Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
A Field Guide to Lies
A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age | Daniel J. Levitin
5 posts | 7 read | 38 to read
From The New York Times bestselling author of THE ORGANIZED MIND and THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC, a primer to the critical thinking that is more necessary now than ever. We are bombarded with more information each day than our brains can processespecially in election season. It's raining bad data, half-truths, and even outright lies. New York Times bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin shows how to recognize misleading announcements, statistics, graphs, and written reports revealing the ways lying weasels can use them. It's becoming harder to separate the wheat from the digital chaff. How do we distinguish misinformation, pseudo-facts, distortions, and outright lies from reliable information? Levitin groups his field guide into two categoriesstatistical infomation and faulty argumentsultimately showing how science is the bedrock of critical thinking. Infoliteracy means understanding that there are hierarchies of source quality and bias that variously distort our information feeds via every media channel, including social media. We may expect newspapers, bloggers, the government, and Wikipedia to be factually and logically correct, but they so often aren't. We need to think critically about the words and numbers we encounter if we want to be successful at work, at play, and in making the most of our lives. This means checking the plausibility and reasoningnot passively accepting information, repeating it, and making decisions based on it. Readers learn to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. Levitin's charming, entertaining, accessible guide can help anyone wake up to a whole lot of things that aren't so. And catch some lying weasels in their tracks!
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
Trace
A Field Guide to Lies | Daniel J. Levithin
Mehso-so

Good pick if you're interested in improving your critical thinking skills.

review
Pedrocamacho
post image
Pickpick

I really enjoyed this book. I've been reading books like this one over the last year ("The Signal and the Noise", "How to Lie with Statistics", etc) and this book, throughout, remained very focused upon its topic. It fits well into the pantheon of books that address critical thinking skills.

review
bookshopsc
post image
Pickpick

I can‘t count how many times I‘ve screamed “correlation does not imply causation” at the TV so I‘m predisposed to like this. That said, it is a charming presentation of useful tools for critical thinking that will appeal to more people than those who shout statistical clichés. Even if you‘re hip to these tricks, enjoy Levitin‘s charming presentation of “lying weasels,” the sneaky things they do, and the importance of thinking for yourself.-Nici

MrBook Added! You talked me into it 😊👍🏻. 8y
DreesReads Added! Sounds like a great companion to How to Lie with Statistics and How to Lie with Maps. 8y
44 likes12 stack adds2 comments
blurb
OliverDepp
post image

Starting a new bit of nonfiction! Critical thinking is not really taught anymore, and we need it more with every generation. Just ignoring or taking the Internet whole hog was never an option, but now the parsing is increasingly difficult. So far engaging and sciencey in all the right ways.

Smrloomis Sounds good! 8y
25 likes8 stack adds1 comment
review
bookshopsc
Pickpick

This book describes the ways information can be misrepresented, skewed, or otherwise manipulated to make “the facts” mislead your brain. It‘s a delightful explanation of a whole slew of useful tools for critical thinking and humorous romp through numerous examples of "lying weasels." -Nici

Laalaleighh 📚 8y
17 likes3 stack adds1 comment