The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot's Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions

Hasard has written an amazing book with clear and easy to follow methods to improve the way you solve problems with great historical storytelling and insights from his own career and famous historical events.Starting with Page 1 we see how experienced airline pilots crashed a perfectly good aircraft killing all onboard due to a combination of poor decision making ( The infamous Air France 447 flight)From there Hasard shows us how this and other situations could have been better assessed and delivers a great chapter on power laws- why things increase exponentially and why our minds are programmed to think in linear terms. For example how increasing your speed from 40 to 65 MPH will save about 6 minutes every 10 miles but increasing your speed from 65 to 90 will only save half the time even though the MPH increase is the same.. He explains the why of this in the chapter and introduces us to non-linear thinking concepts and why thinking in non linear terms is so important to assessing and making decisions ( Power laws)He then goes on to give us simple fast forecasting tools to help improve our decision making. He uses a flying story here from his time in Afghanistan that was amazing to read. Throughout the decision making process of analysis, choosing and execution ( ACE as the pilot world calls it) He gives insightful examples from his own career and draws on some great historical stories from D-Day to how Google almost never came to be. In fact not since the 48 laws of Power or the 33 Strategies of War ( Robert Green) have I seen such concise and gripping story telling. Some of his flying stories increased my heart rate – which is pretty hard to do since I was an F16 pilot myself- Yet the way he retells his combat experience with lessons learned and how he arrived at his decisions was really thoughtful. Hasard drew on some of his own failures and shows us how he could have made better decisions in the cockpit and also why he made the decisions he did at that time ( most of them of course worked out but the point of his story was to show us how he did his risk analysis with lives on the line)From there we get a great chapter on creative thinking- And this uses some great story telling from the Gulf war on how they completely disregarded current military doctrine to come up with a new way to plan the invasion of Iraq. It was page turning storytelling, in fact I was so gripped that ( like most learning) it was not until the next morning that I realized I really gained some deep knowledge on creative thinking . Hasard points out that “creativity is one of the few resources that can provide an exponential advantage to those who are able to harness it. “ And introduces us to effects based approach that works on the battle field and in life.We then jump to some mental toughness skills – Many of these are about calming down the mind and positive self talk as well as visualization.. While you may think I have heard this before the author brings this alive with real examples from pilot training- Hasard brings this to life and shows the statistical benefits of doing all the above and more importantly the why behind it. Hasard also has more lessons on mental toughness and shows us how more experienced pilots then him did not make it through pilot training because they were not able to harness these and other skills he teaches.I have just hit the highlights of the book and it was so exciting that I found myself finishing it in 2 days.This is the best book on decision making I have ever read and I highly recommend this for everyone to help improve their ability to analyze and make decisions in daily life

This book intertwines story telling with decision making concepts and guidelines. It is a great story book as well as study book on decision making. Good for many domains from system engineering to ad hoc decision making. You will enjoy this and at times gripping with regards to the events told.I will read this several times. Easy to follow but I will make more notes next time so I will get even more out of this book!

This book is excellent!If you read this book simply for the stories, it is worth it alone. However, Hasard Lee does an excellent job of interweaving his personal stories as a fighter pilot into practical, effective strategies of decision making.The book is divided into three parts: understanding the decision-making process, avoiding common decision-making errors, and making better decisions. Each part of the book offers practical advice that readers can use to improve their decision-making skills. Plus, stories are interwoven throughout each part.Overall, "The Art of Clear Thinking" is an excellent book. It is well-written, engaging, and offers sound decision-making advice. The decision to read this book is clear; it is a must read.Highly recommended!

gave me an idea about stealth fighter pilot.

Lee takes you on fast-paced journey through masterful storytelling of real-world events that offer an unparalleled peering point into the crucible that forges world-class tactical fighter pilots. His stories live on the edge of the most advanced systems, tools, and training and he explores how the supersonic pace of decision making can succeed despite fear, instability, and imperfection of novel courses of action. He offers a rare template for more effective use of our mental bandwidth, and how to maintain confidence while fighting the demons of perfectionism and doubt. In a world overpopulated with critics and character assassins, he helps the reader explore ways to make precision decisions during unfolding real-world events while surrounded by uncontrolled distractions, uncertainties, and risks. He explains how better judgment requires non-linear thinking and offers techniques such as “fast forecasting” and an effects-based approach to analysis that have made a difference in the most intense of life-threatening milieus. As what should be called America’s $50 million man, Hasard Lee, has generously dedicated his professional life and this book to the future success, safety, and survival of not only the forthcoming 5th and 6th Generation fighter pilots, but to anyone challenged with life or death, high risk, and novel choices that must be made in a microsecond -- with limited and often imperfect knowledge. We would be wise to heed his inspiring lessons learned and implement the simple, usable training and techniques in this book. I for one will bring his tools to my work in emergency and crisis management, where capabilities are typically dwarfed by great expectations and ungrateful second guessing. We are blessed to have one of his character, strength, wisdom and talent among us and thankful he has shared his extraordinary experiences with all of us in “The Art of Clear Thinking”.

Interessante ler o quanto histórias de um piloto que lutou durante guerras do Iraque e contra o Estado Islâmico pode nos trazer boas reflexões para o mundo dos negócios, do design e da gestão. Destaque para o primeiro capítulo que conta a história de um dos maiores acidentes da aviação mundial, ao qual o autor demonstra o quanto que a falta de ouvir as pessoas para entender os problemas, causou decisões que acarretaram a queda, na visão do autor.Recomendo como leitura paralela. Outro livro com temática valiosa é Leadership is Language ao qual recomendo fortemente para todas as pessoas em posição de liderança.

A book that combines riveting stories with practical knowledge that can be used every day towards bettering ones decision makingI hope Hasard Lee continues to write more books like this one

If you don't particularly fancy fighter jet pilot stories, don't buy/read this book. Nothing new/groundbreaking on the decision framework side (power laws, heuristics for decision making, Eisenhower matrix...) and almost no actual example from the business world. Clearly not a must read in my opinion, even as interesting and successful the author is at applying great decision making.

I've heard about Mr. Lee's book from his YouTube channel and I decided to buy it. No regrets. It's one of the best books I've ever read. I finished it in under a week though I'm sure other people have read it way quicker. The book changed my view on decision-making in a positive way. I highly recommend the book if you're still on the fence. It has excellent examples and well explained terminology.

Das Buch ist in einfachem Englisch geschrieben und dadurch gut verständlich. Die Schrift ist etwas größer als in anderen Büchern, das macht es aber auch angenehmer zu lesen. Die Methoden, die in diesem Buch beschrieben werden, sind teilweise sehr interessant und auch für andere Berufsfelder nützlich. Vor der Erläuterung einer Methode wird stets ein realer Anwendungsfall beschrieben, oft hat der Autor diesen direkt erlebt.