The Intelligence Trap

Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes

By: David Robson

Narrated by: Simon Slater

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

An eye-opening examination of the stupid things smart people do - and how to cultivate skills to protect ourselves from error.

"As a rule, I have found that the greater brain a man has, and the better he is educated, the easier it has been to mystify him" (Harry Houdini to Arthur Conan Doyle). 

Smart people are not only just as prone to making mistakes as everyone else - they may be even more susceptible to them. This is the "intelligence trap", the subject of David Robson's fascinating and provocative book. 

The Intelligence Trap explores cutting-edge ideas in our understanding of intelligence and expertise, including "strategic ignorance", "meta-forgetfulness", and "functional stupidity." Robson reveals the surprising ways that even the brightest minds and most talented organizations can go wrong - from some of Thomas Edison's worst ideas to failures at NASA, Nokia, and the FBI. And he offers practical advice to avoid mistakes based on the timeless lessons of Benjamin Franklin, Richard Feynman, and Daniel Kahneman.

©2019 David Robson (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Learned a ton about learning in context of culture

Loved the book and the narrator. So many useful new concepts how to look at the world around me, our brains, our interactions and the various approaches to learning itself. Wish I had read this as a younger person. Going to recommend it to my nephews.

interesting book I enjoyed it very much.

voice writing this book was pretty good British accent. There's a lot of information here, a good amount of it people will have at least heard of. It goes through several examples and logical explains how they're relevant. The first part of the book revolves around the individual and last part is mostly about organizations and groups of people. Overall I really enjoyed the book, it is one of the few books which I have rated at five stars.

Enjoyed the narration...

I really enjoyed the narration and the author lists a history of smart people who were wrong on important issues which impacted their credibility. The author falls short though, as after he explains how majority opinion is often shown to be incorrect correct over time, he then points to current group think topics and how ignorant those are that have different views. He falls for the same academic bullying he previously called out.

Good listen

This book is a good eye opener to remind us about how we get comfortable and make mistakes. Also how crazy some of the best scientists thought outside their field of expertise. I think this is a great book for ceo's and team members in leadership.