Rolf Dobelli – Author Biography
Early Life
Rolf Dobelli was born on July 15, 1966, in Lucerne, Switzerland. He earned an MBA and a PhD in economic philosophy from the University of St. Gallen.
Career
Dobelli began as a businessman, co-founding getAbstract, one of the world’s largest publishers of book summaries, in 1999. Frustrated by the noise of news media, he became a writer on clear thinking. His book The Art of Thinking Clearly (2011), a collection of short chapters on cognitive biases, became an international bestseller, translated into dozens of languages. He followed with The Art of the Good Life and the novel Stop Reading the News (2020), arguing that news consumption harms clear thinking. He founded WORLD.MINDS, a community of thinkers, scientists, and artists.
Major Works
His major books are The Art of Thinking Clearly, The Art of the Good Life, and Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life.
Writing Style and Themes
Dobelli writes in crisp, aphoristic chapters, each devoted to a single cognitive error, from survivorship bias to the sunk-cost fallacy. His recurring themes are the systematic irrationality of human judgment, the value of negative knowledge (knowing what to avoid), and the case for deliberate ignorance of noise. His style is deliberately anti-academic: short, punchy, and practical.
Legacy
The Art of Thinking Clearly became one of the bestselling popular psychology books of the 2010s, introducing cognitive-bias research to millions of readers outside academia. Dobelli’s news-avoidance philosophy sparked wide debate about media diets and attention in the digital age.
