Obliquity Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

by Kay, John

• ISBN13: 9780143120551
• ISBN10: 0143120557
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-27
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

Using dozens of practical examples from the worlds of business, politics, science, sports, literature, even parenting, a leading economist charts the indirect road to happiness and wealth.

Author Biography

John Kay is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and a fellow of St. John's College, Oxford University. As the director, he established the Institute for Fiscal Studies as one of Britain's most respected think tanks.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 1
Obliquity-"Why Our Objectives Are Often Best Pursued Indirectly	p. 5
The Oblique World: How Obliquity Surrounds Us
Fulfillment-How the Happiest People Do Not Pursue Happiness	p. 17
The Profit-Seeking Paradox-How the Most Profitable Companies Are Not the Most Profit Oriented	p. 24
The Art of the Deal-How the Wealthiest People Are Not the Most Materialistic	p. 35
Objectives, Goals and Actions-How the Means Help Us Discover the End	p. 46
The Ubiquity of Obliquity-How Obliquity Is Relevant to Many Aspects of Our Lives	p. 53
The Need for Obliquity: Why We Often Can't Solve Problems Directly
Muddling Through-Why Oblique Approaches Succeed	p. 67
Pluralism-Why There Is Usually More Than One Answer to a Problem	p. 77
Interaction-Why the Outcome of What We Do Depends on How We Do It	p. 90
Complexity-How the World Is Too Complex for Directness to Be Direct	p. 99
Incompleteness-How We Rarely Know Enough About the Nature of Our Problems	p. 109
Abstraction-Why Models Are Imperfect Descriptions of Reality	p. 116
Coping with Obliquity: How to Solve Problems in a Complex World
The Flickering Lamp of History-How We Mistakenly Infer Design from Outcome	p. 129
The Stockdale Paradox-How We Have Less Freedom of Choice Than We Think	p. 739
The Hedgehog and the Fox-How Good Decision Makers Recognize the Limits of Their Knowledge	p. 144
The Blind Watchmaker-How Adaptation Is Smarter Than We Are	p. 153
Bend it Like Beckham-How We Know More Than We Can Tell	p. 158
Order Without Design-How Complex Outcomes Are Achieved Without Knowledge of an Overall Purpose	p. 165
Very Well Then, I Contradict Myself-How It Is More Important to Be Right Than to Be Consistent	p. 172
Dodgy Dossiers-How Spurious Rationality Is Often Confused with Good Decision Making	p. 179
The Practice of Obliquity-The Advantages of Oblique Decision Making	p. 187
Acknowledgments	p. 197
Notes	p. 199
Bibliography	p. 209
Index	p. 219
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