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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

I just finished reading "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahneman. He goes into great detail about our various cognitive biases, and how they constantly lead us astray. The most fascinating insight is how they still lead experienced statisticians astray in the same way, and even when these biases are pointed out to them! The mistakes keep coming.

We're not half as intelligent and rational as we believe we are.

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"You are not so smart" by David McRane touches the same topic. It goes through the long list of ways we are fooling our selves or "not being as smart as we think we are". And for each case he is also referencing the studies proving this.

http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Not-So-Smart/dp/1592407366

He also has a blog with the same name as the book that covers the same topics (I believe the book came out of the blog): http://youarenotsosmart.com

I'm having a terrible time with that book. It's so incredibly dry!

I found it terribly repetitive.

Phew, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I initially blamed my short attention span.

Very repetitive, and very dry. You could have said all of it in significantly less time.

I started with the audio book on a long drive, and it was enjoyable because I had nothing better to do, but I'd have never listened to it without driving a long way. :)

I have it and I'm considering it my next read but this sounds bad. Does anyone have a different opinion?

Yes. I couldn't put it down.

I've not read it yet, but have read Heuristics and Biases, which is Kahneman and Tverskys original research on the topic. It is very long and sorta dry, but incredibly useful. I'd also suggest reading the LessWrong sequences on rationality, as they are aimed at actually helping you be able to change your mind.

I think people like it because it was seminal, and just about every other pop psychology book references it. That said, the material is better presented elsewhere. A great book that I enjoyed is: http://www.amazon.com/Makes-Brain-Happy-Should-Opposite/dp/1...

It is probably not the greatest in terms of writing style, but : I read it in January 2013, and it is by far the most memorable book I've read the whole year. I still think back to it, whereas I couldn't tell you what I read in August.

I haven't finished it, but not because it's boring. It's one of those books where I feel I have to start over reading more carefully after a few chapters. Unfortunately that makes it likely to be procrastinated away. I'm determined to finish it this year, though.

Perhaps a better starting point would be the books of Dan Ariely, in terms of readability.

I only got a third of the way through it. It is interesting, but not really well written. There is no overarching narrative -- it's basically a collection of dry snippets. But the ideas are fascinating. I have every intention of finishing it.

Try Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. Its a very readable text on how bias can be taken advantage of.

Yes, that one is good too, but it covers different material.

I thought I was the only one.

Always great to hear a review like this! This is what I felt but I am surrounded by people who have read the book and have loved it.

"Buyology" and "How We Decide" are both excellent books on the shortcuts the human mind takes when making decisions or evaluating the environment in general.

Also, Nat Geo has a fun show called "Brain Games" along the same vein.

All suggestions are a little "poppy" for some tastes, but I find them all entertaining and informative, and have found many useful bits that I apply to my sales and training efforts as well.

I enjoy books like this, but they feel like entertaining books without much that is truly useful.

The one thing I love about magic psychology, which is a huge and complex field, is that the things they say are useful, and completely true all over the world.

Magic comes at psychology analysis in a different way, only what works through tried and tested outcomes. A Magician would never say they understand human psychology, and yet reading or listening to Magicians on human psychology has taught me more about it than any number of pop psych books.

I don't know what that means, but I understand human psychology leagues better from magic than I ever did from any book.

I think there are a lot of parallels between the "neuroscience" (quotes intended) in the books and psychology useful to magicians. The books both, for example, discuss both the psychology and the neurological activity surrounding the human brain's desire to find patterns, and rely on them for future "automatic" thought. The well known inability for a person to judge the volume of a container, for example, influences both consumers purchasing a bag of chips and a spectator watching a woman get sawn in half.

There are stories in "How We Decide" that are variations on stories in "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends". "Buyology" anecdotes remind me directly of things I learned from reading Paul Harris.

To be sure, the books I mentioned are written to entertain as well as inform. They're "pop-science", and nobody would suggest that Jonah Lehrer is an authority on neuroscience - but that doesn't detract at all to their utility to anyone who can benefit from understanding how humans - even one's self - think.

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