Brain Bugs

How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives

By: Dean Buonomano

Narrated by: William Hughes

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A lively, surprising tour of our mental glitches and how they arise.

With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but it’s far from perfect: our memory is unreliable; we can’t multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain; and what we presume to be rational decisions are often anything but. Drawing on striking examples and fascinating studies, neuroscientist Dean Buonomano illuminates the causes and consequences of these “bugs” in terms of the brain’s innermost workings and their evolutionary purposes. He then goes one step further, examining how our brains function—and malfunction—in the digital, predator-free, information-saturated, special-effects-addled world that we have built for ourselves. Along the way, Brain Bugs gives us the tools to hone our cognitive strengths while recognizing our inherent weaknesses.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2011 Dean Buonomano (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Intriguing take on behavioral economics, marketing, and human foibles.” ( Kirkus Reviews)

amazing in sides

Love it. I keep listening to refresh my memory and knowledge. narrator is very nice to listen to.

Fascinating subject supported by countless case studies

This book offered a lot of insights into how our brain functions and how subtle changes have enormous impacts on our choices.

I found myself phrasing sentences differently after listening to this book. Great read for learning how people can be manipulated and how you are being manipulated by different influences.

Could have left out the vaccine example...

Would have rated this title higher but using the “vaccines cause autism” as a brain bug that ignorant ppl have latched onto is an oversimplification at best and dangerously misleading at worst. Not only is that not the argument (neurotoxic chemicals in high doses cause brain damage is the real argument) but he ridicules those who have done the research and know better. I’m not antivax, I’m for safe vaccines and feel that the book was cheapened by that cheap shot. Wouldn’t recommend

Embarrasing commentary on what we 'think' we know

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

No one that thinks could possibly enjoy this book.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Not sure. I'm sure I can find something fun though. You have a good selection. I just need to be more careful next time :-)

Would you be willing to try another one of William Hughes’s performances?

Sure.

Any additional comments?

I was dumbfounded by the superficial,simplistic nature of this book. The mental gymnastics performed by the author to try and explain the functions of the brain from a naturalistic, evolutionary perspective was just embarassing for me. Sorry :( .... There were also derogatory remarks made towards the end regarding catholic dogma/belief. Not a good experience for me this one.

Cool title, but not much new research

I was interested in the book, because the author was on NPR. After going through it, I was not too impressed. The book covered topics that have been discussed in other brain books and I felt that the author needed to do his research more thoroughly. In the last chapters, he talked too arrogantly about the topic of religion and people’s spirituality.

If you're interest in how the brain works, a better book would be: The Brain that Changes itself by Norman Doidge". That one, I would give 4+stars. That author is actually a MD talking about the brain.

Disappointing

Would you try another book from Dean Buonomano and/or William Hughes?

How poor for the author to let his political biases enter into this subject. Of course such is the liberal need to insert their views everywhere.

Would you ever listen to anything by Dean Buonomano again?

No never, once a biased author always one. I would avoid him in any way that he might communicate.

What does William Hughes bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Narrator did fine with what he had to work with.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Brain Bugs?

Delete the politics and of course the author had to make religious values be a "brain bug" in predictable left liberal ideology ways.

Any additional comments?

I wish there was a way to pre-identify such political writings being inserted into such books. Maybe I need to take the time to read more reviews that might do that.

I was a fool for trying to filter out substance

from among the torrent of unnecessary loquatiousness of this author. I don't doubt that there may be facts among all the distractions.

Intersting subject but

the delivery was so boring that I still haven't been able to get through the entire book.

Not for the casual curious listener

I saw and heard a couple interviews with this author which made the book sound interesting, but after listening, I can not recommend it. The only audience that might find it truly interesting is a first or second year college student considering psychology or neurology- it seems to read like a very general cliffs notes of past studies in these fields.

After slogging through the early chapters of studies, facts, and details, I expected to be rewarded with some practical examples of brain bugs in modern society and how to defeat them. Instead, all the book seemed to do was sum up with "the human brain hasn't evolved, so some tasks aren't easy, and, uh, that's that."

I've never been inspired to write a negative review of a book until now. I don't disagree with the author; I just feel like the book read like a wikipedia entry- there are some background facts and figures and there are a couple juicy ideas that some contributor started writing about, but then became bored and let them die on the page. The interviews with the author had me really excited to read the book, but he left the fun and excitement out of the actual text for some reason.