The Boston Globe takes a look at Jonah Lehrer’s new book How We Decide in a piece by Dorchester-based writer Chuck Leddy, who sums things up thus:

Lehrer’s exhaustively researched and skillfully crafted book will appeal to anyone who wants to improve their decision-making skills. He recommends using your rational brain for resolving simple problems.

Leddy’s piece, running in Boston, naturally does a fair bit of hinging on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who this year had two tragedies befall him in rapid succession: he suffered a catastrophic knee injury, and he acquired a viciously manipulative girlfriend who’d rather see him gallery-hopping in Madrid carrying a man-purse than rejoining his comrades on the gridiron anytime soon. The precise nature of Brady’s legendary decision-making abilities (on the field, anyway) has fascinated fans for years, and Lehrer would chalk it up to a careful balance of reasoning and instinct.

Our own Lianne Habinek also takes a look at How We Decide in our March issue, and she’s got far more mixed feelings than Leddy:

Throughout How We Decide, I was anxious to ask Lehrer why, were this idea of rationality/emotion so incorrect, it managed to persist, as a sort of holy grail, through the centuries? It may seem like a small issue, but it underpins, to worrying effect, the whole of Lehrer’s argument …

Readers are encouraged to consult Habinek’s piece in all its glory – and then, sadly, to pin any future Superbowl hopes on somebody other than Tom Brady, who’s busy having his pedicure buffed.

Steve Donoghue