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I read that the IEEE standard specifies 2 methods of authentication: Open and Shared Key. The simpler and also more secure of the 2 methods is Open System Authentication. This makes no sense to me. Any input?

The "more secure" part is what doesn't make sense.

Authentication methods is alone a huge topic, there are different methods depending on various uses and restrictions on the Network, but for the
CWNA it covers topic in general. using WEP and SSID for open system auth

I think if you read in detail on authentication, authoriziation and accounting
Then this tells more about security

-Saj

Shared key authentication is less secure than open system authentication because in shared the same encryption is used to encrypt the challenge text and the data. In shared key authentication, the challenge text is sent as clear text, then it is encrypted by the shared key using WEP. If someone captures the clear text and compare it with the encrypted text the shared key can easily be compromised thus data encryption is also compromised.