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A review by grantkeegan
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker
5.0
This book could be considered The Demon-Haunted World of the 2020s. I don’t know much about Steven Pinker, but this book is full of wonderful ideas that resonated a lot with me. Certainly, ideas needed more than ever in an age of conflicting ideologies and misinformation.
Rationality is about critical thinking and how it applies to everything from large-scale politics to everyday life. Pinker starts the book with a section containing several exercises in logic. These were fun, and I did fail a few, but this only illustrates an important point—everyone is irrational in some way or another. Coming face to face with my own biases and illogical thinking patterns was humbling, and something that everyone needs to do often.
The book is a mix of different topics such as philosophy and psychology, all the way to lessons that can help with the reader’s personal life. As Pinker describes what rationality is and isn’t, I found myself taking away important lessons that can be applied to anyone’s life and belief systems.
The book can get confusing if you are not familiar with logic and mathematics applied to things like probability. There are long sections in the book like this, but I think it is a good thing. It is necessary to use charts and equations to illustrate the points Pinker was making, and he uses grounded examples to bring your attention and understand the concepts clearly.
In the end, my main takeaway from Rationality is that the world does follow a certain set of rules. If you properly analyze data and act accordingly, you can reach any objective you want. Despite things like luck and chance, things do follow a logical path. 2 + 2 will always give you 4. To me, this is something beautiful to realize, because by applying these concepts to one’s life, it can improve dramatically by allowing us to make more rational decisions. If you want to have a better perspective on life, please read Rationality.
Final Score: 88/100
For more reviews and cool content follow me on:
▶️ My Film and Gaming YouTube Channel - https://youtube.com/channel/UCpWCw5dVvb4QUGYHRrx4kmw
Rationality is about critical thinking and how it applies to everything from large-scale politics to everyday life. Pinker starts the book with a section containing several exercises in logic. These were fun, and I did fail a few, but this only illustrates an important point—everyone is irrational in some way or another. Coming face to face with my own biases and illogical thinking patterns was humbling, and something that everyone needs to do often.
The book is a mix of different topics such as philosophy and psychology, all the way to lessons that can help with the reader’s personal life. As Pinker describes what rationality is and isn’t, I found myself taking away important lessons that can be applied to anyone’s life and belief systems.
The book can get confusing if you are not familiar with logic and mathematics applied to things like probability. There are long sections in the book like this, but I think it is a good thing. It is necessary to use charts and equations to illustrate the points Pinker was making, and he uses grounded examples to bring your attention and understand the concepts clearly.
In the end, my main takeaway from Rationality is that the world does follow a certain set of rules. If you properly analyze data and act accordingly, you can reach any objective you want. Despite things like luck and chance, things do follow a logical path. 2 + 2 will always give you 4. To me, this is something beautiful to realize, because by applying these concepts to one’s life, it can improve dramatically by allowing us to make more rational decisions. If you want to have a better perspective on life, please read Rationality.
Final Score: 88/100
For more reviews and cool content follow me on:
▶️ My Film and Gaming YouTube Channel - https://youtube.com/channel/UCpWCw5dVvb4QUGYHRrx4kmw