Everything Is Obvious
Duncan J. Watts
A Tier
When to Read
When you want to question the obvious explanations we give for human behavior and outcomes. A great companion to Thinking, Fast and Slow and The Halo Effect.
Main Takeaway
An explanation can feel obvious in hindsight without giving us the ability to predict what will happen next.
Style
Theoretical
Practical
I loved this one. It feels like the perfect child of Thinking, Fast and Slow and The Halo Effect, two spectacular books I've read recently, but shorter and more dynamic. Watts explores how common sense and hindsight make explanations of human behavior seem obvious after the fact, even when they were hard to predict beforehand. I recommend it very highly. A tier.