Daniel J. Levitin, 'A Field Guide to Lies'

From This is Your Brain on Music to The World in Six Songs to The Organized Mind, Levitin’s bestselling works on cognitive science have been both fascinating and instructive. In his fourth book, the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University offers an invaluable guide to negotiating the stream of information in the age of Big Data. Infoliteracy means charting a course between passive acceptance and reflexive dismissal of the ongoing barrage of facts, charts, and statistics; developing critical thinking means checking those facts, assessing the source of the charts, and testing the plausibility of the statistics.

Produced by Michael A. Kowaleski

[brucerobbins]

The Twain quote, as I know it is: "You know what the boy said, "Faith is believing in what you know ain't so." I like this one better. It applies to so many cases....

[internationalinspirations]

Very interesting love the break down of averages and statistics great information

[brucerobbins]

I've been involed in the Shakespeare Authorship Question, a bastion of poor thinking skills, lack of critical thinking, lack of questioning of "evidence", lack of actual evidence, the fact that although they are a tiny minority, the anti-Strats don't seem to think that is important, that they question the motivations of experts, etc. It is a total lack of reasoning skills, and I've seen in in many people who are supposed to be intelligent: lawyers, Supreme Court Justices, physicista, psychiatrists, neurologists, etc.

Nobody convinces anybody else of anything seems to be true. Believe me. I've tried. People believe what they want to believe. It is very hard to change their beliefs even if they are confronted with facts that prove them wrong.

[brucerobbins]

Was it Diogenes who said: The only thing I know is that I know nothing." Asking the right questions is more important than having the right answers.

[backtoemocovers]

After watching this I ordered the book

[chukchee]

Often times critical thinking will get you nowhere - because there may be no need for critical thinking.

[lisavisser]

Reminded of a relative who wrote to Maxwell House asking “what’s wrong with the last drop?

[charlesfleeman]

Based on the second to last question about kids being groomed not to think critically in Texas, it seems the evidence is that Politics and Prose customers do not think critically about reports regarding Republican planks and Texas school kids. A horrible claim is made about Texas education while the speaker says he does not know if the allegation is true or not. Well, a critical thinker would have looked into whether the claim was true or not... but the speaker's confirmation bias (not his critical thinking skills) led him to conclude the allegation was true.

[brucerobbins]

Benjamin Disraeli said it best: "I implore you in the bowels of Christ, consider that you MAY be wrong." I am not sure how many times his words had any

[brucerobbins]

Colgate....4 out of five is probably true if you find the right dentists. The statement suggests that four out of EVERY five could be a lie. This is advertising....look at the ridiculous cigarette ads of the 1950's. Ads are like propaganda. They are trying to sell and have little value as truth.