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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Even though it's a 'popular science' book, which more often than not succumb to triviality, personal narrative and the like, "The Invisible Gorilla" stays clear of most of this. And when they use narratives, they do make sure that the science underneath isn't bend to fit the narratives. All in all a good book about the everyday deceit of the human intuition.
funny
informative
slow-paced
Very interesting discussion of common everyday illusions, a bit dry and occasionally spent too long on particular examples, but I suppose that really helped to drive certain examples home.
Our brains don't work the way our intuition tells us they do. We can't divide our attention; our memories deceive us; we put too much trust in confidence; we overestimate our knowledge; we reason incorrectly, by anecdote and correlation; and we think there are magic ways to "increase our brain power." A very readable and entertaining book, soundly based in research, that will change few minds. :)
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
All of the furor over the colors of a dress reminded me that we can't always trust what we think we see (which is why eye witness testimony should not be thought nearly as highly of as it is) and made me think I should finally get around to reading this book.
The authors of this book are the psychologists responsible for the basketball gorilla experiment—a group of people are asked to watch a short clip of two basketball teams and count the number of passes between members of the team in white; afterwards, the people are asked if they noticed anything unusual in the film, which around half of the group did not. Approximately 30 seconds into the video, a person in a gorilla costume walks into view, turns to the camera, beats its chest, then exits cross-frame. The "gorilla" is visibly onscreen for around 10 seconds, yet half of the observers did not notice it, at least consciously. This seems to be a (no pun intended) no-brainer—obviously people wouldn't notice; they were only supposed to focus on the basketball passes. But in terms of pop psychology books, this one was pretty engaging.
Basically, question: how much you're actually paying attention to your surroundings, how accurate your memories really are, how much your confidence in your abilities really reflects your actual abilities, how much you really know about what you think you know (do you know how a bicycle works? explain it), whether two things happening in sequence are a indication of correlation instead of causation, and whether learning a particular task affects your abilities in other areas (does doing a crossword puzzle really make you smarter or does it make you better at doing crossword puzzles?).
Then, question how much other people are really paying attention to their surroundings, how accurate their memories are, how well their confidence matches up with their actual expertise, how well they really understand what they say they understand, and whether doing crossword puzzles made them really smart or do some people just like doing crossword puzzles.
Some people found the message of this book to be cynical. Honestly, I found it kind of hopeful. Yes, it reminds me to be more attentive to my surroundings and not take what people say at face value, but it also reminds me to be more compassionate to others as they struggle to navigate through the very difficult task of discerning truth from illusion.
I don't think I've ever re-read a popular science book before, but I think I'm going to want to re-read this one in another year or two. While it's written in a very readable way, there are a lot of big ideas in this fairly short book.
Then, question how much other people are really paying attention to their surroundings, how accurate their memories are, how well their confidence matches up with their actual expertise, how well they really understand what they say they understand, and whether doing crossword puzzles made them really smart or do some people just like doing crossword puzzles.
Some people found the message of this book to be cynical. Honestly, I found it kind of hopeful. Yes, it reminds me to be more attentive to my surroundings and not take what people say at face value, but it also reminds me to be more compassionate to others as they struggle to navigate through the very difficult task of discerning truth from illusion.
I don't think I've ever re-read a popular science book before, but I think I'm going to want to re-read this one in another year or two. While it's written in a very readable way, there are a lot of big ideas in this fairly short book.
For some odd reason, the books that I choose to read hover around more or less the same subject. I guess, it's because I generally like to read as much as I can and know of as many varied viewpoints as possible on a topic before I move on. And every time I pick up a book based on a subject matter that I have read, I think to myself, will this book add any value to what I have already read about, understood or learned? Shockingly, the answer as this book proves it, is YES!
The Invisible Gorilla is a surprisingly well written book, explaining to its readers the various mental fallacies we humans are prone to. The various illusions that I have read about so far are a real eye-opener in terms that now I understand myself a bit better to at least identify my weaknesses, if not eliminate them immediately.
I strongly recommend this book. I see a lot of potential applications of the knowledge gained by this book in my work and personal life.
Ps.: Just for the record, I don't completely agree with the authors on the illusion of potential, however, am willing to concede at this point, due to lack of any contrary scientific evidences. :)
The Invisible Gorilla is a surprisingly well written book, explaining to its readers the various mental fallacies we humans are prone to. The various illusions that I have read about so far are a real eye-opener in terms that now I understand myself a bit better to at least identify my weaknesses, if not eliminate them immediately.
I strongly recommend this book. I see a lot of potential applications of the knowledge gained by this book in my work and personal life.
Ps.: Just for the record, I don't completely agree with the authors on the illusion of potential, however, am willing to concede at this point, due to lack of any contrary scientific evidences. :)
3 stars? 2 stars? i dont know.
come talk to me about perceptual illusions, they're my favorite thing, but im not sure about this book.
come talk to me about perceptual illusions, they're my favorite thing, but im not sure about this book.