Close this alert
Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To
Current price:
$16.95
Publication Date: July 11th, 2017
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN:
9780393354119
Pages:
336
Usually Ships in 1 to 5 Days
Description
"Entertaining…[A] grand tour around modern cognitive science and psychology." —Wall Street Journal
The brain is an absolute marvel—the seat of our consciousness, the pinnacle (so far) of evolutionary progress, and the engine of human experience. But it’s also messy, fallible, and about 50,000 years out of date. We cling to superstitions, remember faces but not names, miss things sitting right in front of us, and lie awake at night while our brains endlessly replay our greatest fears. Idiot Brain is for anyone who has ever wondered why their brain appears to be sabotaging their life—and what on earth it is really up to.
A Library Journal Science Bestseller and a Finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award in Science & Technology.
Praise for Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To
Don’t get him wrong: Dean Burnett loves the brain as much as the next neuroscientist. But if he’s being honest, it’s ‘really quite rubbish in a lot of ways,’ he says. In his book, Idiot Brain, Burnett aims to take our most prized organ down a peg or two.
— Libby Copeland - Smithsonian
Burnett is a refreshing sort of neuroscientist in that he does not seem to consider the brain with any particular reverence; if anything, he seems mildly impatient about its many ridiculous failings.
— Melissa Dahl - New York Magazine
A wonderful introduction to neuroscience [that] deserves to be widely read.
— Independent
If you’ve ever wanted to sit down with a neuroscientist, have a few drinks, ask a zillion questions, and laugh until you snorted, read this book.
— David McRaney, best-selling author of You Are Not So Smart
Compelling and wise and rational. You know you can trust [Burnett]…A great read.
— Jon Ronson, best-selling author of So You've Been Publicly Shamed
An entertaining romp through the science of our mental processes. Full of fascinating insight into the brain and the origins of our crazy behavior.
— Gaia Vince, author of Adventures in the Anthropocene
A helpful and often hilarious antidote to current brain hype. Accessible and entertaining, this book explains why your ever-helpful brain can rewrite your history, make you overlook a gorilla, or lose an argument you should win.
— Gina Rippon, chair of Cognitive NeuroImaging, Aston University