You Are Not So Smart

Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself

By: David McRaney

Narrated by: Don Hagen

Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise.

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. But that's OK - delusions keep us sane. You Are Not So Smart is a celebration of self-delusion. It's like a psychology class, with all the boring parts taken out, and with no homework.Based 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:

• Dunbar's Number - Humans evolved to live in bands of roughly 150 individuals, the brain cannot handle more than that number. If you have more than 150 Facebook friends, they are surely not all real friends.
• Hindsight bias - When we learn something new, we reassure ourselves that we knew it all along.
• Confirmation bias - Our brains resist new ideas, instead paying attention only to findings that reinforce our preconceived notions.
• 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.

©2011 David McRaney (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"In an Idiocracy dominated by cable TV bobbleheads, government propagandists, and corporate spinmeisters, many of us know that mass ignorance is a huge problem. Now, thanks to David McRaney's mind-blowing book, we can finally see the scientific roots of that problem. Anybody still self-aware enough to wonder why society now worships willful stupidity should read this book." ( David Sirota, author of Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now)

Great listen (despite the wooden narrator)

It’s a very interesting and listenable introduction to many logical fallacies and tricks of the brain. The writer did a great job of making this fun, and I found myself wanting to return to this book.

Yes it’s true that many of these fallacies and tricks have been written about in many other places. I still found it enjoyable and informative. My only real gripe is with the narrator. The writing is clearly sarcastic and irreverent, and the stiff monotone narrator REALLY does not pull off the sarcasm at all. Still, it’s a good listen that I’d gladly listen to again for the content.

Very useful to understand the discourse of today

For those of us who ponder, "How can smart people actually believe that?", this book helps clarify why we think the way we do, and how we can better understand ourselves and others in order to get back to the place of critical thinking, empathy, and intelligent discourse.

Utterly Fascinating

i guess this is a collection of blog posts? it kind of blew my mind and shocked me in a couple places. human beings are weird.

Phenomenal book

I love this book and want to listen to it multiple times, being a psychology major I have listened to these lessons multiple times, but in school they weren’t displayed as well. If someone wants to know why people do what they do this is the book that really helps answer that question

🤯 Mind Blowing Read🤯

it's very weird how oddly satisfying to learn you are not so smart.. And we really are not that smart.

i learnt some thangs

this book is good at learnen me things i herd about psychology in this one

Definitely worth the listen

I've gotten short explanations about the things in this book, but it was illuminating to learn more about the. Probably not for the Ph.D., but for the curious layman it was worth the time and credit. The author also presented it in a humorous and compelling fashion.

3 listens and still hooked!

fascinating insights into your own behavior and delivered with just the right amount of sarcasm.

Thorough and clear

Lots of intriguing info- thought provoking, and often written & delivered in a clever or funny way. If you're interested in the bizarre workings of human psychology, you'll enjoy this.

fun like podcast

he fills the book was interesting chapters & doesn't spend too much time on anything it's a brief overview & quite enjoyable