisy? Does it come from within
our souls or it is an effect of our
surroundings?
Through the pages of the book you
will reach these answers and more,
you will find a deep understanding
of the psychological concepts
around choosing slips easily and
smoothly into your mind.
The story telling flow of the book
goes directly in your mental banks
of stories, background information,
knowledge and understanding of
the psychological aspects that
shape the choices.
your profession all say something
about you, and it’s your job to make
sure that they are an accurate
reflection of who you really are.
But who are you, really? The
imperative “Just be yourself!”
seems straightforward enough.
(What could be easier than being
who you already are?) Yet we often
end up blinking in its headlights,
perhaps frozen in place by the
concomitant notion that we
might, if we are not careful, turn
into someone else. It’s difficult
to move forward when each step
could move us further away from
the “authentic” self, and so we
dither.” ― Sheena Iyengar, The Art
of Choosing
She showed us how choices
are shaped through culture
differences, bringing examples
from her real life as being an
Indian of Sikh background living
in America then exposure to other
cultures later.
“A person of good character was
one who acted in accordance
with the expectations of his
community.” ― Sheena Iyengar, The
Art of Choosing
Sheena used everyday situations
to reflect how we choose and what
affects our choices. According to
a survey that she made for about
2000 Americans; the average
number of choices that a typical
American makes in a typical day
is 70. The book will help you develop a
perspective and an understanding
of the psychology behind
choosing through its chapters
which carry interesting titles
such as “A Stranger in Strange
Lands”, “Senses and Sensibility”,
“ I, Robot”, “Lord of The Things”
and “ Then there Were None”.
“Your choices of which clothes to
wear or which soda to drink, where
you live, which school to attend
and what to study, and of course It is a good book to read if
you are interested in c ultures’
exchange, arts, stories and above
all psychology.