I have been fascinated by how people think since I was a teenager reading books about the mysteries of human psychology, Zen Buddhism, and how computers work. The wonders of cognition appear in countless guises. As a teenager, I was intrigued by the mind’s ability to “go meta,” to step back and gain awareness of itself. More recently, I have been struck by how individuals are able to share goals, intentions, and activities with others, to be cognitive team players. So many books these days are about neuroscience, but if you want to understand the mind, it is just as important to understand its social and cultural context, so I decided to choose books about the social and cultural environment surrounding how we make decisions.
The human mind is astounding, but in fact, people know less than they think. Most of us don’t even know how ballpoint pens work, never mind complex things like political policies. This doesn’t stop us from having opinions. Just try explaining a policy that you feel strongly about in detail to someone else. How would it actually work? How exactly would it lead to consequences for society? It’s not surprising that we know so little; most things are infinitely complex because they are connected to everything else. That’s why we rely on others for our understanding. Knowledge isn’t in individual brains; it is distributed across communities. We have strong opinions because we live in communities that endorse our opinions, sometimes because the community knows a lot and sometimes because it just thinks it does.
This book introduced me as a teenager (long ago) to the questions that I have pursued over the course of my career. What is special about the human mind? How can we begin to think about issues like understanding and awareness? How can we begin to do research that might, in the long run, shed some light on the answers to these questions?
Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of maps" or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Goedel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.
This clever little book is a highly digestible introduction to some of the key ideas that psychologists have had about how humans make judgments and decisions, when people do well, and when we are prone to error. The ideas are engaged in the author’s domain of expertise, through a game that everyone can relate to: poker. The book shows how learning to be a better poker player is a microcosm of learning how to be a more effective decision maker so you can achieve your own goals, whatever they are.
A Wall Street Journal bestseller, now in paperback. Poker champion turned decision strategist Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions.
Even the best decision doesn't yield the best outcome every time. There's always an element of luck that you can't control, and there's always information hidden from view. So the key to long-term success (and avoiding worrying yourself to death) is to think in bets: How sure am I? What are the possible ways things could turn out? What decision has the highest odds of success? Did I land in the unlucky 10%…
One obstacle to being a happy decision-maker in modern Western society is that we are constantly being told that more is better, having more choices means we are more likely to find the perfect option. But what if there is no perfect option? And what if choice itself makes us unhappy? Maybe we should spend less time making decisions and more time enjoying ourselves.
Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions-both big and small-have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all…
This is a best-selling book for a good reason: It lists the top ways to persuade other people. Method number one: Persuade people to believe X by informing them that others believe X. Oh, how we like to conform.
The foundational and wildly popular go-to resource for influence and persuasion-a renowned international bestseller, with over 5 million copies sold-now revised adding: new research, new insights, new examples, and online applications.
In the new edition of this highly acclaimed bestseller, Robert Cialdini-New York Times bestselling author of Pre-Suasion and the seminal expert in the fields of influence and persuasion-explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. Using memorable stories and relatable examples, Cialdini makes this crucially important subject surprisingly easy. With Cialdini as a guide, you don't have…
This book offers an insightful exploration of why Americans make the decisions they do, as individuals and as a society. It makes a compelling case that Americans are distinct in our flightiness, our failure to perceive and live in reality. This explains both the allure and promise of America, as well as much of its weirdness and its failures.
You're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts
Fantasy is the USA's primary product. From the Pilgrim Fathers onward America has been a place where renegades and freaks came in search of freedom to create their own realities with little objectively regulated truth standing in their way. The freedom to invent and believe whatever the hell you like is, in some ways, an unwritten constitutional right. But, this do-your-own-thing freedom also is the driving credo of America's current transformation where the difference between opinion and fact is rapidly crumbling.
As a trauma therapist and dedicated researcher, I love uncovering valuable insights within lesser-known books. There are hidden gems, free from the pressure of commercial success, crafted by authors deeply committed to research, understanding, and the art of writing itself. Their dedication resonates with me, as I believe in the profound value of information and the power of critical thinking. Through my own book, Traumatization and Its Aftermath, I aim to emphasize that psychological concepts often lose their depth in translation and my mission is spreading awareness and fostering a deeper understanding of trauma and its intricate facets. With that idea in mind, I chose these five titles.
A fresh take on the difference between trauma and hardship in order to help accurately spot the difference and avoid over-generalizations.
The book integrates the latest findings in brain science, child development, psycho-social context, theory, and clinical experiences to make the case that trauma is much more than a cluster of symptoms to be tamed, but instead best understood as development gone off course, away from growth and towards (only) survival.
This book prompts a profound shift in perception, inviting to view trauma as an intricate and diverse experience, a point of view that ultimately leads to sharper treatment and, hopefully, more healing. It encourages a transition from asking, "What happened to you?" to the deeper question, "What is your relationship with what happened to you?"
Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders
The book is comprehensive, bold, and practical-a much-needed resource for the assessment and treatment of trauma. Instead of the traditional focus on the overall importance of healing, Traumatization and its Aftermath decodes why some people don't heal as easily as others, analyzes the various failures of diagnosis, and explains how to make therapeutic interventions truly effective.
This book offers a systemic deep dive into traumatization that clarifies myths and misinformation about the entire spectrum of trauma and provides both clinicians and non-clinicians with the right level of validation, preventive measures, conceptualization methodology, assessment tools, and healing facts that have not…
