You Are Not So Smart

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney is an insightful primer into the logical fallacies and cognitive biases that plague human decision-making.

This is one of my favorite psychology books, and I implore everyone to try it out. Just by reading a few chapters, you will have a much deeper understanding of yourself and others.

The book feels like an introductory psychology course, and is written in a digestible and easily accessible way. Each chapter was originally a blog post by the author, and focuses on a psychological phenomenon that makes it difficult for humans to think rationally.

There are 48 chapters total. Some of my favorites were:

The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
Cult Indoctrination
The Affect Heuristic
Priming
Conformity
Confirmation Bias
Social Loafing

Like I mentioned earlier, this is a great read for anyone striving to understand themselves and others. You will start questioning your beliefs and actions almost immediately.

Overall, this book gets 10 out of 10 Pavlov bells. It has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf.