Search Results for: how the mind works

How Psychology Trumps Everything

The hierarchy of sciences in which, in terms of human beliefs about the real world, psychology trumps everything; The New Yorker on the plausibility of impossible beings (from 2017); Recalling that Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense; How “more than half … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on How Psychology Trumps Everything

Aesthetics: Color Theory: 60:30:10

Here’s another item I saw just recently, which shares with the previous post how a design principle can be crystalized in numbers. Via Boing Boing, Devin Nealy, 31 May 2022: The 60-30-10 percent rule of color

Posted in Aesthetics, MInd, Science | Comments Off on Aesthetics: Color Theory: 60:30:10

Ls&Cs: Interviews and Excerpts: Pinker, Harari, Graeber & Wengrow

Michael Shermer interviews Steven Pinker about Rationality; NYT interviews Yuval Noah Harari about the simple story that can save the planet; and an excerpt from Graeber & Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything.

Posted in Culture, Science | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Interviews and Excerpts: Pinker, Harari, Graeber & Wengrow

Nonfiction Notes: Adam Grant’s THINK AGAIN

Adam Grant, THINK AGAIN: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (2021) This is a recent book, still on the bestseller lists, by an author I had not previously encountered. He’s a professor and TED talker. The book seems … Continue reading

Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Nonfiction Notes: Adam Grant’s THINK AGAIN

NF Bibliography

This page is both a bibliography of the principal, current (and some classic) nonfiction books in my library, and a set of links to my posts about significant nonfiction (NF) books on this blog. (My posts aren’t so much ‘reviews’ … Continue reading

Comments Off on NF Bibliography

NF Reviews

This page has brief descriptions, with links to blog posts with longer reviews or summaries, of the nonfiction books I’ve read since starting this blog about ten years ago. There are a few stubs for books read not yet posted. … Continue reading

Comments Off on NF Reviews

Pinker: Better Angels: Passages and Outline from the Preface

This is Steven Pinker’s big 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, that takes a long-range view of human history to show that the human condition, over millennia and especially in recent centuries and decades, … Continue reading

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Evolution, Human Progress, Humanism, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Pinker: Better Angels: Passages and Outline from the Preface

EO Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence, part 2

Second of several posts about Edward O. Wilson’s book THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, which as I described earlier both here on my blog and on Facebook, is a concise summary of this important scientist’s views on the big issues … Continue reading

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Evolution, Religion, Science | Comments Off on EO Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence, part 2

Two Books to Look Forward to

From reviews a couple days ago in Publishers Weekly. Coming in October: E.O. Wilson’s The Meaning of Human Existence. Wilson, Harvard biologist, is one of the most intelligent people on the planet, author of On Human Nature, Consilience and many, … Continue reading

Posted in Book Notes, Thinking | Comments Off on Two Books to Look Forward to

Review of David McRaney’s You Are Not So Smart

As I mentioned in a Facebook post last night, without bookstores to browse through, I discover titles and authors I might not otherwise have seen most often through web excerpts and interviews — at sites like Slate and Salon, Huffington … Continue reading

Posted in Book Notes, Thinking | Comments Off on Review of David McRaney’s You Are Not So Smart