Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To Reprint Edition

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.

Prior to reading Burnett's book I heard him interviewed on NPR. The quirky sense of humor he displayed translated well into the book, creating a pleasant mix of scientific review and lighthearted banter. In this, I believe Burnett underscored his primary theme - this stuff is crazy and we really don't understand it very well. I appreciate the reviews that struggled with his style - it doesn't take long to pick up his rhythm and sense when the next joke is coming. But in that pattern lies just another brain mechanism. Clearly I enjoyed the book and tolerated the style. My one suggestion would be to limit the very specific references to brain anatomy. I'm not a brain surgeon and would have related to the physiology lessons better if the jargon were reduced. I'm sure the areas of the brain he identifies are technically correct, but I don't need to know the locations at a resolution required to perform laser surgery - I would have been just as informed with the lobotomy version.

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this."- "The brain is still an internal organ in the human body, and as such is a tangled mess of habits, traits, outdated processes and inefficient systems.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."

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!

This a simply written and hilarious book that should be read by anyone who wants a popular account of the main ideas in cog sci and neuroscience. Most of the concepts are explained well and are supplemented with helpful and relatable analogies. On a negative note, there are a handful of awkward sentences and typos(its not laced with them), and had the author proofread the book a bit more carefully, the quality of it would have been that much better. Also, the book doesn't cover many of the topics exhaustively(this was mentioned as a disclaimer in the beginning of the book), and there aren't any diagrams/pictures which are usually found in pop-sci books of this kind. I know the author's objective was just to give a cursory overview of these cog-sci topics with a humorous touch, but I feel that if he made certain parts of the book more technical by adding pictures, explaining some neuroscience ideas comprehensively, and etc, the reader would have gotten much more value. Technical explanations have this bad rep of making readers averse to reading a book, but in reality, they can make the process of understanding concepts easier if well written. Burnett is no David Eagelman or Oliver Sacks when it comes to writing about the brain, mind, or related concepts, but his books offer somewhat of a different perspective of his field.

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.

I enjoyed The Idiot Brain, as Dean tries to put very complex ideas into layman's terms for us non doctor types. I am always interested in why I think what I think. This book helped me realize I'm not going insane I am just the victim of a normal brain doing its thing! Well worth the read.

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

If you would like to know in details how your brain works, I recommend reading his book. Despite being a scientific book, he managed to keep it interesting, simple and funny. Just brilliant!

The Idiot Brain is one of its kind. I will highly recommend it for someone who want to know how amazing brain is while being stupid sometimes.

Este libro se centra en el funcionamiento del cerebro, cómo vemos el mundo, cómo procesamos la información, etc. Y en las imperfecciones que tiene una “máquina” tan compleja.Tiene muchas referencias y muchas de ellas son muy actuales, por tanto la información que da está basada en las últimas investigaciones.Además el estilo es muy ligero y lo hace muy fácil de leer. Aquí debo señalar que lo leí en inglés así que no puedo opinar sobre la versión traducida que se critica en otras valoraciones.No le doy las 5 estrellas porque me pareció que en ocasiones se alarga y hace repetitivo. Los primeros capítulos no puedes dejar de leer y en los últimos ya deseas que acabe.Yo recomiendo el libro para todos aquellos que no sepan nada del funcionamiento del cerebro, de los sesgos cognitivos, etc. Pero creo que para aquellos que ya hayan leído sobre el tema y estén informados el libro puede que no les aporte demasiado, algunos capítulos sí y otros no tanto.

Very interesting read, very good science. Also fun, which is great: in my existence, scientists are a fun lot but can't always get that across with their publications.The kindle version still has some errors that need editing, nothing serious.