You Are Now Less Dumb

How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself

By: David McRaney

Narrated by: Don Hagen

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The author of the best-selling You Are Not So Smart shares more discoveries about self-delusion and irrational thinking, and gives readers a fighting chance at outsmarting their not-so-smart brains.

David McRaney's first book, You Are Not So Smart, evolved from his wildly popular blog of the same name. A mix of popular psychology and trivia, McRaney's insights have struck a chord with thousands, and his blog - and now podcasts and videos - have become an Internet phenomenon. Like You Are Not So Smart, You Are Now Less Dumb is grounded in the idea that we all believe ourselves to be objective observers of reality - except we're not. But that's okay, because our delusions keep us sane.

Expanding on this premise, McRaney provides eye-opening analyses of 15 more ways we fool ourselves every day. McRaney also reveals the true price of happiness, why Benjamin Franklin was such a badass, and how to avoid falling for our own lies. This smart and highly entertaining audiobook will be wowing listeners for years to come.

©2013 David McRaney (P)2013 Gildan Media LLC

I Feel Less Dumb!

This was pretty good. Sequel in the same line as "you are not so smart" which i read a year or so ago. This one went beyond the typical pysch 101 level, and I found it more interesting. All about the unconscious biases and coping mechanisms our brains use to get us through the day, dealing with topics from de-individuation (and crowd anonymity) to group dynamics, confidence and optimism... A lot about how we edit and adjust our memories and aspects of how we define ourselves and others in order to cope and keep our beliefs consistent. We all tend to think we are above average, and we are prone to ignorance of the states/beliefs of others.

It was very well presented and accessible. I like the idea that the author reveals your own mind's bag of tricks you may not have known you had, and mentions ways of sometimes getting around them. It's funny, just how many many of our own lies we fall for, but now I know a little bit more about it, and if I care to take that extra moment to consider things, I can take that into account and adjust my perspective, and improve my understanding of myself and others.

We are not as objective, perceptive, or smart as we think we are!

Good narration, no issues.

Will likely revisit when I need a little reality check or popular psychology fix.

Irreverent treatise of logical fallacies

What did you love best about You Are Now Less Dumb?

David McRaney has a fun and engaging writing style that will keep a smile on your face while you question your own world view. Don Hagen has a pleasant voice and a conversational style that wont wear you out during long listening sessions. Great stories coupled interesting descriptions of experiments that drive home the point the author is making. A very enjoyable listen.

Rocks your world

Love this book, although being honest and accurate has its consequences (insert evil laugh). Words.

insight

Excellent insight into the workings of the human mind. A good tool for understanding ourselves and others.

Knocked me down

What I enjoyed about this book was that it brought me back down to reality. I learned new things but it also reinforced the things I already knew.

Engaging, entertaining and knowledgeable

This book is one I recommend for anyone who is interested in learning of most of us make, and could overall help you become a better person and understand others in a way that was difficult without knowing our fallacies. It is very entertaining and enjoyable.

Ahh, This was good

McRaney & Hagen did it again. Amazing book, amazing writer and an amazing Narrator. Listening to this book was a great experience, both funny and informative in a way I think is crucial for everyone. More people need to know about the ideas discussed in this book for the good of society.

Awesome

best book ive heard in a long time. definitely recommend this to the entire planet

excellent book to improve your decision making!!

excellent book on the common decision making biases and errors and how social conditions compound thrm. The differentiating factor for this book is that it is told in a very entertaining way, but still maintains great rigour in terms of discussion and scientific references. Great for improving business decision making and evaluating everyday situations.

Technically less dumb, but not by much

A lot of rehash of 20th century psych studies and cognitive biases. I think many of his interpretations are superficial. I'm a bit tired of hearing authors describe the 'sunk cost fallacy' as a fallacy - it's not a fallacy, it's at worst a bias, but most examples of this 'fallacy' can be better explained by risk analysis, ie, that staying the course over the long run has an advantage, especially if that course has been tried and proven in the past. Otherwise, this book was decent. I was hoping for a bit more on the backfire bias, but like the other topics it was addressed superficially, more like an introduction. I think books like this need to engage with heavyweight philosophers to dig a bit deeper.