The Yellow Pad
Making Better Decisions in an Uncertain World
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- £10.99
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- £10.99
Publisher Description
Robert Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, shares thoughts on decision-making developed over more than six decades in markets, business, government, and politics, and offers readers an astute and original guide for navigating uncertain times
In 1958, as a college sophomore, Robert Rubin took a class that changed his life. The class was introduction to philosophy, and the professor, Raphael Demos, instilled in his students an idea that was simple yet profound: There is no such thing as certainty. For Rubin, this led to a critically important question: How can we make sound decisions in a fundamentally uncertain world?
While serving in some of the most significant roles in markets, business, and government, Rubin has grappled with that question. Time and again, when faced with a high-stakes decision, he turned to his most trusted tool: a simple yellow legal pad. Rubin’s yellow pad (or more recently, his iPad) became an expression of a larger decision-making philosophy that has both lasted and shaped a lifetime. In The Yellow Pad, Rubin lays out that philosophy with depth and detail, and presents a compelling intellectual framework for confronting some of the most difficult issues we face today.
The Yellow Pad contains a former Treasury secretary’s approach to economic policymaking. A former Goldman Sachs senior partner’s approach to personal investing and understanding risk. A former director of the National Economic Council’s approach to managing people in both private- and public-sector organizations. And much more. Yet despite his lifetime of experiences, Rubin remains refreshingly open-minded, interested in exploring ideas rather than promoting ideologies. With its combination of wisdom and relevance, The Yellow Pad is an essential guide for anyone looking to make better decisions in life, work, and public policy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Evaluating probability is key to navigating the complexities and uncertainties of modern life, contends Rubin (In an Uncertain World), former U.S. Treasury Secretary and cochairman of Goldman Sachs, in this earnest if flawed offering. He shares how he's made major professional decisions by writing on a yellow legal pad "a list of possible outcomes in one column, and my estimated odds of each outcome occurring in the other," and then choosing the option promising the greatest reward at the highest probability. Recognizing how biases influence decision-making is crucial, he argues, noting how his awareness of his risk aversion enables him to compensate for when he overweighs risk in his tabulations. However, the yellow pad approach sometimes gets dropped in favor of dubiously relevant anecdotes from Rubin's career, such as when he recounts adopting a more supportive stance toward his colleagues to make the jump from arbitrage to management at Goldman Sachs, a change that had little to do with navigating uncertainties. Additionally, the dry prose dulls the impact of stories from the author's extraordinary career (even an account of a Goldman Sachs partner's arrest for insider trading falls flat). Torn between a standard business memoir and a broader program for navigating uncertainty, this struggles to find its footing.
