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How can confusing directions actually help us? Why can large bonuses make CEOs less productive? Why is there such a big difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy? In his groundbreaking book Predictably Irrational, social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, in The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality...
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The follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. Far from being a naive hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against...
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"Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it explain why there seems to be so much irrationality in the world, including, let's be honest, in each of us? These are the goals of Steven Pinker's follow-up to Enlightenment Now (Bill Gates's "new favorite book of all time"). Humans today are often portrayed as cavemen out of time, poised to react to a lion in the grass with a suite of biases, blind spots, fallacies, and illusions. But this, Pinker...
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An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise, based on the popular blog of the same name.
Whether you’re deciding which smartphone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic. But here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us—but that’s okay, because...
Whether you’re deciding which smartphone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic. But here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us—but that’s okay, because...
6) Candide
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Candide is about a man who believes in the philosophy that: "what happens, happens for the best in the end." that was taught to him by his personal philosopher Dr. Panlosss. Candide goes through many, many trials and everyone he meets has had something terrible happen to them. He searches the world over for his love Cundgonde. And in the end finds that the simplest things in life: love, friends, and health are all that matters.
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"Philosopher Andy Norman dives into the world of mind-parasites, ideas that cause destructive thinking and extremism, and describes how to inoculate your mind to keep it safe from bad ideas"--
COVID denial persists in the face of overwhelming evidence. Anti-vaxxers compromise public health. American Nazis march openly in the streets. Flat Earth theory is back. Norman shows that these phenomena share a root cause: We live in a time when the so-called...
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The popular blogger and author of the best-selling "You Are Not So Smart" shares more discoveries about self-delusion and irrational thinking, analyzing 15 additional ways people routinely fool themselves in areas ranging from attraction and time wasted to best intentions and the true price of happiness.
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Mary Neal takes readers deeper into her experience, which includes encounters with angels, a journey to a "city of light, " and what it was like to meet Jesus face-to-face. Even more, Neal shares how she came back with clarity that the God we hope for - the one who knows us, loves each of us as though we are the only one, and wants us to experience joy in our daily life - is worthy of our absolute trust. She offers practical insights and inspiration...
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An analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has created an environment dangerously hostile to reason. We live in an age when the 30-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Of even greater concern is this administration's disinterest in...
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When Debra Moerke and her husband decided to become foster parents, they never imagined how their lives would change. Debra became especially close to one little girl: four-year-old Hannah. She loved her and did everything she could to help Hannah learn to trust and teach her to feel safe. But when Hannah went back to her birth mother, Karen, it wasn't long before one of Debra's worst fears came true. Overwhelmed with horror and grief, Debra didn't...
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"Follows the stories, in graphic novel format, of two twenty-something roommates, one Christian and one atheist, as they seek to find their place in the world. Explores the themes of faith deconstruction, identity, young love, and loss to create an engrossing world in which waking and sleeping dreams collide"--