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The Age of Magical Overthinking
- Notes on Modern Irrationality
- Narrated by: Amanda Montell
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
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The Age of Magical Overthinking
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Publisher's summary
In the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to eleven. Amanda Montell blends cultural criticism and personal narrative to explore our modern cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages and highlights of magical overthinking.
"Magical thinking" can be broadly defined as the belief that one's internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world. Whether that's "manifesting" their way out of poverty, staving off cancer with positive vibes, or transforming an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one through loyalty alone.
In a series of razor sharp and introspective chapters, Montell delves into cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the "halo effect" cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the "sunk cost fallacy" can keep us in detrimental relationships long after they no longer serve us.
Told with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell's prevailing message is one of hope and forgiveness for our anxiety riddled human self. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason through the noise of information overload, this book aims to make sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds and let the fresh air in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, and maybe, even hear a melody in it.
Critic reviews
"Empathetic and enviously shrewd, The Age of Magical Overthinking will cleanse your beleaguered mind the was a TikTok 'guru' never could. Amanda Montell is a relatable and often brazenly funny narrator, as she creates a blueprint to breaking our minds' worst habits. Who knew there was a path out of the forest of brain rot!" - SABRINA IMBLER
"Written with wit, smarts and self-deprecating charm, The Age of Magical Overthinking is at once a guidebook for the era of misinformation and an illuminating, palm-to-the-forehead reveal of the delusions that underlie our own beliefs. Rarely have so few pages explained so much, so entertainingly." - MARY ROACH
"Amanda Montell's unbeatable intellect helps make human life much more interesting, and a little less baffling." – MICHELLE TEA
"The Age of Magical Overthinking is a fantastic voyage into the furnace room of the modern mind. I emerged from these enlightening pages with a new understanding of my own cognitive biases, as well as an unbiased awe of Amanda Montell's abundant gifts." – MONA AWAD
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