If we’re putting together a list of books people should read in order to avoid being manipulated, taken advantage of, or misled in the modern information age, what would your suggestions be?
I can think of two books that immediately come to mind:
How to Lie With Statistics by Darrel Huff
and
Science Fictions by Stuart Ritchie.
There’s a lot of good work out there, but not all of it is focused on making people better skilled in critical thinking.
Red team thinking by bryce hoffman deals a lot with critical thinking and flawed assumptions we make. It’s the only book i’ve read that might touch on your topic. I love that book so wanted to mention it anyway.
This was the first book assigned for my doctoral track. Huff’s history is actually really messy, I know I’ve posted about it here before.
Basically, he was the Tobacco industry’s biggest, most reliable (with charts!) statistics shill, and he was a big part of the reason Congress took so long to act regarding the (at the time) science illustrating smoking’s health risks. He would testify in Congress on behalf of Big Tobacco, in opposition of the growing consensus that smoking does, in fact, kill lots of people.
He was set to publish a sequel of sorts, a new book specifically defending Big Tobacco with fancy charts, when he realized he would be on the wrong side of history and cancelled the project, right about the time the Surgeon General’s report changed things, leading to warnings on boxes.
So he milked that cow quite a bit, but somehow ended up coming back into the light, or at least not continuing to promote death. Finally, the scientists won out over the enemy’s chief statistician, which is a poignant way of re-visiting his first book. He was being literal, he was a really good and awful liar.
This was a great read about Blaise Pascal’s decision theory practice for persuasion. This is the other side of the “Self Defense against bullshit” coin…how do you help someone out of their own pile of bullshit through conversation? How do you ensure you don’t get compromised yourself. Bullshit rolls downhill, as they say.
Bullshit is pulling a vax because 6 people got room temperature. Out of millions. Bullshit is saying, as POTUS, that you’re going to have X number of vaccines out there, and then pulling the front runner, just when you’re cresting your goal.
Yeah apparently Shaolin Iron Thread, mixed with some Daoist essential form, combined with a little extra Vitamin D, Magnesium, and occasional Melatonin before bed does the trick now.
Unfortunately, I’m trying to schedule vaccinations for two people right at the moment, which in NJ is a 24/7 mission.
Fortunately, I have you mountain folk to keep me entertained.