What do you think?
Rate this book
The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes
How was a brilliant physics professor tricked into carrying 2kg of cocaine across the Argentinian border? Why do doctors misdiagnose 10 to 15% of their patients? Why do Nobel Prize winners spread fake news?
We assume that smarter people are less prone to error. But greater education and expertise can often amplify our mistakes while rendering us blind to our biases. This is the 'intelligence trap'.
Drawing on the latest behavioural science and historical examples from Socrates to Benjamin Franklin, David Robson demonstrates how to apply our intelligence more wisely; identify bias and enhance our 'rationality quotient'; read and regulate our emotions; fine-tune our intuition; navigate ambiguity and uncertainty; and think more flexibly about seemingly intractable problems.
We assume that smarter people are less prone to error. But greater education and expertise can often amplify our mistakes while rendering us blind to our biases. This is the 'intelligence trap'.
Drawing on the latest behavioural science and historical examples from Socrates to Benjamin Franklin, David Robson demonstrates how to apply our intelligence more wisely; identify bias and enhance our 'rationality quotient'; read and regulate our emotions; fine-tune our intuition; navigate ambiguity and uncertainty; and think more flexibly about seemingly intractable problems.
337 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
1080 people are currently reading
19309 people want to read
About the author
David Robson
5 books243 followersI am an award-winning writer and editor, who specialises in writing in-depth articles probing the extremes of the human mind, body and behaviour.
My first book, The Intelligence Trap, examined the reasons that smart people make stupid decisions.
My second book is The Expectation Effect. It examines how our mindset can influence our health, fitness, happiness and longevity.
If you like what you see here, please visit my website www.davidrobson.me.
My first book, The Intelligence Trap, examined the reasons that smart people make stupid decisions.
My second book is The Expectation Effect. It examines how our mindset can influence our health, fitness, happiness and longevity.
If you like what you see here, please visit my website www.davidrobson.me.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 412 reviews
January 19, 2020
Do you know how you end up with ‘friends’ on Facebook that you basically don’t know? Or that you did know, but that was when you were 15 and you only agreed to 'connect' with them on the basis that there won’t actually be all that much ‘connecting’? Well, you may also have noticed that over this summer (2019-20) in Australia we’ve had the occasional bushfire. Many of the people I’m friends with are basically what Australia’s Deputy PM recently referred to as “pure, enlightened and woke capital-city greenies” - this, of course, was meant as an insult. Many of his supporters are the opposite of this, I guess that makes them “polluted, benighted and asleep environmental vandals”. These people have been particularly rabid recently in denouncing any and all claims of said woke greenies. One of my ‘friends’ posted a list of these benighted ones and also supplied their highest level of education beside a list of their anti-climate change claims. One of these is an Australian back bencher called Craig Kelly (MP), who recently made a name for himself by being told off on British TV and afterwards referred to the meteorologist, physicist and god knows what other qualifications she has who called him a climate change denier, that she was an ‘ignorant Pommie weather-girl’ – Pommie being Australian slang for English person (apparently, Pommy - short for pomegranate - is rhyming slang for immigrant - perhaps if you say it very fast, while eating pomegranate seeds, maybe...). This, naturally enough, had people running to see what his qualifications were (hence the list my ‘friend’ posted). It turns out that prior to his being the Right Honourable, Mr Kelly sold furniture and had only graduated from high school. The list is a who’s who of Australian climate change deniers – well, 7 of them anyway – and of those one left school in year 10, four in Year 12 and two have an undergraduate degree, one in Arts and one in Advertising. The point, I guess, that we are supposed to take from all this is that non-experts should shut up.
I wrote this under my 'friend's' post: "Most of the Einsatzgruppen commanders were professionals; 15 of the 25 leaders had PhDs. I worry about posts like this - I work with people with much higher qualifications than any of these people - but I'm not sure paper can erase stupidity, no matter what pretty words are written on it. I worry posts like this might be used to silence people like my parents who have less education than any of the people on the list above.”
It is too easy to assume that intelligence is something that is both taught in schools and measurable by the length of time one has spent in school. I’m certainly not saying that there are no benefits from education – quite the opposite, in some ways I think it is about our only hope – but the real mistake is to assume that education is enough to ‘fix’ things. It is important to remember that education often reinforces the prejudices of a given society – that education is, in some senses, indoctrination. It shouldn’t be – it should teach critical thinking – but too often it teaches received wisdom. Worse than this, it convinces those who receive an education that they not only deserved it on the basis of their intellectual merit, but also that those with lesser qualifications are also lesser in the sense of their ability to reason – that is, merit has shown that the educated are the same group as the intelligent.
I’m not even going to begin discussing why you might want to start off here by defining ‘intelligence’ – this book covers many of the problems with that more than adequately. Rather, I want to chat about the ‘trap’ part of the title. In a lot of ways this book is a rehash of stuff which is perhaps better covered in books like Mistakes Were Made (But not by me) or Sway – there were endless books of this kind printed about a decade ago, and I would still recommend most of them. The ‘trap’ part of this is the bit where we use our intelligence to work against what might otherwise be our better judgement. The examples given in the book include lots of scientists who become convinced of some crazy nonsense about HIV-AIDS or vaccinations or alien abductions – and then, once they are so convinced, no amount of evidence is enough to convince them otherwise. The point made here is that their intelligence is actually a large part of the problem. They actually use their superior reasoning skills to find increasingly ingenious reasons to explain why the holocaust never happened, say, or why 9/11 was a false flag / inside job, or why climate change is a huge conspiracy of scientists seeking additional research funding.
He then presents a number of ways that you might go about tripping yourself up so as not to fall into the intelligence trap. Mostly, these are things from the books I’ve mentioned earlier – well, and also mostly Thinking: Fast and Slow.
Overall, this book was fine – and certainly worth reading if you have not read any of the books I’ve mentioned above, although, I would probably recommend Thinking: Fast and Slow over this, and perhaps any of the others too, now I think about it – but that might just be because I read those first, if you know what I mean. In fact, the book I would really recommend on this topic is The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making – it contains all the stuff you need to learn with none of the crappy case study examples of people being idiots - often in aeroplanes, for some reason.
I’m going to have to end with one criticism – the author spends quite a lot of time quoting Michael Shermer as one of the great examples of rational thought triumphing over prejudice and ignorance. I once started his The Mind of the Market – I admit that I’m a crazy, left wing, and maybe even woke sort of guy, but I found Shermer’s radical free market views quite hard to take, so much so that I don't think I ever finished the book, and certainly didn't review it. It certainly did not appear to me at the time as the pinnacle of sceptical analysis - and I suspect the GFC might have provided room for some skeptical reappraisal on Michael's behalf. No, actually, I very much doubt that. I generally shudder when people say there is one truth and they have special access to that truth. I’m not sure the world really works that way. And in part, that ought to be the lesson of this book.
I wrote this under my 'friend's' post: "Most of the Einsatzgruppen commanders were professionals; 15 of the 25 leaders had PhDs. I worry about posts like this - I work with people with much higher qualifications than any of these people - but I'm not sure paper can erase stupidity, no matter what pretty words are written on it. I worry posts like this might be used to silence people like my parents who have less education than any of the people on the list above.”
It is too easy to assume that intelligence is something that is both taught in schools and measurable by the length of time one has spent in school. I’m certainly not saying that there are no benefits from education – quite the opposite, in some ways I think it is about our only hope – but the real mistake is to assume that education is enough to ‘fix’ things. It is important to remember that education often reinforces the prejudices of a given society – that education is, in some senses, indoctrination. It shouldn’t be – it should teach critical thinking – but too often it teaches received wisdom. Worse than this, it convinces those who receive an education that they not only deserved it on the basis of their intellectual merit, but also that those with lesser qualifications are also lesser in the sense of their ability to reason – that is, merit has shown that the educated are the same group as the intelligent.
I’m not even going to begin discussing why you might want to start off here by defining ‘intelligence’ – this book covers many of the problems with that more than adequately. Rather, I want to chat about the ‘trap’ part of the title. In a lot of ways this book is a rehash of stuff which is perhaps better covered in books like Mistakes Were Made (But not by me) or Sway – there were endless books of this kind printed about a decade ago, and I would still recommend most of them. The ‘trap’ part of this is the bit where we use our intelligence to work against what might otherwise be our better judgement. The examples given in the book include lots of scientists who become convinced of some crazy nonsense about HIV-AIDS or vaccinations or alien abductions – and then, once they are so convinced, no amount of evidence is enough to convince them otherwise. The point made here is that their intelligence is actually a large part of the problem. They actually use their superior reasoning skills to find increasingly ingenious reasons to explain why the holocaust never happened, say, or why 9/11 was a false flag / inside job, or why climate change is a huge conspiracy of scientists seeking additional research funding.
He then presents a number of ways that you might go about tripping yourself up so as not to fall into the intelligence trap. Mostly, these are things from the books I’ve mentioned earlier – well, and also mostly Thinking: Fast and Slow.
Overall, this book was fine – and certainly worth reading if you have not read any of the books I’ve mentioned above, although, I would probably recommend Thinking: Fast and Slow over this, and perhaps any of the others too, now I think about it – but that might just be because I read those first, if you know what I mean. In fact, the book I would really recommend on this topic is The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making – it contains all the stuff you need to learn with none of the crappy case study examples of people being idiots - often in aeroplanes, for some reason.
I’m going to have to end with one criticism – the author spends quite a lot of time quoting Michael Shermer as one of the great examples of rational thought triumphing over prejudice and ignorance. I once started his The Mind of the Market – I admit that I’m a crazy, left wing, and maybe even woke sort of guy, but I found Shermer’s radical free market views quite hard to take, so much so that I don't think I ever finished the book, and certainly didn't review it. It certainly did not appear to me at the time as the pinnacle of sceptical analysis - and I suspect the GFC might have provided room for some skeptical reappraisal on Michael's behalf. No, actually, I very much doubt that. I generally shudder when people say there is one truth and they have special access to that truth. I’m not sure the world really works that way. And in part, that ought to be the lesson of this book.
April 21, 2020
Robson is a brilliant writer who presented this idea on how and why intelligent people make stupid mistakes and how to avoid it. This book, “The Intelligent Trap” should be required reading for any professional or expert in any field from business, to healthcare or academia and anything else in between.
The book answers questions on why these mistakes occur and how to cultivate those qualities to protect us from errors that could hurt us, our family, or those whom we serve.
Just reading the first 5 minutes of this book, I already felt intelligent as Robson intricately delivers tidbits of information about IQ, SATs, and others. Within it are stories about the faux pas the FBI made, Einstein’s irrational behavior, Arthur Conan Doyle and his belief in seances and Steve Jobs believing how vitamins would cure his cancer for example. These brilliant people and top organizations we know make irrational life-changing decisions that would make you wonder and ask WHY? Robson explains about “bias blind spot” and “dysrationalia” are as concepts that explains the whys.
The writing is very easy to follow and the pace on how the book is presented makes a lot of sense - it is divided into four parts. The first explains the downsides of intelligence on how a high IQ, education and expertise can fuel stupidity. The second part goes over how to escape the intelligence trap going over reasoning and decision making. Third part presents how wisdom can improve memory and principles of deep learning, and finally the last part presents how teams and organizations could avoid disasters and how to create a dream team for success.
I would have to say because of all the examples and stories, this book made it fun to read. While reading this book, you will realize, this book is actually making you smarter while you are enjoying this wonderful read.
I will be reading and rereading this again. As a professional who holds a leadership position, this read was a must for me. Life changing to say the least!!!
Thank you to Netgalley, WW Norton, and the author for allowing me to read an ebook arc copy of this book.
The book answers questions on why these mistakes occur and how to cultivate those qualities to protect us from errors that could hurt us, our family, or those whom we serve.
Just reading the first 5 minutes of this book, I already felt intelligent as Robson intricately delivers tidbits of information about IQ, SATs, and others. Within it are stories about the faux pas the FBI made, Einstein’s irrational behavior, Arthur Conan Doyle and his belief in seances and Steve Jobs believing how vitamins would cure his cancer for example. These brilliant people and top organizations we know make irrational life-changing decisions that would make you wonder and ask WHY? Robson explains about “bias blind spot” and “dysrationalia” are as concepts that explains the whys.
The writing is very easy to follow and the pace on how the book is presented makes a lot of sense - it is divided into four parts. The first explains the downsides of intelligence on how a high IQ, education and expertise can fuel stupidity. The second part goes over how to escape the intelligence trap going over reasoning and decision making. Third part presents how wisdom can improve memory and principles of deep learning, and finally the last part presents how teams and organizations could avoid disasters and how to create a dream team for success.
I would have to say because of all the examples and stories, this book made it fun to read. While reading this book, you will realize, this book is actually making you smarter while you are enjoying this wonderful read.
I will be reading and rereading this again. As a professional who holds a leadership position, this read was a must for me. Life changing to say the least!!!
Thank you to Netgalley, WW Norton, and the author for allowing me to read an ebook arc copy of this book.
March 24, 2019
My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.
May 1, 2021
A couple of months ago, I came across a post on LinkedIn, where a senior professional with an IIM degree had shared a post about an Indian student. This student, in his late teens, was said to have secured two patents in his name already and he was also said to have rejected the invitation from the then US President Donald Trump to join NASA. Under the message and the said student’s photograph was a nationalist slogan. The fact is, this message was proven to be a fake information more than a year ago, but our senior professional had no clue about it. Neither did he bother to check the truth before posting it on a professional forum like LinkedIn. There was this stinging comment under that post – ‘Can’t you differentiate fake news from the real ones? How the h*** did you pass from IIM?’
Well, we all have that one friend (or many, as in my case) that shares fake news or unverified information on their social media posts or through WhatsApp. While I have been able to change a few of them and make them verify anything before they share it with others – or at least with me – I have also lost friends due to what they consider to be my ‘pedantic’ approach. I have always wondered about what makes these people, most of them well-educated and in respectable professions, share fake information without ever checking its veracity. This book is an apt answer to that question.
Well, this book isn’t purely about debunking fake information, but about why supposedly smart, well-educated people do stupid things and end up with egg on their faces. Starting with how we mistake IQ as a measure of intelligence, though people with much lower IQ scores often outperform such ‘geniuses’, the book lays down its arguments for how often intelligence is nothing but thin ice – cool and shiny but fragile and pointless.
Starting from a Nobel prize winning scientist that denied climate change and HIV to detailing the whims of Steve Jobs, the man who made Apple what it is today, the book delves into the logical fallacies that plagues every intelligent mind. Becoming myopic due to their acknowledged genius, having their ideas and opinions crystallized despite proven facts to the contrary, inability to listen to the opinions and learn from others are some of the mental malaises that victimized many of the most brilliant minds in human history. This book speaks about such weaknesses and elicits lessons from their mistakes. Speaking about organizations, it states the reasons for why even the most successful organizations like Nokia went into a tailspin and why NASA had to have more than one disaster to strengthen its engineering processes.
There are still people that believe that the world is flat and, at present, that COVID is a hoax, despite glaring evidences staring at their faces. The tragedy is that most, if not all, of these people are well-educated and supposedly of sane minds. The logical fallacies that dominate their thinking is all laid bare in this book. The cure to such malaises? Curiosity and intellectual humility.
In an age when ultra-nationalists and bigots are taking over every public forum to spew venom by spreading lies and misinformation, books like these can boost rational thinking and logical abilities. It gets a tad slow at times, but is a worthy read nevertheless!
A.
Well, we all have that one friend (or many, as in my case) that shares fake news or unverified information on their social media posts or through WhatsApp. While I have been able to change a few of them and make them verify anything before they share it with others – or at least with me – I have also lost friends due to what they consider to be my ‘pedantic’ approach. I have always wondered about what makes these people, most of them well-educated and in respectable professions, share fake information without ever checking its veracity. This book is an apt answer to that question.
Well, this book isn’t purely about debunking fake information, but about why supposedly smart, well-educated people do stupid things and end up with egg on their faces. Starting with how we mistake IQ as a measure of intelligence, though people with much lower IQ scores often outperform such ‘geniuses’, the book lays down its arguments for how often intelligence is nothing but thin ice – cool and shiny but fragile and pointless.
Starting from a Nobel prize winning scientist that denied climate change and HIV to detailing the whims of Steve Jobs, the man who made Apple what it is today, the book delves into the logical fallacies that plagues every intelligent mind. Becoming myopic due to their acknowledged genius, having their ideas and opinions crystallized despite proven facts to the contrary, inability to listen to the opinions and learn from others are some of the mental malaises that victimized many of the most brilliant minds in human history. This book speaks about such weaknesses and elicits lessons from their mistakes. Speaking about organizations, it states the reasons for why even the most successful organizations like Nokia went into a tailspin and why NASA had to have more than one disaster to strengthen its engineering processes.
There are still people that believe that the world is flat and, at present, that COVID is a hoax, despite glaring evidences staring at their faces. The tragedy is that most, if not all, of these people are well-educated and supposedly of sane minds. The logical fallacies that dominate their thinking is all laid bare in this book. The cure to such malaises? Curiosity and intellectual humility.
In an age when ultra-nationalists and bigots are taking over every public forum to spew venom by spreading lies and misinformation, books like these can boost rational thinking and logical abilities. It gets a tad slow at times, but is a worthy read nevertheless!
A.
November 15, 2020
Why do smart people make mistakes?
1. Lack of tacit knowledge and counter-factual thinking.
2. Dysrationalia, motivated reasoning, bias blind spot. More information just makes intelligent people more stuck to their opinion. Some smart people are very gullible.
3. Earned dogmatism: hubris.
4. Entrenched automatic behaviours.
Solution:
1. Active open minded thinking
2. Intellectual humility
3. Emotion differentiation
4. Cognitive reflection: view yourself as third person
5. Be curious
Bullshit detection Kit:
1. Appeal to ignorance
2. Appeal to authority
3. Correlation is causation
4. Straw man arguments (misrepresenting an argument to make it look ridiculous)
5. Appeal to the bandwagon (popular opinion must be true)
6. False dichotomy (narrowing to 2 choices only)
7. Red herrings (use irrelevant info)
8. Special pleading
Learn better:
1. Growth mindset
2. Struggle through the material
Build teams:
1. No interactions like baseball: grab all the superstars.
2. Cooperation needed: 50-60% superstars maximum. Any more and performance deteriorated.
3. Humble leader avoids disasters. Authoritarian leaders achieve higher heights but leave more casualties.
4. Always think of failures
5. Ask employers to be sceptical and communicate if problems arise
6. Do pre-mortems and analyse near misses
7. Trust staff on the ground
I enjoyed this book!
1. Lack of tacit knowledge and counter-factual thinking.
2. Dysrationalia, motivated reasoning, bias blind spot. More information just makes intelligent people more stuck to their opinion. Some smart people are very gullible.
3. Earned dogmatism: hubris.
4. Entrenched automatic behaviours.
Solution:
1. Active open minded thinking
2. Intellectual humility
3. Emotion differentiation
4. Cognitive reflection: view yourself as third person
5. Be curious
Bullshit detection Kit:
1. Appeal to ignorance
2. Appeal to authority
3. Correlation is causation
4. Straw man arguments (misrepresenting an argument to make it look ridiculous)
5. Appeal to the bandwagon (popular opinion must be true)
6. False dichotomy (narrowing to 2 choices only)
7. Red herrings (use irrelevant info)
8. Special pleading
Learn better:
1. Growth mindset
2. Struggle through the material
Build teams:
1. No interactions like baseball: grab all the superstars.
2. Cooperation needed: 50-60% superstars maximum. Any more and performance deteriorated.
3. Humble leader avoids disasters. Authoritarian leaders achieve higher heights but leave more casualties.
4. Always think of failures
5. Ask employers to be sceptical and communicate if problems arise
6. Do pre-mortems and analyse near misses
7. Trust staff on the ground
I enjoyed this book!
August 7, 2019
Well, "smart people" do know about cognitive biases and thus are less likely to make dumb mistakes. Author just doesn't compare with the control group, so the conclusion "about smart people making dumb mistakes" is maybe/ unknown/ undefined. Also, author maybe talks about "smart" who are unconscious enough to examine their own thought processes, which, by definition, is no "smart" at all.
IMO, intelligence trap relies in very intense usage of brain's "RAM", so due to that there may be some dumb mistakes, but still we don't have the comparisons with "low RAM intensity people", who often act without thinking too much. I suspect, later people make much more so called "dumb mistakes".
And, all in all, I don't think there are "dumb mistakes", because all mistakes are the natural consequence of (any) activity.
Dropped, just another nonsense in so called "psychology" (= poorly quantified) field.
IMO, intelligence trap relies in very intense usage of brain's "RAM", so due to that there may be some dumb mistakes, but still we don't have the comparisons with "low RAM intensity people", who often act without thinking too much. I suspect, later people make much more so called "dumb mistakes".
And, all in all, I don't think there are "dumb mistakes", because all mistakes are the natural consequence of (any) activity.
Dropped, just another nonsense in so called "psychology" (= poorly quantified) field.
July 8, 2019
This book is great. It should be required reading for anyone who believes it shouldn’t be.
After reading this I realise I am doubly cognitively challenged. I’m not so intelligent that I am one of those who can effortlessly explain my biases and faulty thinking away, but I still manage to fall for them, only noticing them after the fact. I have lost count of the number of times I thought “uh oh, I’ve done that” while reading it.
Needless to say, it was a humbling and enlightening experience reading this book, but I do believe that I am a little bit better for having read it.
After reading this I realise I am doubly cognitively challenged. I’m not so intelligent that I am one of those who can effortlessly explain my biases and faulty thinking away, but I still manage to fall for them, only noticing them after the fact. I have lost count of the number of times I thought “uh oh, I’ve done that” while reading it.
Needless to say, it was a humbling and enlightening experience reading this book, but I do believe that I am a little bit better for having read it.
August 10, 2019
This is a good book describing the most common mistakes and biases in our decision making progress. Author focuses on highly intelligent people, but I think similar mistakes are committed by average Joe. Most presented studie results can be probably extrapolated to the general population.
Author describes roles of overconfidence, lack of emotional self control and open mindness and problems with cognitive reflection as a main factors of failures despite having high IQ. In my observation, lack of emotional distance and control is number one factor of overwhelming majority of people's life mistakes and I wish there would be more about that.
I found presented research and examples of biased thinking to be very interesting and convincing. The chapter about interpretation of "fake news" should be a mandatory read for everyone.
There is some repetition in this book and occasional emphasis on obvious things. Overall it's not a life changer but interesting read.
Author describes roles of overconfidence, lack of emotional self control and open mindness and problems with cognitive reflection as a main factors of failures despite having high IQ. In my observation, lack of emotional distance and control is number one factor of overwhelming majority of people's life mistakes and I wish there would be more about that.
I found presented research and examples of biased thinking to be very interesting and convincing. The chapter about interpretation of "fake news" should be a mandatory read for everyone.
There is some repetition in this book and occasional emphasis on obvious things. Overall it's not a life changer but interesting read.
September 6, 2019
Pretty disappointing.
Robson gets the basics of heuristics and intellectual biases right.
More often than not his examples just miss that connective tissue. Lack of clarifying detail really
When he tries to use sports teams in discussion of having too many stars, his examples of both the Iceland soccer team and the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. Sure they were teams lacking in stars who performed really well. But why did they perform well?
His use of the Mount Everest tragedy fails to provide a point. Was the big error group think? If so, who turned back? Why throw in other examples like the fixed cost fallacy?
There are a number of books out there that try and spin a narrative around the field of judgement and decision making in order to make it relevant to a wide audience. Robson doesn't really achieve that.
Robson gets the basics of heuristics and intellectual biases right.
More often than not his examples just miss that connective tissue. Lack of clarifying detail really
When he tries to use sports teams in discussion of having too many stars, his examples of both the Iceland soccer team and the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. Sure they were teams lacking in stars who performed really well. But why did they perform well?
His use of the Mount Everest tragedy fails to provide a point. Was the big error group think? If so, who turned back? Why throw in other examples like the fixed cost fallacy?
There are a number of books out there that try and spin a narrative around the field of judgement and decision making in order to make it relevant to a wide audience. Robson doesn't really achieve that.
February 8, 2024
✨️ Would you consider yourself intelligent? If so, does that mean you're less likely to make mistakes or less aware of biases?
In a society where intelligence is often linked to professional and financial success, we tend to believe that smart individuals are less prone to errors. However, David Robson, in his compelling book "The Intelligence Trap," argues that higher education and expertise can actually magnify our errors while blinding us to our biases.
How did a brilliant physics professor get duped into smuggling 2kg of cocaine across the Argentinian border? Why do doctors misdiagnose 10 to 15% of their patients? What leads Nobel Prize winners to spread fake news?
These are some of the questions Mr. Robson tackles in his book.
The idea of intelligence still baffles me. We usually measure general intelligence with tests like IQ, SATs, and GREs. If you score high enough, you're seen as smart. We often link intelligence with being logical. But sometimes, even smart people make silly mistakes, and we wonder, "I thought they were smart?"
Robson argues that there are other ways of reasoning and learning that are equally deserving our attention to make us more rounded and wiser thinkers that do not correlate to the traditional general intelligence.
He advocates the concept of evidence-based wisdom which means making decisions and beliefs based on facts rather than just gut feelings or what we already think. It's about carefully looking at information, thinking about different points of view, and being willing to change our minds if we learn something new. This way of thinking helps us avoid mistakes like only noticing things that agree with what we already believe or being too sure of ourselves, so we can make smarter choices.
When we become experts in something or know a lot about a particular subject, we tend to become close-minded and intellectually arrogant. Robson explains that smart and educated people are less inclined to learn from their mistakes or listen to others' advice. Even when they make mistakes, they can come up with fancy arguments to defend themselves, which makes them more stubborn in their beliefs. What's worse, they seem to have a larger "bias blind spot," meaning they struggle to see the flaws in their own reasoning.
So what to do? Intelligent or not, we have to deliberately pursue alternative viewpoints and evidence that may question our opinions and deliberately expose ourselves to examples of flawed arguments. Above all, we have to accept the limits of our judgment and knowledge and being receptive and open-minded of the possibility of being wrong.
Intellectual humility allows individuals to approach knowledge and decision-making with a sense of humility and openness, rather than arrogance or close-mindedness.
[You may want to check my Substack page, The Vagabond Reader. Thank you so much.] ✨️
In a society where intelligence is often linked to professional and financial success, we tend to believe that smart individuals are less prone to errors. However, David Robson, in his compelling book "The Intelligence Trap," argues that higher education and expertise can actually magnify our errors while blinding us to our biases.
How did a brilliant physics professor get duped into smuggling 2kg of cocaine across the Argentinian border? Why do doctors misdiagnose 10 to 15% of their patients? What leads Nobel Prize winners to spread fake news?
These are some of the questions Mr. Robson tackles in his book.
The idea of intelligence still baffles me. We usually measure general intelligence with tests like IQ, SATs, and GREs. If you score high enough, you're seen as smart. We often link intelligence with being logical. But sometimes, even smart people make silly mistakes, and we wonder, "I thought they were smart?"
Robson argues that there are other ways of reasoning and learning that are equally deserving our attention to make us more rounded and wiser thinkers that do not correlate to the traditional general intelligence.
He advocates the concept of evidence-based wisdom which means making decisions and beliefs based on facts rather than just gut feelings or what we already think. It's about carefully looking at information, thinking about different points of view, and being willing to change our minds if we learn something new. This way of thinking helps us avoid mistakes like only noticing things that agree with what we already believe or being too sure of ourselves, so we can make smarter choices.
When we become experts in something or know a lot about a particular subject, we tend to become close-minded and intellectually arrogant. Robson explains that smart and educated people are less inclined to learn from their mistakes or listen to others' advice. Even when they make mistakes, they can come up with fancy arguments to defend themselves, which makes them more stubborn in their beliefs. What's worse, they seem to have a larger "bias blind spot," meaning they struggle to see the flaws in their own reasoning.
So what to do? Intelligent or not, we have to deliberately pursue alternative viewpoints and evidence that may question our opinions and deliberately expose ourselves to examples of flawed arguments. Above all, we have to accept the limits of our judgment and knowledge and being receptive and open-minded of the possibility of being wrong.
Intellectual humility allows individuals to approach knowledge and decision-making with a sense of humility and openness, rather than arrogance or close-mindedness.
[You may want to check my Substack page, The Vagabond Reader. Thank you so much.] ✨️
October 15, 2021
More intelligent and better educated are better in many things, but they are also superior in believing and defending very stupid beliefs, furthermore they have bigger “bias blind spot”. A good read.
December 15, 2020
This book explains how some of the provably smart people (Nobel Prize, or Sherlock Holmes creator) have less common sense than others, or else use their intellect to keep finding new ways to convince themselves of some fallacy like seances.
We are shown a series of studies, for instance of bright children as they grew up, and the author says many of these didn't achieve great work or positions - I saw no mention of the bullying and peer pressure often inflicted on bright kids in class. With teachers adopting the attitude that slow learners need more teaching time, the bright kids often get neglected by the system, or are forced into studying subjects for which they have neither aptitude nor interest. Not even alluded to here, as the author has just picked up studies and books, and quoted them.
Several different learning styles are identified, visual, auditory etc. We see five levels of learning and mastery of a subject or skill, and that qualified people often forget the details they learned over time. Logic puzzles.
Moving on, the author recaps a good deal of the content of Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman? which would be great if I hadn't read it, but I had. This makes me think that he has similarly recapped the content of other books which I have not read and which are referred to in the text. So the value of this volume will depend on one's prior reading.
I enjoyed aspects such as the value of intellectual humility, because I know we are all learning and life is moving fast, so nobody can know everything on a topic now even if they knew it all a year ago. We see that fast content, short-termism, 'what's in it for me' and the quick spread of inaccuracy is making people collectively 'stupider' even though we are sharing more information than ever. While there may not be a lot in this book that we need to know, I did find it gives us a good way of thinking about what it is we need to know.
I borrowed this book from Raheny Library. This is an unbiased review.
We are shown a series of studies, for instance of bright children as they grew up, and the author says many of these didn't achieve great work or positions - I saw no mention of the bullying and peer pressure often inflicted on bright kids in class. With teachers adopting the attitude that slow learners need more teaching time, the bright kids often get neglected by the system, or are forced into studying subjects for which they have neither aptitude nor interest. Not even alluded to here, as the author has just picked up studies and books, and quoted them.
Several different learning styles are identified, visual, auditory etc. We see five levels of learning and mastery of a subject or skill, and that qualified people often forget the details they learned over time. Logic puzzles.
Moving on, the author recaps a good deal of the content of Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman? which would be great if I hadn't read it, but I had. This makes me think that he has similarly recapped the content of other books which I have not read and which are referred to in the text. So the value of this volume will depend on one's prior reading.
I enjoyed aspects such as the value of intellectual humility, because I know we are all learning and life is moving fast, so nobody can know everything on a topic now even if they knew it all a year ago. We see that fast content, short-termism, 'what's in it for me' and the quick spread of inaccuracy is making people collectively 'stupider' even though we are sharing more information than ever. While there may not be a lot in this book that we need to know, I did find it gives us a good way of thinking about what it is we need to know.
I borrowed this book from Raheny Library. This is an unbiased review.
October 12, 2020
O livro, "The Intelligence Trap: Why smart people do stupid things and how to make wiser decisions", apresenta-se com um título e premissa muito instigantes, mais ainda em tempo de: grande polarização dos discursos na sociedade; perda de influência das figuras de especialistas e autoridades; assim como desintegração das metanarrativas que orientavam a sociedade para grandes objetivos. Contudo, não deixa simultaneamente de se apresentar como uma premissa popular, que se socorre de ideias genéricas e crenças assentes na mera anedota, com parca evidência científica. Se estranhamos, chegando mesmo a perturbar-nos, ver alguém que temos como inteligente ser levado ao engano por eventos ou situações simples, até patetas, daí não devemos desde logo intuir a regra, mas talvez antes manter a porta aberta à exceção. Mas vejamos o que nos diz Robson...
.......... análise completa no blog, com links: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...
.......... análise completa no blog, com links: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...
did-not-finish
March 21, 2020Had to DNF around a third of the way in. I’ve seen these topics covered far better by other authors and the constant lionizing of various historical figures and celebrities was increasingly grating as the book wore on. I had to drop it when he started singing high praises of Ray Kroc. I really hate it when people assume that wealthy people must have higher levels of intelligence and talent or they wouldn’t be so wealthy. It’s a pet peeve of mine.
July 16, 2024
This is a quick summary of a lot of factors and logical fallacies that affect making bad decisions. Some studies are cited, but the focused reader may want a lot more. Still, as a summary, I wish I had a copy for my bookshelf.
There is a *lot* of things mentioned here, and nearly all of them relevant. The section on Dysrationalia was fascinating. The solutions and "bullshit detection kit" are all good; implementing them day-to-day would be a great idea.
I don't recall how this ended up on my reading list - it was definitely a good read. I read it as an audio book, and the reader did a good job. Glancing at the author's books, I am interested in his 2022 book The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World. This book too is worth rereading, in paper form - and probably referencing frequently.
There is a *lot* of things mentioned here, and nearly all of them relevant. The section on Dysrationalia was fascinating. The solutions and "bullshit detection kit" are all good; implementing them day-to-day would be a great idea.
I don't recall how this ended up on my reading list - it was definitely a good read. I read it as an audio book, and the reader did a good job. Glancing at the author's books, I am interested in his 2022 book The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World. This book too is worth rereading, in paper form - and probably referencing frequently.
October 17, 2019
4
The Intelligence Trap was an interesting idea and the book is quite good. David Robson has some interesting stories here and I already had similar opinions on businessmen who can roll in money, but can't start a lawnmower. The smart don't have common sense, so when I seen this book my opinion now has some backing by a printed author. Robson has made a relevant book and if you're in the market for some interesting ideas and outside views, this will appeal to you.
Robson has many interesting stories about super intelligent people and learning how weird they are in the background is amazing to learn. Steve Jobs might have made the wrong choice for success on his terminal disease, but he never had the initial decision to try proper medical surgery, instead he went for hope medicine. Someone that was so influential and successful can be so narrow minded when it came to his own health, one of which resulted in his death. The surgery mightn't have saved him, but he never even had that as option 1.
The structure of the book has some interesting shots at the IQ test, which was used in WWI & WWII to separate the soldiers and thinkers. This has always been a severely flawed device and to judge someone's intellect on this series of questions is crazy to say the least. I feel the book raises more questions than it has answers for and that is why I have lowered my rating. It is interesting, but on the other hand it loses purpose as it closes.
Why the 4?
Great book that outstays its welcome. I found this via Script notes podcast as a one cool thing recommendation and I must say it is worth the read. The book can't stick the length and runs out of steam as it treads over ideas. David Robson has crafted a strong book and almost sticks a 5 star rating, but those final 50 pages weren't the best. I will recommend this book as it's relevant and you'll understand how non perfect highly intelligent people can be. There is a lot of food for thought here and you'll do a disservice to yourself if you don't check it out. Especially for the parents of the children some of these deeply flawed school tests are being built for.
The Intelligence Trap was an interesting idea and the book is quite good. David Robson has some interesting stories here and I already had similar opinions on businessmen who can roll in money, but can't start a lawnmower. The smart don't have common sense, so when I seen this book my opinion now has some backing by a printed author. Robson has made a relevant book and if you're in the market for some interesting ideas and outside views, this will appeal to you.
Robson has many interesting stories about super intelligent people and learning how weird they are in the background is amazing to learn. Steve Jobs might have made the wrong choice for success on his terminal disease, but he never had the initial decision to try proper medical surgery, instead he went for hope medicine. Someone that was so influential and successful can be so narrow minded when it came to his own health, one of which resulted in his death. The surgery mightn't have saved him, but he never even had that as option 1.
The structure of the book has some interesting shots at the IQ test, which was used in WWI & WWII to separate the soldiers and thinkers. This has always been a severely flawed device and to judge someone's intellect on this series of questions is crazy to say the least. I feel the book raises more questions than it has answers for and that is why I have lowered my rating. It is interesting, but on the other hand it loses purpose as it closes.
Why the 4?
Great book that outstays its welcome. I found this via Script notes podcast as a one cool thing recommendation and I must say it is worth the read. The book can't stick the length and runs out of steam as it treads over ideas. David Robson has crafted a strong book and almost sticks a 5 star rating, but those final 50 pages weren't the best. I will recommend this book as it's relevant and you'll understand how non perfect highly intelligent people can be. There is a lot of food for thought here and you'll do a disservice to yourself if you don't check it out. Especially for the parents of the children some of these deeply flawed school tests are being built for.
December 25, 2019
The great nineteenth-century psychologist William James reportedly said that ‘a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices’. The Intelligence Trap is written for anyone, like me, who wants to escape that mistake – a user’s guide to both the science, and art, of wisdom. The author manages to gather some incredible anecdotes ranging from individuals to organisation who have fallen to intelligence trap. I personally consider this book a great self help tool. The twenty-first century presents complex problems that require a wiser way of reasoning, one that recognises our current limitations, tolerates ambiguity and uncertainty, balances multiple perspectives, and bridges diverse areas of expertise. And it is becoming increasingly clear that we need more people who embody those qualities.
I have also made the notes of this book visible to all those who are interested. Trust me it will be incredibly helpful for any human who want to improve themselves.
I have also made the notes of this book visible to all those who are interested. Trust me it will be incredibly helpful for any human who want to improve themselves.
July 27, 2019
A must-read for everyone who wants to improve their thinking skills, whether you are a high-school student or NASA scientist. The author, renowned science reporter David Robson, has based the book on expert interviews and peer-reviewed sources. To put the main point in short: ability (and desire) to use our brain is even more important than high IQ. High IQ is like a powerful engine in a car, but without driving skills and good navigation system you are not the first one in destination. Robson reminds of the importance of intellectual humility and illustrates why we should avoid motivated reasoning (= we have decided the outcome and choose the evidence).
The book is a fluent read for non-native English skills also, and the scientific findings are made alive with interesting stories on space shuttle disasters, oil spills and Japanese classroom.
The book is a fluent read for non-native English skills also, and the scientific findings are made alive with interesting stories on space shuttle disasters, oil spills and Japanese classroom.
August 11, 2019
We all know them, the forgetful professor, the absentminded scientist, and otherwise seemingly intelligent people who do things that make us blink. One example in this book is a prominent scientist who is convince that aliens are among us. This book looks at why it is very easy for experts in a field not belief the evidence that is right in front of their eyes.
I really enjoyed this book. Robson skillfully wove both anecdotes and larger data studies together to show why having a high IQ doesn't necessarily mean that you are the smartest person in the room.
I really enjoyed this book. Robson skillfully wove both anecdotes and larger data studies together to show why having a high IQ doesn't necessarily mean that you are the smartest person in the room.
August 31, 2023
Burvīga grāmata ar daudz un ļoti dažādiem piemēriem kā inteliģenti cilvēki savu zināšanu dēļ iekrīt nepareizos lēmumos un pat veic prātam neaptveramas izvēles.
Augsta rekomendācija no manas puses!
Augsta rekomendācija no manas puses!
May 14, 2025
Another book in the psychological biases / irrationality vein. It was okay, although I'm not sure it was much more insightful than someone could've guessed
October 21, 2019
Book Title: The Intelligence Trap
Author: David Robinson
Format: Hardcover
Book Title:
The title of the book ' The Intelligence Trap ' is very different and interesting
Book Cover:
The cover image of the book is a simple plain colored turquoise cover with the title in yellow.
Inside the book:
In this debut book, the writer Robson examines the “flawed mental habits” of people with “greater intelligence, education, and professional expertise”—and how they can learn to “think more wisely.” The book talks about human stupidity; which hides in secret areas behind veils of pseudo or incomplete intelligence. It appears as if total stupidity is constant and when it is reduced in one cognitive field it can grow in other areas.
The Intelligence Trap was quite a different sort of book. It is definitely not at all the normally available self-help. This is very informative and there are some interesting things to learn and know. However, at one point during reading the book felt slow-paced and kind of fell flat. On the other hand, the second part becomes more interesting in comparison with various examples put in.
Overall the book is a typically designed yet different genre book to understand the psyche of a human mind.
What I like:
1. The concepts explained
2. The take on the human mind and behavior related to psychology
3. It talks about many important things such as the importance of the productive struggle, mindfulness, biases and etc
What I didn't like:
Though an interesting read, too much information makes the book little slow-paced and boring in some places.
My Final Rating: 3/5
Author: David Robinson
Format: Hardcover
Book Title:
The title of the book ' The Intelligence Trap ' is very different and interesting
Book Cover:
The cover image of the book is a simple plain colored turquoise cover with the title in yellow.
Inside the book:
In this debut book, the writer Robson examines the “flawed mental habits” of people with “greater intelligence, education, and professional expertise”—and how they can learn to “think more wisely.” The book talks about human stupidity; which hides in secret areas behind veils of pseudo or incomplete intelligence. It appears as if total stupidity is constant and when it is reduced in one cognitive field it can grow in other areas.
The Intelligence Trap was quite a different sort of book. It is definitely not at all the normally available self-help. This is very informative and there are some interesting things to learn and know. However, at one point during reading the book felt slow-paced and kind of fell flat. On the other hand, the second part becomes more interesting in comparison with various examples put in.
Overall the book is a typically designed yet different genre book to understand the psyche of a human mind.
What I like:
1. The concepts explained
2. The take on the human mind and behavior related to psychology
3. It talks about many important things such as the importance of the productive struggle, mindfulness, biases and etc
What I didn't like:
Though an interesting read, too much information makes the book little slow-paced and boring in some places.
My Final Rating: 3/5
February 27, 2022
The intelligence trap:
Im a firm believer in the idea that logic/positivism/the scientific-method are all but one perspective of what the truth could be and not the definitive fool-proof path to it. I couldn’t help but feel that Robson seemed a bit prejudiced towards “intellectuals” that believed in things that are not necessarily evidence-based, which for me was a bit disappointing. Believing in things beyond this norm doesn’t make smart people more prone to error or to stupidity. Im very skeptical towards people who view life as such.
Robson also dedicates a large portion of his book to supporting the claim that “intelligent people are more prone to error because of [x]” - which is fair but while not stated explicitly, it espouses the idea that lesser-intelligent people are not prone to such errors, which imo is highly doubtful. He does a great job at pointing out all these cognitive biases, but it makes you think - it could just be part of the human condition and has little to do with how smart you are.
But I must digress - as those few criticisms do not overlap the entire book. By the third part of the book, his explanations were more true to the title albeit extremely dreary and repetitive.
January 2, 2021
Best part of this book is the wealth of references, I have not encountered a book with more.
Our HR Department has given this book to me as a participant of a workshop meant for senior management. I can vouchsafe that most of the participants must have shelved it, which is rather unfortunate as this book is an eye-opener on how our knowledge and experience may, in effect, blinker our visions and damages our ability as economic policy makers. Somebody in our HRD has done a great job in selecting this book so that "meaningful conversations" can be aided. We can get much much more from our teams and joining the minds in the proper way and leverage the brain power in our institution.
This book is all about bringing back the curiosity and stimulate the thrust of knowledge by making us humble to the fact that if we think you know a lot then we know little. This is a book which rejuvenates the 'mature' to become a kid again.
Our HR Department has given this book to me as a participant of a workshop meant for senior management. I can vouchsafe that most of the participants must have shelved it, which is rather unfortunate as this book is an eye-opener on how our knowledge and experience may, in effect, blinker our visions and damages our ability as economic policy makers. Somebody in our HRD has done a great job in selecting this book so that "meaningful conversations" can be aided. We can get much much more from our teams and joining the minds in the proper way and leverage the brain power in our institution.
This book is all about bringing back the curiosity and stimulate the thrust of knowledge by making us humble to the fact that if we think you know a lot then we know little. This is a book which rejuvenates the 'mature' to become a kid again.
September 29, 2020
Her ne kadar kitap zeka uzerine yazilmis gibi gorunse de, bence Robson ilginc bircok hikaye uzerinden insan davranisi uzerine guzel bir kitap yazmis. Ne yaptigimizin nasil ilkel (limbic) ve modern (prefrontal complex) beyin bolgelerimiz arasindaki iletisim sonucu ortaya ciktigi, yani zeka ve duygu/gudulerin karisimi ortaya nasil trajikomik sonuclar dogurabilecegini anlatan bir kitap.
June 10, 2019
This is a life-changing read for me. Will definitely be rereading.
July 30, 2019
Really interesting, I can't think of anyone I wouldn't recommend read this.
August 31, 2019
Contains some useful ideas and gems on how to apply Intellectual humility in your daily life,and how we can combat our blind spot.
November 16, 2022
Benzer konuları daha önce başka kitaplarda rastlamıştım. Kitap biraz gereksiz uzatılmış olsa da ders alınacak çok yararlı bilgiler var.
Bugüne kadar görüğüm en akıcı çeviri olmasından dolayı da 4.
Bugüne kadar görüğüm en akıcı çeviri olmasından dolayı da 4.
September 30, 2022
OVERALL: 4.8
Language: 5.0
Content: 4.1 (+0.6 for the taxonomy appendix & citation)
Value/Lesson: 4.8
For those who are new to these psychological-terms-concept-world thingies, this book is a great starter. I learned a lot of fascinating psychological theories.
I bought it because of the intriguing title (and it was on promotion!). As someone who was a part of the Malaysian National Gifted Center (and apparently, one of the brightest students there), this book hit me close to home, particularly Part 1 of the book - The downsides of intelligence: How a high IQ, education and expertise can fuel stupidity.
Over the years, I could feel my IQ deteriorating - no, my general intelligence is. The author put those abstract thoughts that I have in my mind, into intelligible logical words. Oftentimes, I found myself thinking 'Oh, this is true.' while reading the book. Having said that, the book has so many anecdotes and real-life events that I have never known before, which show the author's great efforts in researching and consulting various experts to produce this 300+ pages-book. Apart from that, the book also includes experiments (and simplified details) to give the readers a taster of the why-and-how something or someone is - rather than plainly put it as a fact. Moreover, this book feels 'neat' as it includes citations - I can always refer to these to explore more.
The language style used is perfectly comprehensible. The author avoided using jargon (even if he did, he explained each of the words' meanings). So I find this book suitable for all types of backgrounds and professions - as has been mentioned in the synopsis.
Some lessons/reflections I got:
- Autobiographies/biographies are great. They serve a purpose. I didn't know an autobiography/biography could be fun (and insightful).
- 'For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.' -Benjamin Franklin
All there's left is to apply these theories in our real lives.
Language: 5.0
Content: 4.1 (+0.6 for the taxonomy appendix & citation)
Value/Lesson: 4.8
For those who are new to these psychological-terms-concept-world thingies, this book is a great starter. I learned a lot of fascinating psychological theories.
I bought it because of the intriguing title (and it was on promotion!). As someone who was a part of the Malaysian National Gifted Center (and apparently, one of the brightest students there), this book hit me close to home, particularly Part 1 of the book - The downsides of intelligence: How a high IQ, education and expertise can fuel stupidity.
Over the years, I could feel my IQ deteriorating - no, my general intelligence is. The author put those abstract thoughts that I have in my mind, into intelligible logical words. Oftentimes, I found myself thinking 'Oh, this is true.' while reading the book. Having said that, the book has so many anecdotes and real-life events that I have never known before, which show the author's great efforts in researching and consulting various experts to produce this 300+ pages-book. Apart from that, the book also includes experiments (and simplified details) to give the readers a taster of the why-and-how something or someone is - rather than plainly put it as a fact. Moreover, this book feels 'neat' as it includes citations - I can always refer to these to explore more.
The language style used is perfectly comprehensible. The author avoided using jargon (even if he did, he explained each of the words' meanings). So I find this book suitable for all types of backgrounds and professions - as has been mentioned in the synopsis.
Some lessons/reflections I got:
- Autobiographies/biographies are great. They serve a purpose. I didn't know an autobiography/biography could be fun (and insightful).
- 'For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.' -Benjamin Franklin
All there's left is to apply these theories in our real lives.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 412 reviews