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Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives
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.
©2011 Dean Buonomano (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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.
©2011 Dean Buonomano (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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First published January 1, 2011
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About the author
Dean Buonomano
6 books91 followersDean Buonomano is a professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology and the Brain Research Institute at UCLA. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 194 reviews
February 13, 2012
I think I was the wrong audience for this book. It wasn't that it was terrible, but as one with a science background and a long interest in how the brain works, there wasn't any new information here. It didn't help that the book reads like a fake textbook in the same way that Jon Stewart is fake news. It's not that there isn't actual information there, but it's not a citable source. Some kind of narrative framework would have done this book a world of good. I like a great many non-fiction works, but the best ones still have a narrative that is used to present the information being conveyed. Instead it was just a dry "lets talk about neurons", next chapter: "lets talk about synapses", next chapter "lets talk about neurons AND synapses". Sure, there were little quips about observed human behaviors that can be directly correlated to the ways in which it is currently understood that the brain is wired, and perhaps those would help carry the dryness of the text for folks that were not already aware of those little quips.
August 25, 2019
He immediately grabbed my attention with the first line, a quote from Thomas Edison.
It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition—and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing that gives out and then that—“Bugs”as such little faults and difficulties are called show themselves and months of anxious watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success—or failure—is certainly reached.
I'd always credited Grace Hopper for first using the word in this manner in the 1960s after an insect was found causing a computer problem, but this quote comes from a letter in 1878!
The author is a professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology and the Brain Research Institute at UCLA, so this gets into the structure & evolution of the brain in ways most books don't. That's interesting, but can get pretty deep at times. He's also repetitive, a bit more than I would have liked. Still, it was an enlightening read.
Our brains evolved over millions of years for an environment completely different than what we find ourselves in now, so the shortcuts that used to protect us often trip us up now. For instance, we had no use for numbers until very recently. One, two, & many were about all we needed. This explains why we can get fooled by statistics, probability, & other math based problems. As tough as that issue can be, there are many that are much worse & sneakier. All of the chapters focus on some issue & he describes them well. Highly recommended. Well narrated.
1 The Memory Web - our memory isn't a video tape. It is a mess & can easily be changed. No surprise, but why & how it works is well described. Issues like framing & priming are first described, although both are expanded on in later chapters.
2 Memory Upgrade Needed - more on the associative nature of memory.
3 Brain Crashes - explains how neurons work together & why we can have phantom pains in limbs that no longer exist.
4 Temporal Distortions - We don't really have a sense of time that makes any sense. We can detect millisecond pauses in speech & yet think a second is far too long or short depending. Minutes can feel like hours or hours like minutes.
5 Fear Factor - helped us stay alive while hunting for food, but now it can lead us into really weird decisions & phobias. Cows kill more people each year than sharks, but everyone is far more afraid of the latter. Great example with a toy snake.
6 Unreasonable Reasoning - His example of Semmelweis, the doctor that discovered that 'child bed fever' (puerperal fever) was caused by the filthy hands of doctors back in the 1840s is a good one, although he doesn't mention that the doctor wasn't politic at all. Still, he correctly points out that physicians had too much emotionally at stake to think they were killing their patients, so they rejected the data. Cognitive biases are a bitch.
7 The Advertising Bug - The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.
—Adolf Hitler
What a way to start a chapter! He goes on to list examples of how Edward Bernays (nephew to Sigmund Freud) created modern advertising & how effective his methods are. Advertisers modify custom. They don't sell you a piano, but trick you into thinking you need one until you come to them asking for one. No? Why do people pay ludicrous amounts for diamonds? They didn't until the late 1930s when advertising came up with 'Diamonds are forever'. Bottled water is another example.
8 The Supernatural Bug - This section is pretty iffy, but I found it fascinating. I don't like the way 'atheist' is used. Surely not believing in supernatural beings should be the default assumption. After all, we don't go around saying people are rational or sane, only point out when they aren't. But Buonomano hypothesizes that belief in the supernatural may well be the default, a method of classifying data beyond the being's comprehension. It would be better for a caveman to ponder things he had control over & shelve the rest as not to worry about. It wasn't the only hypothesis he put forth, but the most interesting. He also mentioned that children tend to blindly believe their parents, a successful evolutionary trait, since the world is beyond their comprehension & there are many dangers. Without complete faith, they would have a better chance of dying.
9 Debugging Our obstinate adherence to fallacious and irrational beliefs is but one domain in which our brain bugs converge with serious consequences.
He points out that we can't avoid all our brain bugs, but by being aware of them, we can mitigate some of their harmful effects.
It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition—and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing that gives out and then that—“Bugs”as such little faults and difficulties are called show themselves and months of anxious watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success—or failure—is certainly reached.
I'd always credited Grace Hopper for first using the word in this manner in the 1960s after an insect was found causing a computer problem, but this quote comes from a letter in 1878!
The author is a professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology and the Brain Research Institute at UCLA, so this gets into the structure & evolution of the brain in ways most books don't. That's interesting, but can get pretty deep at times. He's also repetitive, a bit more than I would have liked. Still, it was an enlightening read.
Our brains evolved over millions of years for an environment completely different than what we find ourselves in now, so the shortcuts that used to protect us often trip us up now. For instance, we had no use for numbers until very recently. One, two, & many were about all we needed. This explains why we can get fooled by statistics, probability, & other math based problems. As tough as that issue can be, there are many that are much worse & sneakier. All of the chapters focus on some issue & he describes them well. Highly recommended. Well narrated.
1 The Memory Web - our memory isn't a video tape. It is a mess & can easily be changed. No surprise, but why & how it works is well described. Issues like framing & priming are first described, although both are expanded on in later chapters.
2 Memory Upgrade Needed - more on the associative nature of memory.
3 Brain Crashes - explains how neurons work together & why we can have phantom pains in limbs that no longer exist.
4 Temporal Distortions - We don't really have a sense of time that makes any sense. We can detect millisecond pauses in speech & yet think a second is far too long or short depending. Minutes can feel like hours or hours like minutes.
5 Fear Factor - helped us stay alive while hunting for food, but now it can lead us into really weird decisions & phobias. Cows kill more people each year than sharks, but everyone is far more afraid of the latter. Great example with a toy snake.
6 Unreasonable Reasoning - His example of Semmelweis, the doctor that discovered that 'child bed fever' (puerperal fever) was caused by the filthy hands of doctors back in the 1840s is a good one, although he doesn't mention that the doctor wasn't politic at all. Still, he correctly points out that physicians had too much emotionally at stake to think they were killing their patients, so they rejected the data. Cognitive biases are a bitch.
7 The Advertising Bug - The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.
—Adolf Hitler
What a way to start a chapter! He goes on to list examples of how Edward Bernays (nephew to Sigmund Freud) created modern advertising & how effective his methods are. Advertisers modify custom. They don't sell you a piano, but trick you into thinking you need one until you come to them asking for one. No? Why do people pay ludicrous amounts for diamonds? They didn't until the late 1930s when advertising came up with 'Diamonds are forever'. Bottled water is another example.
8 The Supernatural Bug - This section is pretty iffy, but I found it fascinating. I don't like the way 'atheist' is used. Surely not believing in supernatural beings should be the default assumption. After all, we don't go around saying people are rational or sane, only point out when they aren't. But Buonomano hypothesizes that belief in the supernatural may well be the default, a method of classifying data beyond the being's comprehension. It would be better for a caveman to ponder things he had control over & shelve the rest as not to worry about. It wasn't the only hypothesis he put forth, but the most interesting. He also mentioned that children tend to blindly believe their parents, a successful evolutionary trait, since the world is beyond their comprehension & there are many dangers. Without complete faith, they would have a better chance of dying.
9 Debugging Our obstinate adherence to fallacious and irrational beliefs is but one domain in which our brain bugs converge with serious consequences.
He points out that we can't avoid all our brain bugs, but by being aware of them, we can mitigate some of their harmful effects.
October 3, 2016
This book depicts a decent picture of our brains associative architecture which has been developed through millions of years of evolution and natural selection.
The book explains numerous mechanisms of the brain that in the course of evolution were developed to protect and further help the survival of human beings but the very same mechanisms now are the source of many of our flaws in decision making and susceptibility to various exploits.
The downside to the book was first: As far as I'm concerned with neuroscience and brain flaws, the book wasn't even close to cover an exhaustive list of the bugs. The second problem I had with the book was that the author frequently took detours out of science realm into the philosophical domain which I couldn't feel was his area of expertise.
I mean common, I bought the ticket to watch some neuroscience, what's up with the philosophical debates :| :P
All in all, I would claim I got more in depth knowledge regarding associative architecture of the brain and I think I'm more adept at exploiting certain sets of bugs (for good purposes of course :D). Especially eliciting desired goal through priming and anchoring effects.
The book explains numerous mechanisms of the brain that in the course of evolution were developed to protect and further help the survival of human beings but the very same mechanisms now are the source of many of our flaws in decision making and susceptibility to various exploits.
The downside to the book was first: As far as I'm concerned with neuroscience and brain flaws, the book wasn't even close to cover an exhaustive list of the bugs. The second problem I had with the book was that the author frequently took detours out of science realm into the philosophical domain which I couldn't feel was his area of expertise.
I mean common, I bought the ticket to watch some neuroscience, what's up with the philosophical debates :| :P
All in all, I would claim I got more in depth knowledge regarding associative architecture of the brain and I think I'm more adept at exploiting certain sets of bugs (for good purposes of course :D). Especially eliciting desired goal through priming and anchoring effects.
September 9, 2021
In Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives, Dean Buonomano describes 8 different brain flaws (or features, as they are the same thing) that have shaped our lives. Most topics are not new to me, but I like the author, who is a very articulate science writer.
Chapter 1 and 2 are about memory. Have you wondered why it is hard for humans to memorize long lists and do arithmetics in our mind while learning language comes naturally, while it is the opposite for computers? The associative, highly interconnected way of memory storage and retrieval is the key for both. Our memory is not fixed but under reconstruction throughout our life.
Chapter 3 - Brain Crashes (phantom limb syndrome)
Chapter 4 - Temporal Distortion: how the brain tells time. This is Dr. Buonomano's expertise. This chapter is a glimpse into his next book Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
Chapter 5 - Fear Factor: our fear mechanism is an outdated model built for a bygone era
Chapter 6 - Unreasonable Reasoning: behaviour psychology, biases and fallacies. Daniel Kahneman, the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow is mentioned.
Chapter 7 - The Advertising Bug: why we are so susceptible to advertising and propaganda.
Chapter 8 - The Supernatural Bug: this is my favorite chapter, because it’s new to me. Our tendency to believe in the unseen, the supernatural, is the neurological basis of religion. Daniel Dennett's definition: “(Religions are) social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.” The author quotes Charles Darwin The Descent of Man: “The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe in unseen spiritual agencies, then in fetishism, polytheism, and ultimately in monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as long as his reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various strange superstitions and customs''. Two hypotheses of the origin of religion in the light of evolution: by-product hypothesis and group-selection hypothesis.
Chapter 1 and 2 are about memory. Have you wondered why it is hard for humans to memorize long lists and do arithmetics in our mind while learning language comes naturally, while it is the opposite for computers? The associative, highly interconnected way of memory storage and retrieval is the key for both. Our memory is not fixed but under reconstruction throughout our life.
Chapter 3 - Brain Crashes (phantom limb syndrome)
Chapter 4 - Temporal Distortion: how the brain tells time. This is Dr. Buonomano's expertise. This chapter is a glimpse into his next book Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
Chapter 5 - Fear Factor: our fear mechanism is an outdated model built for a bygone era
Chapter 6 - Unreasonable Reasoning: behaviour psychology, biases and fallacies. Daniel Kahneman, the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow is mentioned.
Chapter 7 - The Advertising Bug: why we are so susceptible to advertising and propaganda.
Chapter 8 - The Supernatural Bug: this is my favorite chapter, because it’s new to me. Our tendency to believe in the unseen, the supernatural, is the neurological basis of religion. Daniel Dennett's definition: “(Religions are) social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.” The author quotes Charles Darwin The Descent of Man: “The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe in unseen spiritual agencies, then in fetishism, polytheism, and ultimately in monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as long as his reasoning powers remained poorly developed, to various strange superstitions and customs''. Two hypotheses of the origin of religion in the light of evolution: by-product hypothesis and group-selection hypothesis.
February 4, 2016
travelling mp3, new car and an open road...Description: 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.
The plan was to have a fab fic feb however with a surprise new car and some vacation time full of flexi-time goodness, the month will be dedicated to non-fic as it is far superior at engrossing my neck-top computer.Buonomono demonstrates how bad we all are at maths, well, mental arithmatic to be more precise, and also included was that forensic education staple of misidentification by Jennifer Thompson of Ronald Cotton. Found most of this book contained ideas that I had read before in Science magazine etc. Still, the noddle does contain some strange landscape and is always worth a re-visit.
September 22, 2011
There are far too many popular science books around about emotions and pleasure and goodness knows what, so it might seem that the whole idea of writing about brain-related issues has got a bit tired... and then along comes Brain Bugs, which is an absolute delight to read and truly fascinating.
Dean Buonomano identifies the places where the brain gets it wrong, either because of technical problems - a classic example being optical illusions (there's one of the best optical illusions I've seen in the book) - or because it was 'programmed' for life on the Savannah 100,000 years ago and doesn't have a great fit with modern life. Along the way we'll find things like memory (and why it gets things wrong), incorrect estimation of the rate of passing of time, fear, advertising, probability and the supernatural (Buonomano argues that religion is probably so strong for evolutionary reasons). I really enjoyed all the sections talking about the way our brains get into a pickle.
The only downside is that when the author gets into the technical practicalities of what's causing what in the brain it can all become just a bit too techie and detailed. I'm with Richard Feynman, who explaining a cat's nervous system (I think), was told that biology students would have learned all the names for all the bits. No wonder, Feynman, said, it took them so long to get a biology degree. He thought there's no point knowing all those labels - you can just look them up - and I'm inclined to agree.
But this doesn't take away from the fact that this is a brilliant book about the failings of your most important organ. They won't kill you (usually) but they certainly will enthral you.
Review originally published on www.popularscience.co.uk - reproduced with permission
Dean Buonomano identifies the places where the brain gets it wrong, either because of technical problems - a classic example being optical illusions (there's one of the best optical illusions I've seen in the book) - or because it was 'programmed' for life on the Savannah 100,000 years ago and doesn't have a great fit with modern life. Along the way we'll find things like memory (and why it gets things wrong), incorrect estimation of the rate of passing of time, fear, advertising, probability and the supernatural (Buonomano argues that religion is probably so strong for evolutionary reasons). I really enjoyed all the sections talking about the way our brains get into a pickle.
The only downside is that when the author gets into the technical practicalities of what's causing what in the brain it can all become just a bit too techie and detailed. I'm with Richard Feynman, who explaining a cat's nervous system (I think), was told that biology students would have learned all the names for all the bits. No wonder, Feynman, said, it took them so long to get a biology degree. He thought there's no point knowing all those labels - you can just look them up - and I'm inclined to agree.
But this doesn't take away from the fact that this is a brilliant book about the failings of your most important organ. They won't kill you (usually) but they certainly will enthral you.
Review originally published on www.popularscience.co.uk - reproduced with permission
January 17, 2013
Though many points in the book are interesting, the book suffers from several serious flaws.
First is Buonomano's insistence that everything humans do be explained exclusively in terms of stories about what must have, or at least might have, led our ancestors to live longer and thus be able to have more sex. The telling of such stories is, evidently, what "doing science" amounts to these days, in some disciplines.
The reduction of everything to the amount of sex our great, great, great, . . . great grandparents, furthermore, is not only kind of crude, but ultimately unsatisfying as an explanation of anything. It's like explaining why a billiard ball rolled in a particular direction simply by saying it was struck by a cue stick, while neglecting to mention anything about the game being played.
As William James wrote in his _Varieties of Religious Experience_, "By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots!" Saying where things come from in mechanical terms tells us nothing about their value. Since his point is that what he is describing are "bugs," and thus that they have no value, one wonders what good it does us to listen to stories about how such "bugs" could've helped our ancestors have more sex.
Second, in the book, Buonomano is condescending to anyone not of his (non)religious and political persuasion. You might not think that making fun of religion and the political opinions of half the country would have a place in a popular science book, but Buonomano evidently does.
Third, Buonomano repeatedly uses the language of intelligent design to explain the workings of evolutionary processes. If he is going to present things as intelligently designed, perhaps he shouldn't be making fun of those who believe they are intelligently designed.
Fourth, Buonomano repeatedly appeals to "rationality," or "what is rational," as his ultimate standard for what is good and bad, but never once bothers to explain what rationality is, where it comes from, and what makes it a legitimate standard. Perhaps we should simply make up a story about how appealing to rationality as a standard (is a biproduct of something that) helped our ancestors live longer and thus have more sex.
First is Buonomano's insistence that everything humans do be explained exclusively in terms of stories about what must have, or at least might have, led our ancestors to live longer and thus be able to have more sex. The telling of such stories is, evidently, what "doing science" amounts to these days, in some disciplines.
The reduction of everything to the amount of sex our great, great, great, . . . great grandparents, furthermore, is not only kind of crude, but ultimately unsatisfying as an explanation of anything. It's like explaining why a billiard ball rolled in a particular direction simply by saying it was struck by a cue stick, while neglecting to mention anything about the game being played.
As William James wrote in his _Varieties of Religious Experience_, "By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots!" Saying where things come from in mechanical terms tells us nothing about their value. Since his point is that what he is describing are "bugs," and thus that they have no value, one wonders what good it does us to listen to stories about how such "bugs" could've helped our ancestors have more sex.
Second, in the book, Buonomano is condescending to anyone not of his (non)religious and political persuasion. You might not think that making fun of religion and the political opinions of half the country would have a place in a popular science book, but Buonomano evidently does.
Third, Buonomano repeatedly uses the language of intelligent design to explain the workings of evolutionary processes. If he is going to present things as intelligently designed, perhaps he shouldn't be making fun of those who believe they are intelligently designed.
Fourth, Buonomano repeatedly appeals to "rationality," or "what is rational," as his ultimate standard for what is good and bad, but never once bothers to explain what rationality is, where it comes from, and what makes it a legitimate standard. Perhaps we should simply make up a story about how appealing to rationality as a standard (is a biproduct of something that) helped our ancestors live longer and thus have more sex.
February 10, 2012
We all know that our brains play tricks on us; if you have any doubt of this, just watch some Ted videos that give dramatic examples of this. But Dr. Buonomano’s excellent, lighthearted and very accessible book provides cogent examples of how and why our brains perform the tricks on us that they do, and how we often benefit. One of the first examples Buonomano cites is in his explanation of how “the brain edits and censors much of the the information it feeds the conscious mind [in] much the same fashion that your brain likely edited out the extra ‘the’ from the previous sentence…” Huh? I had to go back and reread the previous sentence to see that there was an extra “the” that my brain (eyes?) had just skipped over.
Reading Brain Bugs is like watching a skilled magician, knowing he’s trying to misdirect the audience but still being unable to spot the deception. This information is valuable even if you don’t want to use it to manipulate your environment, but if you do, there are other fascinating examples. Another one that hook my attention was an experiment in which people are given clipboards to hold – one group gets a heavy clipboard and the other gets a lightweight clipboard. Then both groups were given a foreign currency and asked to estimate its value. The people who held the heavier clipboard attributed a higher value/heavier weight to the currency! This opens up all sorts of possibilities for using the power of suggestion or exploiting “crosstalk” in the brain.
Bryna Kranzler, author, The Accidental Anarchist
Reading Brain Bugs is like watching a skilled magician, knowing he’s trying to misdirect the audience but still being unable to spot the deception. This information is valuable even if you don’t want to use it to manipulate your environment, but if you do, there are other fascinating examples. Another one that hook my attention was an experiment in which people are given clipboards to hold – one group gets a heavy clipboard and the other gets a lightweight clipboard. Then both groups were given a foreign currency and asked to estimate its value. The people who held the heavier clipboard attributed a higher value/heavier weight to the currency! This opens up all sorts of possibilities for using the power of suggestion or exploiting “crosstalk” in the brain.
Bryna Kranzler, author, The Accidental Anarchist
December 2, 2011
Very readable.
Many books on the brain spend a lot of time on brain physiology which gets really esoteric for the layperson, and many fundamentals get lost. However Dean Buonomano discusses basics for how our thinking is composed, associatively, of neural networks and synapses.
On the basis of Hebb's law (popularly described as "wired together fire together") and a few other considerations, such as that brain architecture is evolutionarily based, he is able to describe the foundations of a whole panoply of common cognitive errors and illusions. The associative nature means that the presence of other thoughts can taint our logic. The evolutionary aspect means that certain instinctual beliefs or biases were either adaptive to primitive conditions or invisible in them; the rapid ascent of technics and civilization has made many of them maladaptive. Of course this review is no substitute for actually reading the book. I think that it will change the way you think about your own thinking.
Many books on the brain spend a lot of time on brain physiology which gets really esoteric for the layperson, and many fundamentals get lost. However Dean Buonomano discusses basics for how our thinking is composed, associatively, of neural networks and synapses.
On the basis of Hebb's law (popularly described as "wired together fire together") and a few other considerations, such as that brain architecture is evolutionarily based, he is able to describe the foundations of a whole panoply of common cognitive errors and illusions. The associative nature means that the presence of other thoughts can taint our logic. The evolutionary aspect means that certain instinctual beliefs or biases were either adaptive to primitive conditions or invisible in them; the rapid ascent of technics and civilization has made many of them maladaptive. Of course this review is no substitute for actually reading the book. I think that it will change the way you think about your own thinking.
January 3, 2013
The information in the book was interesting, but there were points that got a little too condescending for my taste. Apparently if you are in any way spiritual or religious, you are a primitive yokel who needs to look to science for answers rather than have faith. Apparently the draw to believe in something more powerful than yourself is a flaw in your brain that you need to overcome.
That being said, the majority of this book is good. The author is able to provide a myriad of research to back up his points up to the last two chapters. At that point he starts to leave us with only his opinions (which he clearly states that he is going to do) and the book devolves into a rather weak ending.
Overall pretty good, though I would suggest skipping the chapter on the "Supernatural" if you are spiritual and don't want to feel made fun of.
That being said, the majority of this book is good. The author is able to provide a myriad of research to back up his points up to the last two chapters. At that point he starts to leave us with only his opinions (which he clearly states that he is going to do) and the book devolves into a rather weak ending.
Overall pretty good, though I would suggest skipping the chapter on the "Supernatural" if you are spiritual and don't want to feel made fun of.
Want to read
October 17, 2015Well, I’ll probably never get around to reading this one. I’ve read quite a few PopCog books, and don’t see any immediate evidence that this one will add anything fundamentally new. But it does seem like a good selection to point towards for someone new to the topic.
The author was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air on July 14, 2011. To check out highlights of the interview, listen online or download an MP3, click over to “Brain Bugs”: Cognitive Flaws That “Shape Our Lives” .
The author was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air on July 14, 2011. To check out highlights of the interview, listen online or download an MP3, click over to “Brain Bugs”: Cognitive Flaws That “Shape Our Lives” .
January 23, 2016
Initially, I like the writing style and what the author promises to deliver. Much better start than last book. It is a short book, but well-written and interesting.
Intro: Our brains' 'flaws' shape our lives. This book provides an examination of brain flaws from an evolutionary perspective. The brain is the most complex, known device in the universe. But it is imperfect -- it is limited and biased, especially in terms of memory, susceptibility to marketing. And now we, all creatures, really, live in a world far different than the world we evolved to fit into. The machines we create, such as computers, have far better memories and mathematical abilities than human.
We are not 'equal opportunity' forgetters. For instance, we are more likely to forget names than people's professions (because there are fewer options for professions than names?) But when we mistake someone's name, we're not going to call them by a random name. Because our brains work on associations/relational networks, we'll call someone by a similar name, a name that is somehow related (similar phonetically, or a relative's name).
Humans are too good at pattern recognition, too good at inferring meaning. We even see meaning where there is none. And numbers are irrelevant for our brain. 1, 2, and "many," are the numbers that matter in an evolutionary sense. How many poison snakes are surrounding us? 1, 2, or many. Those are the numbers that matter.
Our brains find solutions to issues that nature presents to us. But these solutions are not 'optimal.' The solutions are aimed for reproductive advantage. Our neurological wiring is aimed at it. But there is no preliminary 'testing' of these solutions, to assess them. The solutions are tested 'in flight,' and they are more like quick/dirty fixes than optimal/efficient. Then these layers of quick fixes pile up inefficiently, leading to conflict in our brains. This is how we get bugs.
Furthermore, evolution is handicapped by the slowness it takes to raise a human, live a life. And we operate on these archaic neural operating systems. So how do people, brains, account for the slowness? We have the ability to learn.
Chapter 1: Our brains work on association patterns. Knowledge is stored in an associative manner. Thinking of one thing (e.g., raisins), leads you to think of related things (e.g., California grapes, sunshine).
We have two types of memory: Declarative/verbal/semantic memory, and implicit/nondeclarative/kinetic/motor memory.
In semantic memory, we have associative architecture -- relational database, represented by nodes/neurons, and links, represented by synapses. Think of Hebb's Ruse -- what fires together, wires together. Memory is snored via synaptic simplicity/plasticity, and these associations can strengthen or weaken through time/experience.
Chapter 2: The flawed memory recall ability of humans is well-known. Witness recall has ruined lives. The suggested solution is for police and lawyers is to ask open-ended questions, rather than leading solutions, because humans are so susceptible to leading questions. We have fabricated/selective memory. Storing information in our brains is only useful for our ability to predict/survive in the world, not for the sake of storing information.
Chapter 3: This chapter discusses phantom limbs. Limb sensation is activated in the brain, without being stimulated by neurons in the (missing) limb. Brains attempt to adapt to missing limbs. Hm. hm. He encourages an argument for the existence of souls because of phantom limb experiences. Your brain thinks it is still there. Hm hm.
Chapter 4: Associative/operant leaning, conditioning, cause/effect. Our brains discount temporality. We are not wired for delayed gratification because that makes less sense evolutionary. The irrationality of delayed gratification makes sense, then, in this way. There is no evolutionary advantage. This is kind of why the housing collapse happened. Delay fail. Also, we can't estimate the duration or timing of events very well. Time is a perception, based on what we are getting out of the situation.
Chapter 5: Natural/innate/neurological fear versus learned fear. There are benefits of fear, war, and altruism, all of which served early human societies. We are xenophobic because it has served us. Some of our programmed fears are maladaptive, parasitic, outdated. And our fears can be manipulated. But giving into some fears can be self-fulfilling. We can learn and be highly sensitive to very unlikely fears -- because we learn fears effectively by observations. Like a fear of sharks. Learned fears can be just as strong as experienced fears.
Knowing we can be manipulated by our fears, by others using our fears, what can we do? Then he talks about fears in the brain, glitches, phobias, PTSD -- how these glitches make fear become a normal state. No good. And we can't delete fears. Humans have propensity to fear angry people, it's a physiological reaction, even unconscious. Chimps have xenophobia and aggression too.
Chapter 6: Unreasonable reasoning. We have stubborn refusal to believe things we do not want to believe. Framing -- the way we word things -- and context -- these things display what we believe, what we don't want to believe. Gambling, loss aversion, bla blah.
We've got two systems in our brains -- an automatic/reflexive system, and an associative/problem-solving system. These two work together to different degrees.
Later chapters: A chapter devoted to religion and the supernatural. The takeaway message: Science is not designed to answer religious questions. It cannot prove or disprove gods, so it shouldn't even try, be involved in the debate. But religious inclinations have provided evolutionary advantages. There is no religious center in the brain. No origins of morality.
Poses the question: You have to be of-age to vote and to drive. You pass a test to drive, but not to vote. Why?
Plus, we have an ability to make connections that exist in short-term, but not in long-term. We can't see non-immediate cause/effects very easily.
In sum: we operate with an archaic OS and an associative architecture, and this has pros/cons, arose from time/evolution.
Intro: Our brains' 'flaws' shape our lives. This book provides an examination of brain flaws from an evolutionary perspective. The brain is the most complex, known device in the universe. But it is imperfect -- it is limited and biased, especially in terms of memory, susceptibility to marketing. And now we, all creatures, really, live in a world far different than the world we evolved to fit into. The machines we create, such as computers, have far better memories and mathematical abilities than human.
We are not 'equal opportunity' forgetters. For instance, we are more likely to forget names than people's professions (because there are fewer options for professions than names?) But when we mistake someone's name, we're not going to call them by a random name. Because our brains work on associations/relational networks, we'll call someone by a similar name, a name that is somehow related (similar phonetically, or a relative's name).
Humans are too good at pattern recognition, too good at inferring meaning. We even see meaning where there is none. And numbers are irrelevant for our brain. 1, 2, and "many," are the numbers that matter in an evolutionary sense. How many poison snakes are surrounding us? 1, 2, or many. Those are the numbers that matter.
Our brains find solutions to issues that nature presents to us. But these solutions are not 'optimal.' The solutions are aimed for reproductive advantage. Our neurological wiring is aimed at it. But there is no preliminary 'testing' of these solutions, to assess them. The solutions are tested 'in flight,' and they are more like quick/dirty fixes than optimal/efficient. Then these layers of quick fixes pile up inefficiently, leading to conflict in our brains. This is how we get bugs.
Furthermore, evolution is handicapped by the slowness it takes to raise a human, live a life. And we operate on these archaic neural operating systems. So how do people, brains, account for the slowness? We have the ability to learn.
Chapter 1: Our brains work on association patterns. Knowledge is stored in an associative manner. Thinking of one thing (e.g., raisins), leads you to think of related things (e.g., California grapes, sunshine).
We have two types of memory: Declarative/verbal/semantic memory, and implicit/nondeclarative/kinetic/motor memory.
In semantic memory, we have associative architecture -- relational database, represented by nodes/neurons, and links, represented by synapses. Think of Hebb's Ruse -- what fires together, wires together. Memory is snored via synaptic simplicity/plasticity, and these associations can strengthen or weaken through time/experience.
Chapter 2: The flawed memory recall ability of humans is well-known. Witness recall has ruined lives. The suggested solution is for police and lawyers is to ask open-ended questions, rather than leading solutions, because humans are so susceptible to leading questions. We have fabricated/selective memory. Storing information in our brains is only useful for our ability to predict/survive in the world, not for the sake of storing information.
Chapter 3: This chapter discusses phantom limbs. Limb sensation is activated in the brain, without being stimulated by neurons in the (missing) limb. Brains attempt to adapt to missing limbs. Hm. hm. He encourages an argument for the existence of souls because of phantom limb experiences. Your brain thinks it is still there. Hm hm.
Chapter 4: Associative/operant leaning, conditioning, cause/effect. Our brains discount temporality. We are not wired for delayed gratification because that makes less sense evolutionary. The irrationality of delayed gratification makes sense, then, in this way. There is no evolutionary advantage. This is kind of why the housing collapse happened. Delay fail. Also, we can't estimate the duration or timing of events very well. Time is a perception, based on what we are getting out of the situation.
Chapter 5: Natural/innate/neurological fear versus learned fear. There are benefits of fear, war, and altruism, all of which served early human societies. We are xenophobic because it has served us. Some of our programmed fears are maladaptive, parasitic, outdated. And our fears can be manipulated. But giving into some fears can be self-fulfilling. We can learn and be highly sensitive to very unlikely fears -- because we learn fears effectively by observations. Like a fear of sharks. Learned fears can be just as strong as experienced fears.
Knowing we can be manipulated by our fears, by others using our fears, what can we do? Then he talks about fears in the brain, glitches, phobias, PTSD -- how these glitches make fear become a normal state. No good. And we can't delete fears. Humans have propensity to fear angry people, it's a physiological reaction, even unconscious. Chimps have xenophobia and aggression too.
Chapter 6: Unreasonable reasoning. We have stubborn refusal to believe things we do not want to believe. Framing -- the way we word things -- and context -- these things display what we believe, what we don't want to believe. Gambling, loss aversion, bla blah.
We've got two systems in our brains -- an automatic/reflexive system, and an associative/problem-solving system. These two work together to different degrees.
Later chapters: A chapter devoted to religion and the supernatural. The takeaway message: Science is not designed to answer religious questions. It cannot prove or disprove gods, so it shouldn't even try, be involved in the debate. But religious inclinations have provided evolutionary advantages. There is no religious center in the brain. No origins of morality.
Poses the question: You have to be of-age to vote and to drive. You pass a test to drive, but not to vote. Why?
Plus, we have an ability to make connections that exist in short-term, but not in long-term. We can't see non-immediate cause/effects very easily.
In sum: we operate with an archaic OS and an associative architecture, and this has pros/cons, arose from time/evolution.
July 9, 2016
In writing a review I often find it most difficult to be verbose concerning books that I agree with and thus most of my favorite books don't contain reviews. But when I differ with an author, boy, my fingers get to typing. Please forgive me as I pontificate.
I am quite put off by religious fundamentalist who assume they and their own alone have a perfectly objective grasp of Truth, and yet at the same time are utterly oblivious to their unsupported presuppositions, assumptions and circular reasoning. They are completely unaware that they interpret (what they assumed to be the inerrant) bible through certain cognitive filters and biases. In their fundamentalist little world, all that doesn't coincide with what they already believe is nonsense, insidious propaganda, lies and misinformation.
Though on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Buonomano a staunch materialist, seemed just as much a fundamentalist as, say the pastor of Westboro baptist church. The author appeared completely dogmatic and unaware of his presuppositions, assumptions and circular reasoning. He seemed to assume that science, a wonderful method for discovering one aspect of reality can speak about all reality and all science can speak about isn't knowledge. It is like taking a microscope and claiming all that he cannot see through its lens doesn't exist and is nonsense.
So now, science explains everything and anything science can't explain doesn't exist, which is obvious because we know everything that exist can be explained by science and this is known because science alone can explain everything. Now with this presuppositions in place, it is obviously true that science can only discover material and efficient causes--so only material and efficient causes exist. Materialism is therefore the ONLY rational world-view and only truths that are consistent with materialism are true. If you believe otherwise, you are delusional, irrational or inflicted by brain bugs.
Now with the discovery that the universe had a beginning and that science proves there is no necessary Being who is the source of all being, this means we must blindly accept that the natural laws just somehow came into existence of their own accord and all matter banged into being from nothing. After several billion years life formed from inanimate matter, complex information formed from randomness and noise and consciousness derived from non-conscious matter. We must just accept that the brain which evolved merely for survival and to propagate ones genes can in a purely deterministic universe just so happen come upon the Truth that we are all accidents in a completely meaningless and purposely universe destined for extinction.
None of this is science, its philosophy and purely blind assertions. The author believes the irrationality of everyone who doesn't reason from these absurd presuppositions. It has been said that the game determines the rules and the rules determine the game. The author seems to think that religious people don't have ANY evidence AT ALL, all belief in God is completely irrational, a result of brain bugs. Of course, this is because, as we already know, only that which fits in his nice and tidy materialist world-view counts as evidence. He has stacked the deck.
Though not stated, I imagine he'd claim with other materialist that there is absolutely no evidence of design or purpose in the universe. So it was interesting the author repeatedly talked about evolution programming this and designing that, while sharing many of his unfalsifiable just-so stories. He also wrote like this evolution evolved some X for some purpose Y. I suppose it is just a useful metaphors....
He wrote how there is no evidence of a intelligent designer because creature out their could have been better engineered, hell, my truck could have been better engineered, is this proof of the same thing? Also, my truck cannot fly, surely this too is proof it had no intelligent designer. I am not arguing for intelligent design, but I just think it is silly to look at some function of an animal that in could be better in some other context, and confidently claim it as proof that it blindly and mindlessly designed and programmed itself on the fly for some unpurposeful purpose. I also feel the author made light of the phenomenal design we do find, sure, our eye cannot see a penny five miles away, but it is truly remarkable in what it does.
Of course, since the author is a hard-line fundamentalist, there is no shadow of doubt in his mind, that all religious beliefs are due to brain bugs. He then goes on to provide some explanations for these insidious bugs which keep people from seeing how obvious it is that nothing exist but the universe (or maybe a billion of other universes that popping in and out of existence).
Horrible brain bugs infect all children, causing them to irrationally believe in brain/body dualism and in a non-existent God, tragically many never escape the delusions even as they grow into adulthood. Fortunately a thoroughly materialistic indoctrination hopefully will cure them. I was surprise the author didn't discuss how maybe operations or medications might be developed that could kill these bugs, so finally we might live in a secular utopia and eradicate all religion once and for all.
So finally, I will address an example that was either disingenuous or a sign of ignorance in the author, hopefully the latter. He was talking about how religion might have evolved because it resulted in people treating those in their in group better, which results in that group utter hating those outside of their group. His example its truth was from the bible, he mentioned some verse that commanded good treatment of their fellow Israelite and then to contrast this with how Israelites supposedly considered all foreigners, he mentioned the horrendous passage about killing all the Canaanites. I despise this passage demanding the slaughter of men, woman and children, but it was context oriented and only was for those in the land of Canaan. There were MANY other commands in the Old Testament that demanded the Israelites to show kindness to the foreigner, sadly the Canaanites were not included among them.
But yeah, my rant is over.
I am quite put off by religious fundamentalist who assume they and their own alone have a perfectly objective grasp of Truth, and yet at the same time are utterly oblivious to their unsupported presuppositions, assumptions and circular reasoning. They are completely unaware that they interpret (what they assumed to be the inerrant) bible through certain cognitive filters and biases. In their fundamentalist little world, all that doesn't coincide with what they already believe is nonsense, insidious propaganda, lies and misinformation.
Though on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Buonomano a staunch materialist, seemed just as much a fundamentalist as, say the pastor of Westboro baptist church. The author appeared completely dogmatic and unaware of his presuppositions, assumptions and circular reasoning. He seemed to assume that science, a wonderful method for discovering one aspect of reality can speak about all reality and all science can speak about isn't knowledge. It is like taking a microscope and claiming all that he cannot see through its lens doesn't exist and is nonsense.
So now, science explains everything and anything science can't explain doesn't exist, which is obvious because we know everything that exist can be explained by science and this is known because science alone can explain everything. Now with this presuppositions in place, it is obviously true that science can only discover material and efficient causes--so only material and efficient causes exist. Materialism is therefore the ONLY rational world-view and only truths that are consistent with materialism are true. If you believe otherwise, you are delusional, irrational or inflicted by brain bugs.
Now with the discovery that the universe had a beginning and that science proves there is no necessary Being who is the source of all being, this means we must blindly accept that the natural laws just somehow came into existence of their own accord and all matter banged into being from nothing. After several billion years life formed from inanimate matter, complex information formed from randomness and noise and consciousness derived from non-conscious matter. We must just accept that the brain which evolved merely for survival and to propagate ones genes can in a purely deterministic universe just so happen come upon the Truth that we are all accidents in a completely meaningless and purposely universe destined for extinction.
None of this is science, its philosophy and purely blind assertions. The author believes the irrationality of everyone who doesn't reason from these absurd presuppositions. It has been said that the game determines the rules and the rules determine the game. The author seems to think that religious people don't have ANY evidence AT ALL, all belief in God is completely irrational, a result of brain bugs. Of course, this is because, as we already know, only that which fits in his nice and tidy materialist world-view counts as evidence. He has stacked the deck.
Though not stated, I imagine he'd claim with other materialist that there is absolutely no evidence of design or purpose in the universe. So it was interesting the author repeatedly talked about evolution programming this and designing that, while sharing many of his unfalsifiable just-so stories. He also wrote like this evolution evolved some X for some purpose Y. I suppose it is just a useful metaphors....
He wrote how there is no evidence of a intelligent designer because creature out their could have been better engineered, hell, my truck could have been better engineered, is this proof of the same thing? Also, my truck cannot fly, surely this too is proof it had no intelligent designer. I am not arguing for intelligent design, but I just think it is silly to look at some function of an animal that in could be better in some other context, and confidently claim it as proof that it blindly and mindlessly designed and programmed itself on the fly for some unpurposeful purpose. I also feel the author made light of the phenomenal design we do find, sure, our eye cannot see a penny five miles away, but it is truly remarkable in what it does.
Of course, since the author is a hard-line fundamentalist, there is no shadow of doubt in his mind, that all religious beliefs are due to brain bugs. He then goes on to provide some explanations for these insidious bugs which keep people from seeing how obvious it is that nothing exist but the universe (or maybe a billion of other universes that popping in and out of existence).
Horrible brain bugs infect all children, causing them to irrationally believe in brain/body dualism and in a non-existent God, tragically many never escape the delusions even as they grow into adulthood. Fortunately a thoroughly materialistic indoctrination hopefully will cure them. I was surprise the author didn't discuss how maybe operations or medications might be developed that could kill these bugs, so finally we might live in a secular utopia and eradicate all religion once and for all.
So finally, I will address an example that was either disingenuous or a sign of ignorance in the author, hopefully the latter. He was talking about how religion might have evolved because it resulted in people treating those in their in group better, which results in that group utter hating those outside of their group. His example its truth was from the bible, he mentioned some verse that commanded good treatment of their fellow Israelite and then to contrast this with how Israelites supposedly considered all foreigners, he mentioned the horrendous passage about killing all the Canaanites. I despise this passage demanding the slaughter of men, woman and children, but it was context oriented and only was for those in the land of Canaan. There were MANY other commands in the Old Testament that demanded the Israelites to show kindness to the foreigner, sadly the Canaanites were not included among them.
But yeah, my rant is over.
January 31, 2015
Really good read. Right up there with the best of the books on the brain/cognitive science/neuroscience/evolutionary psychology (of which there is a growing number): comparable to The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us and Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, though a little shy of the two best, Kahenman and Tversky's Thinking, Fast and Slow, and Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.
October 3, 2011
This was a very interesting and informative book. The author draws on (and provides detailed references to) a wide variety of research on how our brains work, and specifically, how they are wired. He points out specific ways that our brains have not caught up to the complex decisions that our modern society call for and why we often make poor long-term choices. I especially liked: Chapter 4 - Temporal Distortions and the section where he illuminates the Subjectivity of Time; Chapter 5 - Fear Factor and the section on Amygdala Politics; Chapter 7 - The Advertising Bug and his revelations on Animal Advertising; and finally Chapter 9 - Debugging where he provides usefull suggestions for how we can use what we have learned about our brain bugs to help us counter-act their influence.
February 4, 2014
A review of research organized to explain why our brains sometimes lead us astray or do not work efficiently. Buonomano uses mostly well known and accepted research covering such topics as how we make decisions, how information biases our thinking, ghost limbs after loss of limb, tinnitus, and many more. He treats each of these as bugs in wiring and, for some, also discusses the value of the bug to our ancestors. In some cases the bug works beautiful under some circumstances and gets in trouble in other circumstances such as our automatic judgements that help us when speed is needed but lead to many errors.
Buonomano covers much territory and leaves the reader with much to consider.
December 25, 2012
efore I read it : Some reviews say its slow and lacks detail - these might be better : Stumbling on Happiness The Paradox of Choice How we Decide Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer ehavior Now that I've read it : An ok, kind of fluffy pop-science book about the brain and some of its quirks. There was only enough material for a book about one quarter of the length but it was still an easy and pleasant reading overall. The last chapter ends on kind of a downer note as it spirals into an unproductive rant about the irrationality of religion.
September 22, 2012
It started out good and had some great facts and examples of how the brain works. But, towards the end I felt like I was getting the authors personal theories on evolution and a lecture on the existence, or lack thereof of God. Which really had nothing to do with the original thesis of the book. The author seemed to be making some pretty bold asumtions about natural selection and contorting them to his personal views on religion. He really should have just stuck to brain bugs, it would have made the book much more enjoyable through the last chapters.
August 22, 2012
I wish this hadn't been recommended to me; I wish I had put it down early instead of reading it all. There is little here that hasn't been reported in the popular science press, Discover, Science News, etc. Moreover, I was distracted by errors in spelling, grammar, or usage on nearly every page. Don't bother with it.
July 20, 2019
I had some notes, but I've lost them. This was a sort-of OK book, up to where it came due. I recall being annoyed about something he wrote, but I don't recall specifically what. But take a look at the other 1 and 2-star reviews before you read the thing, OK? Basically, I already knew most of what he was writing about, and didn't much care for his writing style. DNF and don't plan to read more.
December 7, 2013
كتاب بديع رائع. جمع فيه صاحبه أشتاتا من علوم العقل ؛ وعرض لها بأسلوب سهل سلس. وحاول ربط الظواهر بالبنية الشبكية للدماغ.
December 19, 2016
It was a good book, but it took me a while to finish it because some element was missing. Something that would make the argument more interesting, hence 4 stars.
January 15, 2018
Great book written with humour and ample sarcasm towards humans in general.
Chapter 5 on natural fear responses was my personal favourite, especially in light of some of the 2016 political results such as Trump being elected and Brexit. I suspect this book may have been longer with even more hilarious and scary examples if it had been written after those results.
Chapter 8 was unexpected, describing religion as a brain bug may alienate some readers. Describing it as impeding acceptance of scientific and life-saving knowledge is sure to get some people's backs up.
If you are religious I suggest you stop reading at the end of chapter 7 or prepare to be offended. Your choice, I found it hilarious.
Priming is a fascinating idea which has been bastardised by education to result in settling activities at the start of lessons. I wonder if these would work better if they were linked more to priming e.g. having students say something positive as they respond to the roll and do a settling activity based on vocabulary from the last lesson to reboot the content in their brains and have them ready to make connections to the new content. Can't hurt to try. Older students would probably be able to self apply it too.
Chapter 5 on natural fear responses was my personal favourite, especially in light of some of the 2016 political results such as Trump being elected and Brexit. I suspect this book may have been longer with even more hilarious and scary examples if it had been written after those results.
Chapter 8 was unexpected, describing religion as a brain bug may alienate some readers. Describing it as impeding acceptance of scientific and life-saving knowledge is sure to get some people's backs up.
If you are religious I suggest you stop reading at the end of chapter 7 or prepare to be offended. Your choice, I found it hilarious.
Priming is a fascinating idea which has been bastardised by education to result in settling activities at the start of lessons. I wonder if these would work better if they were linked more to priming e.g. having students say something positive as they respond to the roll and do a settling activity based on vocabulary from the last lesson to reboot the content in their brains and have them ready to make connections to the new content. Can't hurt to try. Older students would probably be able to self apply it too.
November 25, 2021
Took this one up as an audio book -- and I'm not sure what I expected, honestly. It's a very long review of existing knowledge with the author's own metaphors / examples and what passes as a sense of humor thrown in. Read the last chapter, skip the rest of the book if you've read any of the source material as the author cites heavily.
My key takeaway from this book was inspired by the last chapter where the author repeatedly discusses how certain patterns in human behavior can be traced back to the importance of successful reproduction. It got me thinking about dominant culture in the US and how "the holidays" really are not a general "celebration" -- but really a celebration of "the family" and conformity to those so-called ideals of shared family. People give lip service to "family" but in the long run - it's really about their own close family and single people are left out or actively excluded.
The author spent a lot more time on religion as a "brain bug" but surprisingly little time on the idea of romantic pair bonding or the "need" to have children as a brain bug. That might make an interesting follow-up.
My key takeaway from this book was inspired by the last chapter where the author repeatedly discusses how certain patterns in human behavior can be traced back to the importance of successful reproduction. It got me thinking about dominant culture in the US and how "the holidays" really are not a general "celebration" -- but really a celebration of "the family" and conformity to those so-called ideals of shared family. People give lip service to "family" but in the long run - it's really about their own close family and single people are left out or actively excluded.
The author spent a lot more time on religion as a "brain bug" but surprisingly little time on the idea of romantic pair bonding or the "need" to have children as a brain bug. That might make an interesting follow-up.
August 14, 2023
A good book for getting into psychology with many memorable examples of how evolution has caused us to suffer with many psychological flaws so called 'brain bugs'. If your starting Psychology A Level or University would recommend.
December 1, 2012
A full executive summary of this book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/01/28...
As much as we rely on our brains to navigate the complex world before us, anyone who has ever forgotten someone's name, or misread a situation, or made a poor decision in the heat of the moment knows that the brain does not always work as we would want. In his new book `Brain Bugs', neurobiologist Dean Buonomano explores the brain's many pitfalls and mistakes (and how and why it makes them), and also offers up some advice on how we can best manage these so called `brain bugs' in our everyday lives.
Buonomano identifies 3 major sources whence brain bugs originate. The first has to do with the fact that our brains are the product of evolution, and have evolved as they have to answer the specific challenges that we faced in our evolutionary history; therefore, while our brains may be well adapted to perform functions that were particularly important in our survival and reproduction in the environment in which our species evolved, they may not do as well at functions which, though handy, did not figure as prominently in our evolutionary past (remembering names seems to fall under this category). The second source of our brain bugs may be attributed to the fact that while evolution has brought us a host of useful mental abilities that have allowed us to survive and thrive, it is still a rather clumsy process, and as such does not always offer up perfect, or even optimal solutions; thus the mental systems that we have are sometimes prone to error and quirky behaviour (hence optical illusions, the ever raging and somewhat awkward battle between our reason and our impulses, and a number of other interesting effects). Finally, the third source of our brain bugs stems from the fact that while many of the brain systems that we have inherited were well adapted to the environment in which our species evolved, this environment has changed considerably in the recent past, to the point where some of the adaptations themselves may be ineffective and even counter-productive today (our craving of sugary, fatty foods, for instance, would have been very useful in the environment in which we evolved--where starvation was much more of a threat than heart disease, but can be positively disastrous in the modern world, where the opposite is more often the case). A full executive summary of the book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/01/28...
As much as we rely on our brains to navigate the complex world before us, anyone who has ever forgotten someone's name, or misread a situation, or made a poor decision in the heat of the moment knows that the brain does not always work as we would want. In his new book `Brain Bugs', neurobiologist Dean Buonomano explores the brain's many pitfalls and mistakes (and how and why it makes them), and also offers up some advice on how we can best manage these so called `brain bugs' in our everyday lives.
Buonomano identifies 3 major sources whence brain bugs originate. The first has to do with the fact that our brains are the product of evolution, and have evolved as they have to answer the specific challenges that we faced in our evolutionary history; therefore, while our brains may be well adapted to perform functions that were particularly important in our survival and reproduction in the environment in which our species evolved, they may not do as well at functions which, though handy, did not figure as prominently in our evolutionary past (remembering names seems to fall under this category). The second source of our brain bugs may be attributed to the fact that while evolution has brought us a host of useful mental abilities that have allowed us to survive and thrive, it is still a rather clumsy process, and as such does not always offer up perfect, or even optimal solutions; thus the mental systems that we have are sometimes prone to error and quirky behaviour (hence optical illusions, the ever raging and somewhat awkward battle between our reason and our impulses, and a number of other interesting effects). Finally, the third source of our brain bugs stems from the fact that while many of the brain systems that we have inherited were well adapted to the environment in which our species evolved, this environment has changed considerably in the recent past, to the point where some of the adaptations themselves may be ineffective and even counter-productive today (our craving of sugary, fatty foods, for instance, would have been very useful in the environment in which we evolved--where starvation was much more of a threat than heart disease, but can be positively disastrous in the modern world, where the opposite is more often the case). A full executive summary of the book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/01/28...
November 11, 2014
I really enjoyed this book! Axons and dendrites and synapses, oh my!!
It's interesting to understand our cognitive processes and I think anyone who reads this book could learn something useful from it. From how to phrase questions so that you have a higher chance of getting the answer you want, to understanding the primitive and irrational nature of your fear of spiders.
I listened to it on tape [unabridged], so I'm not sure if actually reading the pages would have made this more dry.
It was definitely FULL of information, but he did a great job of trying to break things up so that anyone could understand the brain, and not just biology majors.
I only had to ask my NBF (Nerdy best Friend) one question- They rest I understood :)
It's interesting to understand our cognitive processes and I think anyone who reads this book could learn something useful from it. From how to phrase questions so that you have a higher chance of getting the answer you want, to understanding the primitive and irrational nature of your fear of spiders.
I listened to it on tape [unabridged], so I'm not sure if actually reading the pages would have made this more dry.
It was definitely FULL of information, but he did a great job of trying to break things up so that anyone could understand the brain, and not just biology majors.
I only had to ask my NBF (Nerdy best Friend) one question- They rest I understood :)
April 28, 2022
Another great addition to the repository of knowledge about the systematic failures of the human brain, alongside the works of Dan Ariely. It explores a wide variety of topics ranging from the inherent unreliability of human memory, the brain's idiosyncratic time measuring devices, the brain susceptibility to propaganda, etc.
Of course, as a misanthrope, this books makes me even less hopeful about the future of humanity, because I do not see any way for us to overcome the great challenges of our time unless the knowledge of these failings, and the will to overcome them, become as wide-spread as literacy is today.
Of course, as a misanthrope, this books makes me even less hopeful about the future of humanity, because I do not see any way for us to overcome the great challenges of our time unless the knowledge of these failings, and the will to overcome them, become as wide-spread as literacy is today.
August 12, 2011
I learned some new things, particularly about how easily we are duped into believing irrational things. To wit, people intuitively think very hard about who would perform heart surgery on them, because it is assumed that this is life or death. Yet people do not spend much time or effort thinking about leaders who might have control of the nuclear arsenal. Dan Quayle or Sarah Palin as a heart surgeon would give more people pause than as country leader, yet one is personal and one is much more far-reaching.
Lots of good concrete examples page-by-page with good footnotes for future study.
Lots of good concrete examples page-by-page with good footnotes for future study.
September 2, 2011
I probably would have been more interested in this book if I hadn't already known about so much of its contents from prior neuroscience titles. Much of the cited research is exciting, however, new books keep getting published that cite the same studies, over and over. It was news a year or two ago but the field is expanding rapidly so there are already several other books with the same information. And this was not the best one, in my opinion.
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