The Idiot Brain

First, with a five star rating I obviously enjoyed it. I'm not exactly sure if there is a particular target audience for this book but suspect many may get bogged down in unfamiliar vocabulary unless they have a biology or psychology background, which I do. But, I do not think that type of background is necessary to enjoy this book and only mention it if you cringe at the thought of any discussions involving brain anatomy and neurotransmitters; the author is a funny neuroscientist after all so it should be expected. The book is well written with humor effectively used to make important points. It is an easy read that I enjoyed on a cruise. I found it to be a very good summary of what is currently understood in human biology/psychology as it relates to our behavior and think it would be excellent mandatory reading toward the end of an undergraduate degree program. The simplicity and humor in all the chapters demonstrates how well the author understands the material and certain he would be a delight to listen to in person. Great book!

It's good. Entertaining but not hilarious. Interesting overview of how the brain really guides our thinking.

I read this book in preparation to prepare for my interview with the author for the School for Good Living Podcast. Dean is a smart and funny guy who marries the worlds of comedy and brain science in a way that's informative and entertaining. Unlike another reviewer, I thought his metaphors and explanations are masterful. I've read A LOT about the brain and cognition, and I still learned a lot from this book, and I had fun in the process.

Here's a great way to find out what goes on inside your head without taxing your brain too much. I don't mean to imply the book is simplistic. It's just written so the average person can understand it. Not only is it extremely interesting, but the most enjoyable thing about it is the author has a sense of humor that is liberally injected into the text that provides lots of laughs to keep your mind on how your mind works.

The subject matter is interesting and footnotes allow the reader to evaluate the source of the information. But the author’s attempts to explain concepts to the lay reader are marred by illogical metaphors and sloppy thinking. Giving everyone a medal for turning up on Sports day does not devalue the sport. It devalues the medal. Noisy cars are not per se less efficient than quiet cars. Engine noise is usually about mufflers. Efficiency is about fuel consumption relative to performance. There may or may mot be a correlation. I enjoy the bits of the book dealing with information on the brain but irritated by the sloppy metaphors. It is an oherwise interesting read. So I am giving this three stars: worth reading nut not the best in the genre.

Fascinating book with a very approachable and entertaining style of addressing very complex topics related to the brain. Although the intent of the book was not to delve deeply into specific topics I found myself wanting to know more about many of the topics covered in the book. For me it was an excellent start to learning about the brain. I appreciated his sense of humor, which was a great way to take a break from the complexity.

Our "Idiot Brain" is more a misunderstood brain that served us better in the stone age. Points well taken show how inadequate our brain have adapted to the modern age. We mishandle drugs, stress and humanity quite naturally. Dean B. explains how our brain works against us hoping we better understand it. I enjoyed Dean’s light and humorous touch explaining a wide range of the brains operation. I now appreciate human idiosyncrasies, especially my own.

As a neuro-layman and an avid collector of quotes, I enjoyed Dean's neuroscience review, which was filled with his interpretive & opinionative thoughts. Examples of his "bits of wisdom" for my collection include....... - "Science is the work of humans. By and large, humans are messy, chaotic and illogical creatures (due largely to the workings of the human brain) and much of science reflects this." - "The brain is still an internal organ in the human body, and as such is a tangled mess of habits, traits, outdated processes and inefficient systems. In many ways, the brain is a victim of its own success; it’s evolved over millions of years to reach this current level of complexity, but as a result it has accrued a great deal of junk, like a hard drive riddled with old software programs and obsolete downloads that interrupt basic processes." - "Sadly, the words “reliable” and “accurate” can rarely be applied to the workings of the brain, particularly for memory. The memories retrieved by the brain are sometimes comparable to a hairball coughed up by a cat, the product of a lot of alarming internal mangling."

Carrying out some 'research' (good old Google Wandering) I stumbled across 'Brain Flapping', Dean Burnett's blog at The Guardian. I found myself laughing at the words of a somewhat a-typical neuroscientist, and understanding them, too. No, really. And thus I picked up Burnett's first book: The Idiot Brain. I expected to dip in and out, be amused for ten minutes, and need a lie down for the next, but not so. I read it in two days. This is a book about how the brain works, with its heavy emphasis on it not being as clever as we've been brought up to think. OK, our brain is clever, very clever to cope with the 21st century demands on it, but it's also full of clutter, the detritus of evolutionary development from a pre-stone age brain. Sometimes, often, it hiccups. Burnett describes the brain's workings in a simple, logical and yet imaginative way – not easy to do I'm sure. It's also a very comforting read. Now that it's been explained, I feel vindicated for remembering everything about someone except their name. It's also OK to get angry sometimes. In fact, it's really rather good, particularly if your reputation and social standing are at risk. Self-doubt? It's a social skill. Even Einstein thought that his intelligence was fake and that one day he would be found out. And beware if you pride yourself on your debating skills. There's a whole section on why it's often less intelligent people, or the uninformed, who win the arguments. Just saying. Memory has always fascinated me – why one person can have a cabinet of quiz trophies but not remember their partner's birthday, or vice versa – so I was particularly interested in the long sections on this. Were you aware, for instance, that our short term memory is, at most, one minute long? For up to sixty seconds we can, at best, remember four measly items. Four! If our brain decides we need the items for longer, then it might consider moving them into our long-term memory but not without significant effort. There are ways we can boost the volume of short term memory, constructing random words into a sentence or mnemonic, for example, because one sentence, as opposed to one word, can count as one of your four remembered items. But even then, the short term memory is pretty limited. Another comfort. It explains why we can wander into a room and forget what possessed us to go there in the first place. En route, something much more important to survival swooped into the tally of remembered items and out ranked the empty cup you'd clocked when you passed with your arms full of washing. But no need to panic. If the reason you ran into the room was to escape a wild boar, you would remember to close the door behind you and wouldn’t wander off instead to make the beds. It's a restricted brain, an Idiot Brain, but it's very good at survival. I loved this book. I felt like I was effortlessly learning a little about a fascinating field of which I'm pretty ignorant. The anecdotal style of writing kept me amused - I heard that Dean Burnett does a bit of stand-up and that doesn't surprise me. And I'm relieved to learn that my brain's idiotic catastrophic misses, are simply the product of the 21st century's messy brain. If you'd like to understand a little more about what it is to be human but don't have the time or inclination to return to study, this one's for you.

Absolutely enjoying reading this novel, back when I purchased in 2018 or thereabout, I used to think brain is the only organ which was infallible, how wrong I was! It was fascinating and equal parts educational to learn about how brain functions.

Dean Burnett mudou bastante minha visão sobre o mundo (ou seria sobre mim mesmo?). Tudo que eu acreditava saber sobre mim mesmo foi por água abaixo...

An interesting, deep, and educational book, but at times also amusing. Not too heavy a read, nor too superficial. Very nice.

Excellent book, easy to read. This Neuroscientist doesn't talk down to his readers and since he hobbies in Stand-up Comedy, his humour comes out in his writing, making it entertaining as well as educational.