18 points by vinhnx 1 day ago | 4 comments | View on ycombinator
bko 1 day ago |
makeitdouble 1 day ago |
Has anything came back to reestablish this book as worth the read ?
oceanplexian 1 day ago |
The book is selling you on a belief system (i.e. System1/System2). Then it uses some cherry picked data to set up a straw man to rationalize his idea of how the mind works. Death in a Shallow Pond is a good rebuttal to this even if it doesn't address the book directly.
Here's an example of a study that supposedly supports this. Participants held a pen in their mouth in one of two ways:
- Between the teeth, without touching the lips. This activates some of the muscles used in smiling.
- Between the lips, without using the teeth. This inhibits those smile-related muscles.
If you think that's stupid and reading into this is foolish it's because it is. A lot of the arguments in this book are built in a delicate set of assumptions that are supported by equally ridiculous and contrived experiments, many of which cannot be reproduced.