Well he is not saying what you attribute to him. To make it clear, here is an example. I think everyone will agree that WWII was a major geopolitical catastrophe for the world, but this doesn't imply that anyone wants to go back to 1938 and restore the British Empire or Nazi Germany.
I recommend Ken Binmore's Rational Decisions. Although it doesn't discuss irrationality that much, it's a very useful and accessible overview.
There is so much that Kahneman and Tversky did and so much of it being actively used in current research that I wouldn't dismiss Kahneman's...
I prefer Witztum but you have to try and decide for yourself (book choice is a bit intimate). Besides, McCloskey is available for free in electronic format so you can check it first and if you find it too chatty then go for more analytical treatments. Hal Varian has an intermediate...
Do you know calculus? Mankiw's is an OK entry-level book although I personally didn't like it too much. I liked his book on macroeconomics when I was a student though. I prefer Witztum's Economics: An Analytical Introduction because it emphasizes logical thinking applied to social problems...
I haven't read it myself but I know that the Russian original is based on material taught in the third part of an analysis course at the top national university. No idea why the English edition was titled "Introduction".
Well, trigonometry is the only one which is a bit like a textbook. It is still kind of short (but I guess the length is normal for a school textbook). Of course, Gelfand being one of the top mathematicians, one can still learn a lot from anything he writes. Same with Polya. I just wouldn't...
Everything by Lang in general is very good but can/should be supplemented for additional reading. If your goal is to read Spivak, why not read a standard calculus textbook first? I liked Lang's "A First Course" very much. It's a bit lengthy though, so you'll probably want to skip some parts...
If you want a middle ground between Spivak and Rudin, then Bartle and Sherbert's Introduction... is quite reader-friendly. It is not as much fun as Spivak, but it does the job in a systematic manner starting from foundations. It is also a proper first real analysis book.
I am currently reading Statistics by Freedman, Pisani and Purves. It is fantastic. The book teaches how to think about statistical methods and concepts deeply while keeping the mathematical level very accessible. For this reason one will need to read more advanced material later, but a very...
It is completely possible to fluke GRE quant even when you feel confident in you math skills. I myself got very bad scores once due to stress and lack of sleep (and also not preparing for it seriously). When I retook it later, I had 790 (99th percentile) score without much trouble. You should...