Just finished reading “You Are Not So Smart” by David McRaney. Would highly recommend it.
The elevator pitch is as follows: there is a growing body of work coming out of psychology and cognitive science that says we have no clue why you act the way we do, why we choose the things we choose and why we think the thoughts we think. Our mental mishaps are caused by cognitive biases, heuristics, attribution errors, self-handicapping, groupthink and lots of logical fallacies, which we have no conscious control over. However, once we understand them – we can deal with them better.
From VCs and entrepreneurs to clients and our professional photographers and videographers, every brain within every body is full of preconceived notions and patterns of thought that lead it astray without the brain knowing it.
This book covers 48 main logical errors, here are a few just to give you a taste.
1 Priming
MISCONCEPTION: You know when you are being influenced and how it is affecting your behavior.
TRUTH: You are unaware of the constant nudging you receive from ideas formed in your unconscious mind.
2 Confabulation
MISCONCEPTION: You know when you are lying to yourself.
TRUTH: You are often ignorant of your motivations and create fictional narratives to explain your decisions, emotions, and history without realizing it.
3 Confirmation Bias
MISCONCEPTION: Your opinions are the result of years of rational, objective analysis.
TRUTH: Your opinions are the result of years of paying attention to information that confirmed what you believed, while ignoring information that challenged your preconceived notions.
Keep an eye on my future posts referencing this books and these logical fallacies.
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