So this episode’s guest is Bo Seo, the author of Good Arguments – a book about how he became a world debate champion in which he not only teaches us how to apply what he has learned to everyday life, but imagines communities built around, not despite, constant arguing and disagreement. I want to boost everyone’s signal on this issue, so I thought it would be nice to collaborate instead of compete, since that’s part of what we are all proselytizing with these books.

There seems to be a movement afoot, a new wave of nonfiction about how to reduce all this argumentative madness and epistemic chaos. Packed with interesting sidebars and quick guides on cognition and common fallacies, You Are Not So Smart is a fascinating synthesis of cutting-edge psychology research to turn our minds inside out.This is the second episode in a three-part series about how to have difficult conversations with people who see the world differently, how to have better debates about contentious issues, and how to ethically and scientifically persuade one another about things that matter – in short, this is a three-part series about How Minds Change (which is also the title of my new book). Brand loyalty - We reach for the same brand not because we trust its quality but because we want to reassure ourselves that we made a smart choice the last time we bought it.Confirmation bias - Our brains resist new ideas, instead paying attention only to findings that reinforce our preconceived notions.Hindsight bias - When we learn something new, we reassure ourselves that we knew it all along.If you have more than 150 Facebook friends, they are surely not all real friends. Dunbar's Number - Humans evolved to live in bands of roughly 150 individuals, the brain cannot handle more than that number.

It's like a psychology class, with all the boring parts taken out, and with no homework.īased on the popular blog of the same name, You Are Not So Smart collects more than 46 of the lies we tell ourselves everyday, including: You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of self-delusion. You believe you are a rational, logical being who sees the world as it really is, but journalist David McRaney is here to tell you that you're as deluded as the rest of us. An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise.

Mcraney you are not so smart