Why Smart Women Make Bad Decisions

A laugh out loud, narrative-driven self-help book. Think Bridget Jones gets a critical makeover. In the #MeToo era, there is a strong expectation that women should increase their agency in the world. The self-help industry continues to promise empowerment and the recipe for self-acceptance, while delivering precious little of either. This book changes that.

In Why Smart Women Make Bad Decisions, our protagonist Kat is learning that the philosophy of 'Believe-in-yourself-and Magic-will-happen' will not deliver her a better life. Her story, which recounts her hapless attempts to navigate scenarios disturbingly familiar to many readers, is presented with a companion account of the cognitive quirks that drive her faulty thinking and behaviour.

This is neuroscience explained through the lens of a modern comedy; the buggy brain stripped bare in a laugh out loud takedown of magical thinking and the goofy, delusional self-actualisation movement.

Kat discovers that the simplistic advice to honour your intuition is not all it's cracked up to be. Despite practising Gratitude and Acceptance, she is still failing to lose the 2.35 kilos that preoccupy her. Despite her Positive Thinking, her performance review leaves her limp with despair, and despite her assiduous application to making affirmations, her philandering Hipster Boyfriend leaves her (taking with him the remote control).

In the companion explanation to each chapter, readers will discover what drives people to behave in blindly optimistic and self-destructive ways. If only they could apply the critical thinking that our narrator suggests, smart women would indeed stop making bad decisions.

It becomes clear to Kat, and in turn the reader, that positive thinking, meditation and magical thinking will not turn her life around. Instead, women should apply the narrator's advice and change the inherent cognitive flaws that run, and often ruin, their lives.

'The thing about Annie McCubbin's writing is the detail. It's specific and concrete and it makes you laugh out loud when you read it because you instantly relate to it. It's great storytelling, and because the story in this book is so good, you remember the science that goes with it.'

Katrina Foster, Lecturer, Writing for Performance, NIDA

'Wow! What an achievement. I loved every part of it and wished it wouldn't end.'

Nikki Pender, NZ barrister and business director

'A book for our times - a serious yet entertaining look at how women can take control personally and professionally. It is also a book for men, who will surely recognise themselves or their friends somewhere in these pages and be motivated to act.'

Dagmar Schmidmaier AM, Director, CEW Leaders Program

'Engaging, humorous and thought-provoking, Why Smart Women Make Bad Decisions is a must read for every 25- to 45-year-old woman.'

'Kat's fast-moving second-person inner-monologue made me laugh out loud! Her skewed observations and tangled rationalisations are relatable to many experiences I would rather not admit having. Annie McCubbin uses her humour and humanity to share some pertinent insights into how we can untangle our thinking and engage more meaningfully with ourselves and those around us.'

Odile LeClezio, actor and voice coach

'Loved it. Funny and informative. It's a great read on, let's face it, what could be a very dry topic.'

Vicki Yep, nurse

'This is brilliant. The book that HAS to be read right now. My genuine hope is that this book is lapped up.'

Lyndall Russell, clinical psychotherapist and transformational leadership strategist

ANNIE MCCUBBIN is an actor, writer, director and corporate communication consultant and coach. In 2001, combining disciplines of communication, theatre practices, and critical thinking, she diversified into the corporate sector, writing, directing and performing in corporate dramas, and training captains of industry from professional services, engineering, pharma, food and finance.

As the Director of COUP, the consultancy she founded with husband, David McCubbin, her corporate work is highly regarded as an outstanding synthesis of dramatic art, management consulting, and applied neuroscience. With a mantra of 'Less Drama - More Performance', she is able to deconstruct the most convoluted workplace narratives and help individuals, and companies, to function more successfully by exposing the cognitive errors and fallacious logic that lead to corporate failure. She does this through the delivery of keynotes, scripting corporate dramas, training and executive coaching.

While her grander visions are about getting more women on boards, in parliament and closing the gender pay gap, she's also hoping to see her son and daughter enjoy a future in which decisions that influence the lives of millions are made with reason, evidence and sagacity, rather than unconscious bias, woo and superstition.

A laugh out loud, narrative-driven self-help book. Think Bridget Jones gets a critical makeover. In the #MeToo era, there is a strong expectation that women should increase their agency in the world. The self-help industry continues to promise empowerment and the recipe for self-acceptance, while delivering precious little of either. This book changes that.In Why Smart Women Make Bad Decisions , our protagonist Kat is learning that the philosophy of 'Believe-in-yourself-and Magic-will-happen' will not deliver her a better life. Her story, which recounts her hapless attempts to navigate scenarios disturbingly familiar to many readers, is presented with a companion account of the cognitive quirks that drive her faulty thinking and behaviour. This is neuroscience explained through the lens of a modern comedy; the buggy brain stripped bare in a laugh out loud takedown of magical thinking and the goofy, delusional self-actualisation movement. Kat discovers that the simplistic advice to honour your intuition is not all it's cracked up to be. Despite practising Gratitude and Acceptance, she is still failing to lose the 2.35 kilos that preoccupy her. Despite her Positive Thinking, her performance review leaves her limp with despair, and despite her assiduous application to making affirmations, her philandering Hipster Boyfriend leaves her (taking with him the remote control).In the companion explanation to each chapter, readers will discover what drives people to behave in blindly optimistic and self-destructive ways. If only they could apply the critical thinking that our narrator suggests, smart women would indeed stop making bad decisions.It becomes clear to Kat, and in turn the reader, that positive thinking, meditation and magical thinking will not turn her life around. Instead, women should apply the narrator's advice and change the inherent cognitive flaws that run, and often ruin, their lives.

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