Look Again

The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

By: Tali Sharot, Cass R. Sunstein

Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers, Byron Wagner

Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

For fans of Thinking Fast and Slow and The Power of Habit, a groundbreaking new study of how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate our days and reset our brains to allow us to live happier and more fulfilling lives.

Have you ever noticed that what is thrilling on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even exciting relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. People stop noticing what is most wonderful in their own lives. They also stop noticing what is terrible. They get used to dirty air. They stay in abusive relationships. People grow to accept authoritarianism and take foolish risks. They become unconcerned by their own misconduct, blind to inequality, and are more liable to believe misinformation than ever before.

But what if we could find a way to see everything anew? What if you could regain sensitivity, not only to the great things in your life, but also to the terrible things you stopped noticing and so don’t try to change?

Now, neuroscience professor Tali Sharot and Harvard law professor (and presidential advisor) Cass R. Sunstein investigate why we stop noticing both the great and not-so-great things around us and how to “dishabituate” at the office, in the bedroom, at the store, on social media, and in the voting booth. This groundbreaking work, based on decades of research in the psychological and biological sciences, illuminates how we can reignite the sparks of joy, innovate, and recognize where improvements urgently need to be made. The key to this disruption—to seeing, feeling, and noticing again—is change. By temporarily changing your environment, changing the rules, changing the people you interact with—or even just stepping back and imagining change—you regain sensitivity, allowing you to more clearly identify the bad and more deeply appreciate the good.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Fascinating and entertaining.

The most celebrated law Professor of our time, and his brilliant co-author have written a fascinating and entertaining volume on the process of psychological habituation. Especially timely, given our nations possible descent into authoritarianism, and how people have become impervious to the threat through a process of psychological habituation.

Very insightful

This book was very insightful for me, I learned a lot about human nature and behaviors

bring back the sparkle

I've never thought much about habituation... but these authors have awakened me to its omnipresence and its effects, both helpful and harmful. I plan to use the information to add more sparkle to my life and to find ways to reduce suffering for me and others.

Great beginning, didn’t quite stick the landing

Great book until I got to the last few chapters. While I understood the associations and why someone would want to go to society wide problems, it felt that the definition of habituation was so large by the end it felt the term/phenomenon lost its meaning.
I would have loved if they stuck to individuals and their experiences (I think people who gain disabilities later in life would have been an amazing case study), the society wide problems felt too complicated to boil down to a thesis of habituation.
But didn’t regret the buy, the beginning chapters were invaluable!

Narrators just not good

Boring, not engaging, all over the place, hard to follow a complete thought, I found myself habituating and then had to dishabituate..