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bupdaddy's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. In the beginning, he asks seemingly unanswerable questions about what could make people believe the crazy stuff they do, and by the end of the book, he actually answers them.
And I don't feel the need, so much, to strangle people who believe such harmful and obvious insanity as one sees every day in social media.
To become a better species, everyone in the world should read this book.
And I don't feel the need, so much, to strangle people who believe such harmful and obvious insanity as one sees every day in social media.
To become a better species, everyone in the world should read this book.
_tourist's review against another edition
Wouldn’t have read it if i hadn’t received it for free, and it wasn’t pre publication.
If i disagree with this book its because of its aesthetic, or lack thereof. Ugly book.
It also violates my taboo against reality mathematics, and in particular morality mathematics.
I does provide a workout though, and throws into focus the failing of my mind. I failed the nearly all of the logic problems.
If i disagree with this book its because of its aesthetic, or lack thereof. Ugly book.
It also violates my taboo against reality mathematics, and in particular morality mathematics.
I does provide a workout though, and throws into focus the failing of my mind. I failed the nearly all of the logic problems.
branch_c's review against another edition
4.0
Four stars for Pinker’s always clear and incisive writing style, as well as for the importance of the subject matter. If nothing else, I hope readers who’d never really thought about rationality as a choice they could make are exposed to the concepts covered here.
As far as the concepts themselves, for readers who’ve already encountered writers like Kahneman, Shermer, Sperber, or books like Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise, Julia Galef’s The Scout Mindset, and some of Pinker’s own earlier writing, much of this will be familiar. Nevertheless, topics such as cognitive biases, probability, and logical reasoning certainly deserve to be revisited and emphasized, even for those of us who’d like to think we’ve learned these lessons before.
I found myself again arguing against the indictment of rationality suggested by the “Linda problem” (p. 26) and agreeing that the variety of “trolley problems” cry out for alternative solutions beyond what experimenters expect. So I was gratified to read Pinker’s assessment that looking for such loopholes is “exactly the rational thing one would do in real life” (p. 97). I found myself again taken in by the discussion of the probability of cancer given a diagnosis (p. 150) and impressed with how much more intuitive the problem becomes when translated into concrete numbers (p. 169).
So there’s a lot of great material here, and the fantastic writing makes it a pleasure to absorb; the added bonus is that the more of us who get this into our heads, the better the chance we have of truly making the world a better place.
As far as the concepts themselves, for readers who’ve already encountered writers like Kahneman, Shermer, Sperber, or books like Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise, Julia Galef’s The Scout Mindset, and some of Pinker’s own earlier writing, much of this will be familiar. Nevertheless, topics such as cognitive biases, probability, and logical reasoning certainly deserve to be revisited and emphasized, even for those of us who’d like to think we’ve learned these lessons before.
I found myself again arguing against the indictment of rationality suggested by the “Linda problem” (p. 26) and agreeing that the variety of “trolley problems” cry out for alternative solutions beyond what experimenters expect. So I was gratified to read Pinker’s assessment that looking for such loopholes is “exactly the rational thing one would do in real life” (p. 97). I found myself again taken in by the discussion of the probability of cancer given a diagnosis (p. 150) and impressed with how much more intuitive the problem becomes when translated into concrete numbers (p. 169).
So there’s a lot of great material here, and the fantastic writing makes it a pleasure to absorb; the added bonus is that the more of us who get this into our heads, the better the chance we have of truly making the world a better place.
gusmareads24's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
1.0
I k own this is a best seller but I have no idea why. I barely got through it - and I like data. It’s one of the worst books I’ve read.
kb_208's review against another edition
4.0
A well thought out and information book overall. Most of it is more like a trip back to statistics and logic classes from college. He gives many of the basic principals of logic, rationality vs. irrationality, critical thinking, and correlation and causation. It's a good review if it's been a while since you studied it, or maybe a good introduction to the topics if you haven't. Some of his main points are that we aren't really a rational species, though we should strive to be when we can. Much of the "irrational" ways we think are out of thoughtlessness, myside biases, logical fallacies, and thinking correlation means causation. Everyone is guilty of these. Though many may be a product of our evolution. He writes that way are more evolved to win arguments than to be rational, or to be lawyers than scientists. Overall a pretty good read from Pinker.
bootman's review against another edition
5.0
This book is great and so-so at the same time. Learning about human irrationality is one of my favorite topics, and I’ve read dozens of books in this realm. Many of these books have the same discussions and explain all of our various cognitive flaws, so they can get repetitive. When I started this book, I was pleasantly surprised that Pinker covered the same topics but added some newer examples of how these biases, heuristics, and other flaws show up in daily life. But eventually, I just got extremely bored with this book because it wasn’t much different than anything else I’ve read. I think the most surprising part about this book is how people either hate it because Pinker’s polarizing or call him a genius because of it. But since I’ve read so many of these books, there’s literally nothing new in here. I’m glad someone like Pinker wrote a book on rationality because he has such a large audience, but if you’re someone who reads these books, it’ll be extremely familiar from cover to cover.
benrogerswpg's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very good book.
Some really great findings in this read.
I found it particularly interesting on statistics, predictability, and social science.
Would recommend for fans of Adam Grant and OLD Malolm Gladwell (before he went HUH?!).
4.1/5
Some really great findings in this read.
I found it particularly interesting on statistics, predictability, and social science.
Would recommend for fans of Adam Grant and OLD Malolm Gladwell (before he went HUH?!).
4.1/5