Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better
Review by Katie Lipoma
I finished Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better by Woo-Kyoung Ahn this week. This was required reading for my psychology Professional Seminar class. Although required reading often takes the fun out of it for me, I’m glad that I got the chance to read this one, as it sheds light on many unconscious human behaviors that are applicable to my life and the lives of others. I’m not sure that I would’ve picked this book out on my own, so it definitely forced me out of my reading comfort zone, which was much needed.
The author, Ahn, is a psychologist and Yale professor, and uses this book as a way to educate her readers about cognitive processes to explain why humans do what they do, and explains how to use these processes to our advantage in order to lead more fulfilling, successful lives. She begins every chapter with personal examples from her life, and I found some to be more relatable than others. The chapters range from thirty to forty pages, and I often found myself feeling bored and distracted by the end of each one. Perhaps this is because the book is jam-packed with statistics and graphs, and most of them went right over my head because I felt like I needed to have more background knowledge in math and science to truly grasp some of the examples and explanations (that’s why I’m a creative writing major, haha). Yes, some chapters were dry in my opinion, but I like that her points are backed up by science and fact. In my case, I found the content informative as they’re topics that I’ve previously heard about but couldn’t define but it’s not something that I’d actively seek out to read for enjoyment.
Some chapters and concepts were especially interesting and memorable, especially since I’m always wondering why people—including myself—do what they do, so it satisfied the endlessly curious and question-asking part of me. My favorite topics covered are biased interpretation, confirmation bias, causal attribution, and negativity bias. As I kept reading, it became easier to connect ideas and concepts. I enjoyed applying them to my own life and understanding how they affect others, allowing me to view people and situations differently than I have in the past.
To conclude, I’ve never particularly enjoyed learning about the research side of psychology, and this book was very nitty gritty in that aspect but it felt like a necessary read as a psych major, and is something that I’ll likely refer back to in years to come.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for next Thursday’s review!
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