Hard to be human : overcoming our five cognitive design flaws / Ted Cadsby.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Toronto : Dundurn Press, 2021Description: 245 pages ; 23 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781459748842
- 1459748840
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 153 C126 | Available | 33111010759757 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Powerful strategies to combat the design flaws of the human brain that make life in the twenty-first century unreasonably difficult.
If other animals could study us the way we study them, they would be puzzled by our unique ability to inflict misery on ourselves. We expend a lot of energy replaying past anguish, anticipating future distress, and stewing in self-righteous anger. Other animals would call us out for being oddly paradoxical creatures who long to be happy but who are the source of their own suffering, We worry about things we have no control over. We complain about not being understood while casting a critical eye on others. We stubbornly defend our beliefs despite contradictory evidence. Complicating all of this is our struggle to adapt to a complex world that we created. who struggle to adapt to a confusing world that we ourselves created.
In our defence, we haven't yet mastered our neuron-packed brains, whose incredible complexity evolved over millennia in a very different world than today's. The result of this evolutionary journey? Five design features that often morph into design flaws in need of fixing.
Hard to Be Human corrals the best insights from psychology, neuroscience, physics, and philosophy to reveal powerful strategies for the five big battles we each face in the war with our misguided, misbehaving selves. Tapping into deeply personal stories to ground the concepts in real life, Cadsby reveals how we can overcome our design flaws to be smarter, happier, and better adapted to the complexities of life in the twenty-first century.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"Powerful strategies to combat the design flaws of the human brain that make life in the twenty-first century unreasonably difficult. If they could study us the way we study them, other animals would be puzzled by our unique ability to inflict misery on ourselves. We expend a lot of energy replaying past anguish, anticipating future distress, and stewing in self-righteous anger. Other animals would call us out for being oddly paradoxical creatures who long to be happy while creating our own suffering, who struggle to adapt to a confusing world that we ourselves created. In our defense, we haven't yet mastered our neuron-packed brains, whose incredible complexity evolved in somewhat haphazard ways over millennia in a very different world than today's, giving rise to the five big design flaws of the human mind: greedy reductionism, which causes us to oversimplify; certainty addiction, which makes us overconfident; emotional hostage-taking, where we overreact to threats and engage in rumination; competing selves, where we are burdened with inner conflict; and misguided meaning, where we constantly struggle to make sense of things. Hard to Be Human corrals the best insights from psychology, neuroscience, physics, and philosophy to reveal powerful strategies for the five big battles we each face in the war with ourselves. Other animals have a simpler life, but we can have it easier, too."-- Provided by publisher.