The Wisdom of Stupidity
The Wisdom of Stupidity

Author: Julian Butler

Publisher:

Published: 2019-03-15

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9781909394384

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Successful chick-lit author and TT journalist Roy Devon leads you through the videographic process, using the life and work of Smile Orange Films as a case study. Devon tracks down the legendary masters of celluloid (cathode ray and Hi8) and, with their guidance, learns how to gain wisdom through stupidity. In the process, you are given an original insight into the pre-YouTube British filmmaking scene of the 1990s, a time when the increased availability of camcorders meant that anybody could make a feature film, advertise it in a fanzine and sell it to fans around the world.

How the News Makes Us Dumb
How the News Makes Us Dumb

Author: C. John Sommerville

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2009-09-20

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 083087559X

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We who live at the end of the twentieth century are better informed--and more quickly informed--than any people in history. So why do we also seem more confused, divided and foolish than ever before? Some pundits criticize the news media for political bias. Other analysts worry that up-to-the-minute news reports on radio and television oversimplify complex realities. Still more critics point out that today's reporters can't possibly be experts on the wide variety of subjects they cover. Historian C. John Sommerville thinks the problem with news is more basic. Focusing his critique on the news at its best, he concludes that even at its best it is beyond repair. Sommerville argues that news began to make us dumber when we insisted on having it daily. Now millions of column inches and airtime hours must be filled with information--every day, every hour, every minute. The news, Sommerville says, becomes the driving force for much of our public culture. News schedules turn politics into a perpetual campaign. News packaging influences the timing, content and perception of government initiatives. News frenzies make a superstition out of scientific and medical research. News polls and statistics create opinion as much as they gauge it. Lost in the tidal wave of information is our ability to discern truly significant news--and our ability to recognize and participate in true community. This eye-opening book is for everyone dissatisfied with the state of the news media, but especially for those who think the news really informs them about and connects them with the real world. Read it and you may never again know the tyranny of the daily newspaper or the nightly news broadcast.

The Psychology of Stupidity
The Psychology of Stupidity

Author: Jean-Francois Marmion

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0525506659

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"We need books like this one." --Steven Pinker At last, stupidity explained! And by some of the world's smartest people, among them Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Alison Gopnik, Howard Gardner, Antonio Damasio, Aaron James, and Ryan Holiday. And so I proclaim, o idiots of every stripe and morons of all kinds, this is your moment of glory: this book speaks only to you. But you will not recognize yourselves... Stupidity is all around us, from the coworker who won't stop hitting "reply all" to the former high school classmate posting conspiracy theories on Facebook. But in order to vanquish it, we must first understand it. In The Psychology of Stupidity, some of the world's leading psychologists and thinkers--including a Nobel Prize winner and bestselling authors--will show you... why smart people sometimes believe in utter nonsense; how our lazy brains cause us to make the wrong decisions; why trying to debate fools is a trap; how media manipulation and Internet overstimulation make us dumber; why the stupidest people don't think they're stupid. The wisdom and wit of these experts are a balm for our aggrieved souls and a beacon of hope in a world of morons.

The Little Book of Stupidity
The Little Book of Stupidity

Author: Sia Mohajer

Publisher:

Published: 2015-11-16

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 9781519282798

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As Human Beings we are great story tellers. We tell stories about who we are, what we're doing and why we are doing it. The problem is sometimes those stories are fictions; created by our own blindness to reality. We are such good story tellers that we often don't know we are deceiving ourselves. The brain has evolved to make information processing simplified and with this has created a need to simplify the world. The problem is sometimes rational thinking becomes sacrificed for this simplicity In The Little Book of Stupidity, Sia Mohajer draws on extensive research and makes surprising connections among ten of life's most pervasive cognitive biases. It is a story about how stupid we can all be and also how we can become more compassionate as a result.

Towards Wise Management
Towards Wise Management

Author: Tuomo Peltonen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-07-29

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 3319917196

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This book contributes to the discussion on wisdom in management, leadership and strategy by developing a unique theoretical approach. Integrating rational-analytical, intuitive and philosophical dimensions of wise decision-making, it advocates a broadly Platonic-Socratic view on wisdom. Applying a developed framework of wisdom dynamics, it analyses a number of decision-making case studies in order to discuss the potential of and obstacles to the use of wisdom in broader organizational trends, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the downfall of Nokia.

The Madness of Knowledge
The Madness of Knowledge

Author: Steven Connor

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2019-04-15

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 178914101X

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Many human beings have considered the powers and the limits of human knowledge, but few have wondered about the power that the idea of knowledge has over us. The Madness of Knowledge is the first book to investigate this emotional inner life of knowledge – the lusts, fantasies, dreams and fears that the idea of knowing provokes. There are in-depth discussions of the imperious will to know, of Freud’s epistemophilia, or love of knowledge, and the curiously insistent links between madness, magical thinking and the desire for knowledge. Steven Connor also probes secrets and revelations, quarreling and the history of quizzes and ‘general knowledge’, charlatanry and pretension, both the violent disdain and the sanctification of the stupid, as well as the emotional investment in the spaces and places of knowledge, from the study to the library. In an age of artificial intelligence, alternative facts and mistrust of truth, The Madness of Knowledge offers an opulent, enlarging and sometimes unnerving psychopathology of intellectual life.

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Author: Carlo M. Cipolla

Publisher: Doubleday

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13: 0385546483

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"A masterly book" —Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan "A classic" —Simon Kuper, Financial Times An economist explains five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid people can and do rule the world Throughout history, a powerful force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful boardrooms to your local bar. It is human stupidity. Carlo M. Cipolla, noted professor of economic history at the UC Berkeley, created this vitally important book in order to detect and neutralize its threat. Both hilarious and dead serious, it will leave you better equipped to confront political realities, unreasonable colleagues, or your next dinner with your in-laws. The Laws: 1. Everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals among us. 2. The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person while deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses themselves. 4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. 5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

The Stupidity of War
The Stupidity of War

Author: John Mueller

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-03-04

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1108843832

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This innovative argument shows the consequences of increased aversion to international war for foreign and military policy.

Novice to Master
Novice to Master

Author: Soko Morinaga

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-01-30

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 1614290202

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Everybody loves Novice to Master! As you'll see in the glowing endorsements and reviews included below, this modern spiritual classic has been embraced by readers of all types. In his singularly humorous and biitingly direct way, Zen abbot Soko Morinaga tells the story of his rigorous training at a Japanese Zen temple, his spiritual growth and his interactions with his students and others. Morinaga's voice is uniquely tuned to the truth of the condition of the human mind and spirit and his reflections and interpretations are unvarnished and succinct. His great gift is the ability to lift the spirit of the reader all the while exposing the humility and weakness in the lives of people, none more so than his own. Read on to see what everyone from Publishers Weekly to well-known Buddhist figures and even New York Times bestselling author Anthony Swofford have to say about this one of a kind book!