Ellen J. Langer, Harvard professor of psychology, determines that the mindless following of routine and other automatic behaviors lead to much error, pain and a predetermined course of life. In this thought-provoking book, her research has been "translated" for the lay reader. With anecdotes and metaphors, Langer explains how the mindless -- as opposed to the mindful -- develop mindsets of categories, associations, habits of thought born of repetition...

"From the author of The Anxiety Toolkit, a guide to creating your own personalized productivity plan, using self-science to make systems that work for you"--

"We live in the age of Computer Business Systems (CBSs)-the highly complex, computer-intensive management programs on which large organizations increasingly rely. In Mindless, Simon Head argues that these systems have come to trump human expertise, dictating the goals and strategies of a wide array of businesses, and de-skilling the jobs of middle class workers in the process. CBSs are especially dysfunctional, Head argues, when they apply their disembodied...