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Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
- Narrated by: Steven Novella
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
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Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
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Summary
No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever.
These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life. By immersing yourself in the science of cognitive biases and critical thinking, and by learning how to think about thinking (a practice known as metacognition), you'll gain concrete lessons for doing so more critically, more intelligently, and more successfully.
The key to successful critical thinking lies in understanding the neuroscience behind how our thinking works - and goes wrong; avoiding common pitfalls and errors in thinking, such as logical fallacies and biases; and knowing how to distinguish good science from pseudoscience. Professor Novella tackles these issues and more, exploring how the (often unfamiliar) ways in which our brains are hardwired can distract and prevent us from getting to the truth of a particular matter.
Along the way, he provides you with a critical toolbox that you can use to better assess the quality of information. Even though the world is becoming more and more saturated information, you can take the initiative and become better prepared to make sense of it all with this intriguing course.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 22-03-16
Excellent but listen like a true sceptic
What did you like most about Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills?
Overall and excellent overview of the way to attempt to cultivate a rational and balanced view.
Who was your favorite character and why?
There are no characters in this audiobook.
What about Professor Steven Novella’s performance did you like?
As with all the Great Courses the narrator is the expert and thus has a natural passion and thorough knowledge of what they are speaking about. This intimate connection is essential to enjoying an audiobook but is lacking in so many books that have employed professional narrators who clearly have little idea about the tone and rhythm appropriate to the subject matter.
Any additional comments?
I found some of the author's views to be strikingly incoherent.
The author seems to believe that media outlets have sufficient staff to thoroughly investigate an international act of terror, stocks and shares trading by multi-national financial corporations, the CIA/FBI, senior government officials and foreign governments yet he also states that they do not have the resources to employ a qualified science editor to research articles before publishing them.
He also completely ignores the complication of economics and politics that are intertwined with coverage by all modern media outlets whether this be the desire to retain large advertising contracts to the fact that governments have the jurisdiction and power to prevent information that they do not want to be exposed from being broadcast or published through laws that incorporate national security.
The method the author uses to reach his conclusions during some sections of the book are glib, presumptuous and rather hypocritical given the overall lesson of this audio book.
The author's own fallibilities only serve to highlight how easy it is to enter into lazy group think and lose a true sceptic's approach of dissecting and analysing information.
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88 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 12-07-15
How to grow your brain & explode your ego!
This course will grow your brain by challenging your beliefs and give you a clear process to reality check any of your conclusions. In other words, putting your dearest most lovingly held beliefs through the meat grinder of scientific critical thinking. Not for the faint hearted! It is not about how to be right, although it could be, but hopefully it will explode your ego in the same way it has mine and give you the tools you need to have more humility in the face of your thoughts and beliefs.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
- Iain
- 02-01-17
Reasons to think cautiously.
An invaluable guide from a giant of scientific scepticism. Although I have a degree in philosophy and an MA in cognitive science, I found some new things to reflect on in this course. Not to say those qualifications are necessary (or particularly useful) to follow this course.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Tom Sot
- 04-01-17
Fantastic introduction to critical thinking.
That story about a McDonalds burger that's been preserved for 20 years that crops up in the news from time to time is nonsense. Any well cooked burger will be similarly well preserved - its due to the science of moisture, not nasty chemicals. Why is the story so popular? Note the fears it plays on and the people who push the story (health enthusiasts - people wanting to find examples of the evils of modern preservatives, or non experts looking to make a point).
That's one of the hundred examples mentioned in this book: a fantastic introduction to critical thinking. Each chapter raises several points linked to a theme and amply uses examples to demonstrate these and remain engaging. I cannot recommend this enough to anyone at any level. Not for actual experts? Newton believed in alchemy and Conan Doyle believed in fairies...
The narrator spoke a little slowly for me (I typically listen in double speed anyway and slow it for a replay if I don't catch a term or name used) and while the work generally linked to others (some psychological theories or books from others) there wasn't a huge amount of referencing. That's a very minor point from me though (just would be nice to be able to find some of the many examples of generic "researchers in the 1980s" they use).
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 03-12-17
Thought-provoking Science
Interesting topic and insightful, however some of the Science went over my head, although that may be the point of getting to know my Science more!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Paul
- 03-04-15
Beautifully presented
Recommended listening for learning how to understand your own flaws in thinking and catch & correct biases. Excellent!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- jonty
- 14-07-15
Really good
Amazing talk by great speaker. Really says what it is in their title. Thinking about thinking and really being analytical and questioning yourself and others.
Highly recommend for anyone that likes to intellectually engage.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- George
- 17-09-16
Outstanding
Outstanding courses! Difficult to grasp in one go the amount of information. Reviewing necessary in order to fully understand the topics.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David Mecrow
- 28-06-17
Thought Provoking and Interesting
Great concept, great execution. Really helpful at helping you dissect your own thoughts and others'
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Jason William Alls
- 09-04-21
A worthy listen
It is interesting with some good guidance. Listen to it and take from it what you will. But always maintain an open mind!
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