
The Invisible Gorilla
And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us
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Narrated by:
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Dan Woren
About this listen
Reading this book will make you less sure of yourself - and that's a good thing. In The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, creators of one of psychology's most famous experiments, use remarkable stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to demonstrate an important truth: Our minds don't work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we're actually missing a whole lot.
Chabris and Simons combine the work of other researchers with their own findings on attention, perception, memory, and reasoning to reveal how faulty intuitions often get us into trouble. In the process, they explain:
- Why a company would spend billions to launch a product that its own analysts know will fail
- How a police officer could run right past a brutal assault without seeing it
- Why award-winning movies are full of editing mistakes
- What criminals have in common with chess masters
- Why measles and other childhood diseases are making a comeback
- Why money managers could learn a lot from weather forecasters
Again and again, we think we experience and understand the world as it is, but our thoughts are beset by everyday illusions. We write traffic laws and build criminal cases on the assumption that people will notice when something unusual happens right in front of them. We’re sure we know where we were on 9/11, falsely believing that vivid memories are seared into our minds with perfect fidelity. And as a society, we spend billions on devices to train our brains because we’re continually tempted by the lure of quick fixes and effortless self-improvement.
The Invisible Gorilla reveals the myriad ways that our intuitions can deceive us, but its much more than a catalog of human failings. Chabris and Simons explain why we succumb to these everyday illusions and what we can do to inoculate ourselves against their effects. Ultimately, the book provides a kind of x-ray vision into our own minds, making it possible to pierce the veil of illusions that clouds our thoughts and to think clearly for perhaps the first time.
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Story
The breakthrough concepts of Pattern Breakers come from the observations of Mike Maples Jr., a seasoned venture capitalist, who noticed something strange. Start-ups like Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft had achieved extraordinary success despite their disregard for “best practices.” In contrast, other startups deemed highly promising often failed, even when they seemed to do everything right. Seeking answers, Maples and coauthor Peter Ziebelman set out to discover the hidden forces that drive extraordinary start-up success.
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I’ve read 100s of books, this is top 5 all time
- By Calisurf on 12-21-24
By: Mike Maples Jr, and others
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The Paradox of Choice
- Why More is Less
- By: Barry Schwartz
- Narrated by: Ken Kliban
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counterintuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on the important ones and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.
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The Tyranny of Pop Economics
- By Darwin8u on 10-28-13
By: Barry Schwartz
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Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Third Edition
- Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
- By: Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
- Narrated by: Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Renowned social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson take a compelling look into how the brain is wired for self-justification. When we make mistakes, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restoring our belief that we are smart, moral, and right - a belief that often keeps us on a course that is dumb, immoral, and wrong. Backed by years of research and delivered in energetic prose, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) offers a fascinating explanation of self-deception.
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If you're a liberal hater - this book's for you
- By MRN on 11-13-20
By: Carol Tavris, and others
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Originals
- How Non-Conformists Move the World
- By: Adam Grant, Sheryl Sandberg - foreword
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Susan Denaker
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but also established himself as one of his generation’s most compelling and provocative thought leaders. In Originals he again addresses the challenge of improving the world, but now from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all?
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Interesting, but not science
- By Lloyd Fassett on 03-14-16
By: Adam Grant, and others
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Blink
- The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In his landmark best seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant, in the blink of an eye, that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept?
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Interesting read with contradictory messages
- By Danny on 04-21-05
By: Malcolm Gladwell
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
- By: Daniel Kahneman
- Narrated by: Patrick Egan
- Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains....
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Difficult Listen, but Probably a Great Read
- By Mike Kircher on 01-12-12
By: Daniel Kahneman
What listeners say about The Invisible Gorilla
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Overall
- Joseph
- 07-21-10
Great Overview over Hygiene of Perception
The authors of this book are master teachers. The clarity of their presentation is excellent. Like school, though, this comes at times at the cost of being a little bit longish. This is especially so, since, if you are interested in this subject at all or merely in touch with popular knowledge, you will know most of the 'surprising' studies already. I did find, though, that in many cases, they would offer that extra bit of interesting information, debunk or logic to a finding that made it more complete. (In written form this would be even more useful, as one would be able to look these things up later on.)
The book is scientifically rigorous and doesn't fear naming 'transgressions' against good thinking by Malcolm Gladwell and others. Still, the authors manage to not come across as entirely negative geeks and offer some useful conclusions. Nonetheless, this work is not inspirational in any classic sense of the word.
Consider it an overview or a high quality review of perceptive follies and you will be very satisfied. The quality of the reading is excellent.
Originality: 7
Clarity: 10
Reading: 9.9
Usefulness: 8.5
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall
- chris
- 05-28-10
Enjoyed
I enjoyed this book. The narration is perfect, and the content is very interesting. I feel like it gave me a different perspective on many of the ways that dumb/simple people act while following whatever stupid trend is out there. It has also made me reflect on some of my own feelings towards patterns throughout my life. It turned me onto the 'Fooled by Randomness' book also.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Sam
- 06-02-11
insightfull and and a damn interesting read
enjoyed it more then once and will reference it in the future i liked this book
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Overall
- Thomas
- 06-26-10
5+
I wish i could find a wy to give more than 5 stars. One of the best books i have downloaded. The narration is outstanding, perfect for teh book, well paced.
Now for the content. i have read several sort of "popular psych" books, including Malcolm Gladwell's several books. Here is the idfference...this one is based on evidence and is written by scientists. Its all based on experiments by themselves and others which really question our understanding of how our minds process information. I found the structure excellent..if give you a framework to place all their conclusions. While I think some of the later chapters, especially the one on "self improvement" a little weaker then the first chapeters, that's partly because the first chapters are so rivetting.
I will really use this information as I teach. It's applicable to almost any field. It is incredibly inciteful. And a bonus is they rag on Gladwell several times, which, I agree with. Works like his are observations from which they extrapolate immutable laws about the way the world works. This book tries to rely on solid experimental evident. The difference is striking. In addition, as experts in the field, i find the authors' insights fresh, novel, clearly things that have been thought about and puzzled over for many years.
A remarkable read.
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21 people found this helpful
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- Gerardo A Dada
- 03-31-14
Interesting but not very practical
This is a very interesting audiobook that explains four key misconceptions in human psychology: for example, the myth of attention, demonstrated by the gorilla experiment.
It is well written and narrated. It is engaging and interesting. But it gets a bit boring to spend so much time of=n four key ideas. Especially because of the limited practical value of these. The author fails to connect the science with practical value.
A good example of an author who has done this is Dan Ariely with Predictably Irrational, and Daniel Pink. Their books are very useful for anyone in marketing or sales. This book is good food for your intellectual curiosity, but not much else.
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- Acteon
- 10-06-11
Interesting and useful
This is a book of considerable interest and quite fun to listen to. It contains many useful pieces of information and provides a new perspective on how we function. I found it well worth while. I didn't give it 5 stars but would gladly give it 4 and half. This book might be read or listened to together with Margaret Heffernan's 'Willful Blindness'. I recommend both.
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- James Tsao
- 03-04-13
Narration is too monotone, book is great
I'm relatively new to audio books and while I recognize the need to find a clear and neutral sounding voice, to a certain extent it detracts from the whole experience because when you read, you don't read in a monotonous tone and so listening to such a voice just saps any enthusiasm that you have.
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- Kate O
- 01-10-11
Interesting Info but...
The first have of this book was pretty interesteding but the second half became pretty boring. The author seemed to be fixated on certain ideas which was strange because it was like he was critizing others for doing the same thing he was doing....he thinks his info is all fact. This book was well narrated but was somewhat of a dissapointment. Some of it was helpful as well. If it didnt' become so boring I would have rated it higher.
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- Alex Aguirre
- 01-25-17
epiphany after epiphany
the book was amazing it really opened my eyes to a lot of generalizations are conclusive that I draw that were incorrect and causing problems not only in my personal life but also in my business. Shared the book with few friends and they all loved it. Great job worth the read or listen
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- Dragonfly
- 11-30-11
Will Make you Rethink EVERYTHING
This book has done something few books have done for me before - as soon as I had finished a chapter, I thought, "This was the best, most thought-provoking chapter in the book." Then as soon as I had finished the NEXT chapter, I thought the same thing.
The extent of the authors' research, clear and compelling explanations and real-world examples of the experiences they call "The Illusion of Memory", "The Illusion of Knowledge" and "The Illusion of Cause" has really made me stop and deliberately apply their criteria to many aspects of my life - my memories of events, news stories, urban legends, "expert studies" and the things people say to me, among others. If you're interested in being a student of the truth and having culturally imposed and evolution-based blinders stripped from your eyes, I can't imagine a better point of reference than this.
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