Recent popular books on human irrationality to recommend to your friends

post by lukeprog · 2011-08-11T06:00:36.117Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 16 comments

 

Veteran Less Wrongers are unlikely to find anything new here, but I've found the examples and exposition herein to be useful when I try to explain rationality concepts to other people in a fun and concise way.

 

16 comments

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comment by djcb · 2011-08-11T20:47:32.640Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Also, Dan Ariely's second book, The Upside of Irrationality is pretty good. For an introduction, I can recommmend Ariely's TED-talks.

Then, for the other books, Í read Sway, which was not bad, but not outstanding either.

I very much liked The Invisible Gorilla though, whose author did a good job of defending everyday-rationality, for example with respect to the 'antivax'-movement.

Lukeprog: of the other books, are there any you specifically recommend?

comment by [deleted] · 2011-08-12T04:12:00.587Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

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Replies from: wedrifid
comment by wedrifid · 2011-08-12T04:31:20.784Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

p.s. I'm an idiot. Where did the HTML cheat sheet for comments go?

The only 'idiocy' is the 'HTML' assumption. You have the HTML right but the markdown that you need is an asterix on either side (or, equivalently, an underscore on either side). The references is in the 'Help' link on the bottom right of the comment box.

Replies from: None
comment by [deleted] · 2011-08-12T04:43:41.820Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

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Replies from: wedrifid
comment by wedrifid · 2011-08-12T04:56:19.722Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks... but I see no such 'Help' link. I use Chrome. Are there issues with Chrome?

I use Chrome myself but now notice that there is no link appearing now. 30 seconds debugging informs me that now there is no 'Help' when replying directly to a comment on the main page but there is the link when replying via 'Recent comments'. Bug!

For now: the wiki.

Replies from: None
comment by [deleted] · 2011-08-12T05:04:06.597Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

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comment by florian · 2011-08-11T16:36:10.386Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I recently read Stuart Sutherland's Irrationality, which also explains a lot of the more common biases and errors in reasoning. Decent book, but -again- probably not a lot of new ideas for less wrongers.

Replies from: lukeprog, Dr_Manhattan
comment by lukeprog · 2011-08-11T18:17:20.469Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Sutherland's book is good but older.

Replies from: florian
comment by florian · 2011-08-11T18:41:53.007Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Sorry, I somehow missed the "recent" in the title.

comment by Dr_Manhattan · 2011-08-11T17:13:22.551Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I read a number of these but particularly liked Sutherland, don't remember why tho.

comment by mstevens · 2011-08-11T16:47:06.171Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It's maybe not so recent, but I'm a huge fan of Influence, and it's extremely readable.

comment by Fhyve · 2013-06-04T19:45:52.016Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

When was this last updated? Has anything new come out since?

comment by beoShaffer · 2011-08-15T04:50:58.367Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I found sway entertaining and the fact that I had already been exposed to the concept of bias probably made me slightly more open to less wrong. At the same time I don't think I got much direct benefit from it rationality wise.

comment by djcb · 2011-08-11T20:44:53.613Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Also, Dan Ariely's second book, (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NSVE50/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=1278548962&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=006135323X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0SCAH2GVK33FBAQ2VFN3)[The Upside of Irrationality] is pretty good. For an introduction, I can recommmend Ariely's (http://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_ariely.html)[TED-talks].

Then, for the other books, Í read Sway, which was not bad, but not outstanding either.

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I very much liked The Invisible Gorilla though, whose author did a good job of defending everyday-rationality, for example with respect to the 'antivax'-movement.

Lukeprog: of the other books, are there any you specifically recommend?

comment by alexvermeer · 2011-08-11T20:08:41.455Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Awesome, thanks for the list!

I'm part-way through Mistakes Were Made and it's great so far.

Replies from: torekp
comment by torekp · 2011-08-13T20:10:47.549Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Mistakes Were Made is immensely enjoyable.