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About the Author

Shankar Vedantam is a national staff writer at The Washington Post

Includes the name: Shankar Vedantam (Author)

Obras por Shankar Vedantam

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1969
Sexo
male
Local de nascimento
Bengaluru, India
Ocupações
Science writer
Organizações
Washington Post
Harvard University (2010 Nieman Fellow)

Membros

Críticas

Similar to the stories done for NPR. I enjoyed the stories and research, but I wasn't as happy on the general focus with the unconscious as something working against our own morally conscious decision making. A broader focus on the many facets of how our minds make decisions for and against our true wishes would have been better. There are other works that have done so. Being able to recognize our own decision making process, and when it can be trusted or questioned would be more advantageous.
 
Assinalado
wvlibrarydude | 16 outras críticas | Jan 14, 2024 |
Maybe not super deep or anything, but lovely humanistic writing on an important topic - why our brains allow us to be deluded, and why that’s frequently for our own good. Liked this quote in the final chapter:

“Many intelligent people have come to believe—with near religious fervor—that reason and rationality constitute the highest good, and that these alone can produce the outcomes we want. As a card-carrying rationalist, I would love for this to be true. But as a card-carrying rationalist, I also need to follow the evidence where it leads. And the evidence (ah, the irony!) tells me that in many situations, we need to work with the self-deceiving brain even if—especially if—we want to achieve the goals of the rational brain.”… (mais)
 
Assinalado
steve02476 | 4 outras críticas | Jan 3, 2023 |
Well, I learned a lot from this book. It was fascinating when I heard the author talk about his book on NPR and I realized that I had to have it. That hasn't happened in awhile. The whole idea that our unconscious minds may play a larger part of our actions than we'd care to admit is intriguing. Vedantam supports these ideas with true-life stories that are sad, surprising and shocking at times. His biases show at times and I think the editing could have been better but I really enjoyed the read. I hope he takes it further and we can not only be aware of our own unconscious thoughts and how we act on them but how to access them and have some honest discussions. This would be a great book to discuss in so many different settings.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
BarbF410 | 16 outras críticas | May 22, 2022 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
5
Membros
471
Popularidade
#52,267
Avaliação
½ 3.7
Críticas
22
ISBN
11
Línguas
2

Tabelas & Gráficos