Look Again

The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

De: Tali Sharot, Cass R. Sunstein

Narrado por: Imani Jade Powers, Byron Wagner

This “smart and fun read, and a valuable way to revitalize your life” (Walter Isaacson) deftly explains how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate and reset our brains for the better.

Have you ever noticed that what is exciting on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even passionate relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. As easy as it is to stop noticing what is most wonderful in our lives, it’s also possible to stop noticing what is terrible. People get used to dirty air. They become unconcerned by their own misconduct, blind to inequality, and are more liable to believe misinformation than ever before.

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 and “sensational guide to a more psychological rich life” (Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author), based on decades of research, 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 identify more clearly the bad and more deeply appreciate the good.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Two gifted narrators turn in performances that make the authors’ ideas about paying attention come alive. Their vocal gifts are different and complement each other: Imani Jade Powers performs with a hushed intensity and a philosophical depth that give her interpretations real power. Byron Wagner’s strengths are more stylistic; his amazing array of pitch patterns is fun to hear and makes the author’s ideas glow without trivializing them. Both narrators perform with seemingly effortless diction from start to finish. The audiobook’s mission is to help us understand and gain power over the way we process familiar versus novel experiences. The sections on how we “normalize” what is ordinarily shocking or untrue are especially illuminating in this age of disinformation and cultural decline."

As the Subtitle says: Looking Again at the Obvious

My first reaction when I started this book was disappointment. It was telling me something I already knew: that experiences lost their impact with time. Whether its pleasure or pain, the feeling waned over minutes, hours, days, years, or Lifetimes.

But, as I progressed through the pages, I took their advice and looked again at the ramifications these realities had on so many facets of our Lives. Personal Life, Health, Safety, even Politics, all are changed by our habituation to things that happen to us. The Chapter on the reaction of the German People to the Rise of Hitler was particularly interesting. Another case of the slow demise of the frog in boiling water.

All in all, it was an interesting and educational read, worthy of a Four Star Rating. ****

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!

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 book- short and to the point

I loved that I even learned new words (usage) with sparkle. I will be using that way now all the time, thank you. I hope you’re able to have a “sparkly” day!

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.