Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, And Wiser
    Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, And Wiser
    Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, And Wiser
    Audiobook9 hours

    Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, And Wiser

    Written by Guy P. Harrison

    Narrated by Walter Dixon

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Critical-thinking skills are essential for life in the 21st century. In this follow-up to his introductory guide Think, and continuing his trademark of hopeful skepticism, Guy Harrison demonstrates in a detailed fashion how to sort through bad ideas, unfounded claims, and bogus information to drill down to the most salient facts. By explaining how the human brain works, and outing its most irrational processes, this book provides the thinking tools that will help you make better decisions, ask the right questions (at the right time), know what to look for when evaluating information, and understand how your own brain subconsciously clouds your judgment.

    Think you're too smart to be easily misled? Harrison summarizes scientific research showing how easily even intelligent and well-educated people can be fooled. We all suffer from cognitive biases, embellished memories, and the tendency to kowtow to authority figures or be duped by dubious 'truths' packaged in appealing stories. And as primates we are naturally status seekers, so we are prone to irrational beliefs that seem to enhance our sense of belonging and ranking. Emotional impulses and stress also all too often lead us into traps of misperception and bad judgment.

    Understanding what science has discovered about the brain makes you better equipped to cope with its built-in pitfalls. Good Thinking--the book and the practice-- makes clear that with knowledge and the right thinking skills, anyone can lead a safer, wiser, more efficient, and productive life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAscent Audio
    Release dateMar 1, 2016
    ISBN9781469003719
    Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to Be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, And Wiser

    Related to Good Thinking

    Related audiobooks

    Philosophy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Yes, Determinists, There Is Free Will

      May 16, 2019

      It’s not just in politics where otherwise smart people consistently talk past one another. People debating whether humans have free will also have this tendency. Neuroscientist and free-will skeptic Sam Harris has dueled philosopher and free-will def

      10 min read

    • Article

      No, You Can’t Feel Sorry for Everyone: The idea of empathy for all ignores the limits of human psychology.

      Apr 14, 2016

      The world seems to be getting more empathetic. Americans donate to charity at record rates. People feel the pain of suffering in geographically distant countries brought to our attention by advances in communications and transportation. Violence, see

      5 min read

    • Article

      Are There Bacteria in Your Brain?

      Nov 29, 2018

      Rosalinda Roberts had gotten used to seeing weird shapes in the brain. Over three decades of looking at brain tissue under an electron microscope, she’d regularly come across “unknown objects”—specks and blobs in her images that weren’t supposed to b

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Language Of Thought

      Jan 28, 2019

      The Language Of Thought
      32 min read

    • Article

      Lost And Found: Bewilderment As An Invitation To Transformation

      Nov 10, 2021

      — When I get lost while driving in the Hudson Valley — which is often — I usually welcome seeing a new place. When one of my two young daughters asks me a thought-stopping question (“Papa, are we indigenous people anywhere on the planet?” “Papa, do o

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Dark Side of Smart

      Sep 15, 2020

      The Dark Side of Smart
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Discernment

      Mar 17, 2021

      Mark Twain is often credited with saying “a lie will travel across the country before the truth can lace up its boots.” Ironically, that’s probably a misattribution (which quite proves the point, doesn’t it?). It takes time to do research, examine ev

      7 min read

    • Article

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Dec 5, 2023

      My 3 Greatest Revelations
      4 min read

    • Article

      Primalfear

      Jul 25, 2021

      Rob Verkerk The Politics of Health An article by Lisa Schonhaar and Gisela Wolf in the UK’s Independent newspaper entitled“5 Habits of Stupid People that Smart People Don’t Have”gives us something of a framework that might help in our efforts to ext

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Things Science Has Taught Me

      Mar 11, 2020

      The Things Science Has Taught Me
      6 min read

    • Article

      Come Out Of Your Shell

      Mar 19, 2024

      Come Out Of Your Shell
      5 min read

    • Article

      Impulse Versus Intuition

      May 5, 2021

      Impulse Versus Intuition
      2 min read

    • Article

      Rebuilding The Herd

      Apr 15, 2020

      Rebuilding The Herd
      8 min read

    • Article

      Student Edition

      Sep 30, 2017

      WITH EMMA LAW RANCE HOMETOWN: Adelaide CURRENTLY LIVING: Oxford RESEARCH: Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience “The first project for my PhD explored how we make decisions when we are missing information, and how this uncertainty influences our c

      8 min read

    • Article

      When Not To Trust Your Gut

      Jan 26, 2022

      When Not To Trust Your Gut
      3 min read

    • Article

      When Not To Trust Your Gut

      Jan 26, 2022

      When Not To Trust Your Gut
      3 min read

    • Article

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0

      Jul 17, 2022

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0
      18 min read

    • Article

      Check Your Blind Spot

      Aug 21, 2018

      Check Your Blind Spot
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Perils of Letting Machines into the Hive Mind

      Sep 21, 2017

      In the preface to Saint Joan, his play about Joan of Arc, the teenager whose visions of saints and archangels stirred soldiers into battle early in the 15th century, George Bernard Shaw makes a surprisingly compelling argument that following Joan of

      11 min read

    • Article

      Social Greedia: Has Our Evolution Been Derailed?

      Nov 11, 2020

      — Have you realized your unique creative potential? In living your precious life, how much have you evolved emotionally, spiritually or ecologically? Have you enhanced your personal responsibility, autonomy, relationships or custodianship of the plan

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Land Of Distraction

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Land Of Distraction
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Good Thinking

    3/5

    3 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Interesting read. Harrison is obviously passionate about science and he does provide a good overview of the human brain and its processes. I really liked the chapters that focus on how our unconscious brain – what Harrison calls our “shadow brain” – has more control over or thoughts and decision making processes than one would expect. At least I now have a clearer understanding of how our brain takes shortcuts when making decisions and how it tricks use into making common errors in thinking. On the downside, I almost “Pearl Ruled” this book early on because of how strongly Harrison believes that one cannot and should not believe in anything that is unproved by science, such as belief systems that may humans incorporate into their daily lives. I did notice that his “science is God” approach to debunking everything from religion, astronomy and alternative medicines was toned down in the subsequent chapters compared to his rather “in your face’ approach in the early chapters. The good, common sense take-away from this book is that a clear thinker will ask questions and seek the source of new information to determine its validity and is open to changing their opinion/perspective should new evidence come to light. A good approach to enable us to not be swayed by conspiracy theories/extreme points of view that seem to abound these days.