Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions

For anyone who has ever asked…

“How could someone so smart do something so foolish?” — and for the person brave enough to ask the more dangerous question: “Where might I be doing the same thing?”

The executive can build a company and wreck a marriage. The professor can spot a fallacy in a paper and miss one in his own motives. This book isn’t an attack on intelligence — it’s an argument that intelligence needs a governor: humility, character, process, and the willingness to be corrected.

What’s inside

• What the philosophers saw — Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Pascal, Hume, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and C.S. Lewis on knowing better and doing worse.
• What modern psychology adds — framing, loss aversion, sunk cost, myside bias, overconfidence, and motivated reasoning.
• Brilliant people, bad decisions — NASA Challenger, Enron, Theranos, LTCM, and cases from education, athletics, and music.
• Field guides for leaders, teachers, athletes, artists, and relationships.

The Four-Step Judgment Method

About the author

Dr. Khaldoun Sweis, PhD is a professor, author, speaker, and executive coach, and the founder of the Chicago Philosophy Association. He helps leaders and professionals think more clearly and decide more wisely when the pressure is on.