You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself
Oct 2011 · Penguin
4.5star
67 reviewsreport
Ebook
320
Pages
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About this ebook
An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise, based on the popular blog of the same name.
Whether you’re deciding which smartphone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic. But here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us—but that’s okay, because being deluded is part of being human.
Growing out of David McRaney’s popular blog, You Are Not So Smart reveals that every decision we make, every thought we contemplate, and every emotion we feel comes with a story we tell ourselves to explain them. But often these stories aren’t true. Each short chapter—covering topics such as Learned Helplessness, Selling Out, and the Illusion of Transparency—is like a psychology course with all the boring parts taken out.
Bringing together popular science and psychology with humor and wit, You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of our irrational, thoroughly human behavior.
Whether you’re deciding which smartphone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic. But here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us—but that’s okay, because being deluded is part of being human.
Growing out of David McRaney’s popular blog, You Are Not So Smart reveals that every decision we make, every thought we contemplate, and every emotion we feel comes with a story we tell ourselves to explain them. But often these stories aren’t true. Each short chapter—covering topics such as Learned Helplessness, Selling Out, and the Illusion of Transparency—is like a psychology course with all the boring parts taken out.
Bringing together popular science and psychology with humor and wit, You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of our irrational, thoroughly human behavior.
Ratings and reviews
4.5
67 reviews
Cancer Alli
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August 12, 2013
This book is a vast collection of little known human brain operations; all of which successfully trick you; sometimes these inconspicuous functions prove beneficial, sometimes neutral (yet slightly deceiving), even sometimes fear-inducing that your own brain can possibly "have it out for you." It is an easy, yet fascinating read, which allows the reader the freedom to devour it in days or to peruse the short yet educational parts at their leisure. Hilariously written. Anyone would enjoy it.
15 people found this review helpful
Rennie Valdez
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September 5, 2020
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Ivan Miguel
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June 27, 2015
It's a nice read that lets you in on a lot of psychology tricks. However some chapters seem repetitive. Overall a good read.
18 people found this review helpful
About the author
A two-time winner of the William Randolph Hearst Award, journalist David McRaney writes the blog youarenotsosmart.com. A self-described psychology nerd, he lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
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