
Books on Thinking About Thinking - moh_maya
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-14/10-books-to-clarify-thinking-about-thinking
======
symplee
Thinking about thinking is a fascinating topic, and the heart of true critical
thinking. At the same time, it's easy to get wrapped up in our own inventions
and hubris if not careful. When approaching "truth" check out the following as
an added sanity check :)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases)

BUT also not allowing these to limit blazing a new path forward!

~~~
The_rationalist
If only humans were taught this, humanity would be totally different.

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voidhorse
Trick Mirror is quite fun.

It’s not a particular book, but nothing has more radically altered the way I
think about thinking than the work of Theodor Adorno (and to a certain extent,
Horkheimer). I had, prior to reading their work, a tendency to think of
thinking as an activity that occurs with quite a definite shape, in quite a
well-circumscirbed space. They really exploded the concept for me and
broadened my considerations about thought, how it works, what different forms
it can take, and that most of the time, it’s more like a peice of music than
it is a rational or practical sequence of arguments, and that the societal
patterns and forces that attempt to fix your thought into a limited sequence
of statements are in fact instances of control impinging itself upon you. This
is not to say “don’t be rational” but it is to say there are definte
thresholds upon which thought crosses over from the plane of a genuine
_“thinking through”_ into an “idiomaticity” or a _“thinking about”_ — a
preconception, a repetition, a bias.

~~~
cardamomo
What book or books would you recommend as a starting place for someone wishing
to explore these concepts? Is there one Adorno ir Horkeimer I should start
with?

~~~
maleno
'Dialectic of Enlightenment' might be a good place to start when it comes to
thinking about thinking. If you want something a bit more
fragmented/playful/debatable, then 'Minima Moralia' would be interesting. 'The
Culture Industry' is well worth reading too.

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__coaxialcabal
Barry Ritholtz has a great business and finance podcast called “Masters in
Business” and frequently discusses favorite books and book recommendations in
context of the dialogue.

“MiB was originally conceived by its creator, Barry Ritholtz, as a deep dive
into the minds of the most influential, savvy and successful people in the
world of business & finance. The podcast explores how these folks became the
professionals they are today: Who their mentors and influences were, what
their personal work history is like, what books they read, even what their
daily routines and thought processes are like. A listener wrote: “The show is
like eavesdropping two very smart market professionals having a deep
discussion over a cup of coffee.””

[https://ritholtz.com/about-masters-in-business/](https://ritholtz.com/about-
masters-in-business/)

------
mooncake
This year I read "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman and absolutely
loved it. I was surprised this list did not contain it.

Looks like I've got quite a few books to read.

~~~
moh_maya
so, thinking fast and slow has received a fair amount of criticism, both here
on HN and elsewhere. Some previous threads & links that may be of interest
(and perhaps value!) to you. Start with this:

[0] [https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-
und...](https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-underpowered-
studies-nobel-prize-winner-admits-mistakes/)

[1] [https://www.wenglinskyreview.com/wenglinsky-review-a-
journal...](https://www.wenglinskyreview.com/wenglinsky-review-a-journal-of-
culture-politics/2017/1/23/kahnemans-fallacies)

[2]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/8lnlmt/is_t...](https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/8lnlmt/is_thinking_fast_and_slow_by_daniel_kahneman/)

[3]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12030791](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12030791)

Just to be clear, I think its a great book; but there are, apparently, as for
all things human, limitations & errors here and there. :)

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tasuki
For thinking about thinking, I can highly recommend Eliezer Yudkowski's
"Rationality: AI to Zombies". While mildly obnoxious at times, it's very
thorough and full of interesting as well as practical information.

It's available in a myriad of places:

\- Less Wrong wiki, where it all started:
[https://www.lesswrong.com/rationality](https://www.lesswrong.com/rationality)

\- Minimalistically formatted:
[https://www.readthesequences.com](https://www.readthesequences.com)

\- Official homepage (with links to Amazon for paper copies):
[https://rationalitybook.com](https://rationalitybook.com)

------
Fezzik
I have not read all the books on this list, but I would add The Drunkard’s
Walk (How Randomness Rules Our Lives) to great books related to thinking about
thinking. It breaks down how probability actually works in the real world in
an easily understandable way. And how our intuition about the world is,
generally, woefully off the mark.

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foobarbecue
This is a comment on a link to an article about books about thinking about
thinking

~~~
hirako2000
I got stuck in a loop starting on the thinking of whether I wanted to click on
that link.

Dangerous thoughts. Should we really think about thinking. There is no easy
break. It's rather breaking any functional thinking and slow down actual
thoughts. Any tip on scoping this effort would be appreciated.

~~~
qnsi
There is a therapy, which main focus is changing how you think about thinking.

Thinking about your thinking is called metacognition, and therapy I talk about
is Metacognitive Therapy

~~~
hirako2000
Thanks, fascinating. I could find some papers on the subject. Is there any
useful resource for self metacognitive therapy you could share?

~~~
qnsi
Best resource would be a manual from this trial [https://mct-
institute.co.uk/self-help/](https://mct-institute.co.uk/self-help/)

But I couldn't find the manual anywhere in the study paper and by googling it.
I wonder if dr Wells would share it if someone kindly asks, but I haven't
tried it.

Wells (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression is a guide for
therapists but I am using it to learn techniques myself. Not sure if
psychologists would approve

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grendelt
Metacognition. Just think about it.

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kesor
idk, I was quite expecting to see a book about actual thinking in the list.
Like for example
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Not_Luck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Not_Luck)

~~~
pitt1980
Nah, all the books you need to read about thinking were published in the past
year.

I actually happened to read The Goal a few weeks ago, I take you think It’s
Not Luck is a worthwhile follow up?

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thegabriele
Strange, no Douglas Hofstadter on the list:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter#Published_w...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter#Published_works)

I would argue GEB has been really influential on the topic.

------
Glosster
Can someone please paste the books that they recommend? I've reached my free
reading limit on Bloomberg.

~~~
pps
Sure.

No. 1. "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" by Robert M.
Sapolsky.

No. 2. "The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator" by Timothy C.
Winegard.

No. 3. "The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant
Revolution" by Gregory Zuckerman.

No. 4. "Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity" by
Jamie Metzl.

No. 5. "Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See,
Think, and Do" by Jennifer L. Eberhardt.

No. 6. "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David
Epstein.

No. 7. "The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War"
by Ben Macintyre.

No. 8. "Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion" by Jia Tolentino.

No. 9. "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't
Know" by Malcolm Gladwell.

No. 10. "Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial
Intelligence," by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb.

