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Stop Being Reasonable: six stories of how we really change our minds by Eleanor Gordon-Smith
andy_acid's review against another edition
informative
3.25
I feel like the book threw a bone but didn’t deliver on what it promised. The case studies mentioned showed significant changes in people’s lives or opinions but the author didn’t discuss these in a broader sense. I get that persuasion is relative to everyone’s background but I was hoping for more in-depth analysis of larger-scale case studies. Overall I’m disappointed because I didn’t learn anything new.
3.25/5
e_cobbe's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
A very rational set of arguments explaining why rational arguments don’t work.
theconstantreader's review against another edition
4.0
Gordon-Smith outlines "the proper way to reason, at least according to our present ideal, is to discard ego and emotion" and then sets about to test its sufficiency with several, super interesting, real life examples. Reading this book made me want her job.
I have long been a believer that if only I could leapfrog over emotion could I be an unstoppable powerhouse for progress. The social constructs laid out as the foundation of this book suggest I am not alone. It is this thinking that reason is the apogee that has "altogether more to do with selling us... an anaesthetised dream if an optimised future where... nothing hurts". But is this even real?
Gordon-Smith does a very entertaining job of demonstrating that no, it probably isn't. We are flawed and our personal biases end up popping up everywhere we look, including inside our deepest values and beliefs. As a result, being reasonable becomes subjective to each and every one of us. Suddenly being reasonable can't equal being unemotional because even when we justify a decision as being reasonable there are likely countless emotional ties shaping what we see when we look down the periscope of our 'reasonable' lens.
Throughout the book weighty themes like prejudice, power, self-knowing, trust, memory and love are brought forth to test nuances to this argument. They are really engaging, some of them moving and the way Gordon-Smith weaves them together is nicely done. However, from time-to-time (I have to agree with another reviewer on this) it did feel like Gordon-Smith wanted us all to know how funny and smart she was but the thing was that I liked her.
I have long been a believer that if only I could leapfrog over emotion could I be an unstoppable powerhouse for progress. The social constructs laid out as the foundation of this book suggest I am not alone. It is this thinking that reason is the apogee that has "altogether more to do with selling us... an anaesthetised dream if an optimised future where... nothing hurts". But is this even real?
Gordon-Smith does a very entertaining job of demonstrating that no, it probably isn't. We are flawed and our personal biases end up popping up everywhere we look, including inside our deepest values and beliefs. As a result, being reasonable becomes subjective to each and every one of us. Suddenly being reasonable can't equal being unemotional because even when we justify a decision as being reasonable there are likely countless emotional ties shaping what we see when we look down the periscope of our 'reasonable' lens.
Throughout the book weighty themes like prejudice, power, self-knowing, trust, memory and love are brought forth to test nuances to this argument. They are really engaging, some of them moving and the way Gordon-Smith weaves them together is nicely done. However, from time-to-time (I have to agree with another reviewer on this) it did feel like Gordon-Smith wanted us all to know how funny and smart she was but the thing was that I liked her.
mavclair's review against another edition
5.0
I read this and listened to Mitski literally all day so don’t ask my how my day was
rcollins1701's review against another edition
4.0
We're all rational, reasonable beings, right? Given sufficient evidence, even the most skeptical of Doubting Thomases will see the light and change their minds. Well, no, not really. Gordon-Smith shows that empathy is the key. Who knew such a thing would be so important to a social species like ourselves?
pennyriley's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. Oh for that ten point scale! An interesting short book that turned out not to be what I was really expecting. The subtitle: How We Really Change Our Minds, led me to expect that there would be clues as to how in fact, as to how we could better be prepared to move people from their mistaken views to our own more rational and reasonable ones. I'm being a little tongue in cheek here. But in fact I was left with the idea that I already had, that really it's impossible to get people to change their minds by talking to them. The only common factor among some of the stories here was that empirical, irrefutable evidence was the only thing that might possibly persuade someone to change their mind, and maybe not even then. Enjoyable, thought provoking, but not earth-shattering.
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