This book through the studies carried out by the author makes the case that even when knowledge is a click away it is still desirable and valuable to have basic general knowledge of facts in the world. Education has in the past few decades de-emphasized facts for cognitive processes. Still however just having a store of basics facts about the world seems to be necessary f This book has at its heart as series of statistical findings on general knowledge and income, health, media diets and civics. Still however just having a store of basics facts about the world seems to be necessary for general flourishing in the world even when googling seems like a handy replacement.
It seems that having a basic understanding of facts stored in one's head can help navigate truth from falsity in the era of fake news and supplement and quicken research skills on the internet. It also helps navigate the world better on the fly. I find just knowing certain things in my work and not having the necessity of looking things up makes me better at my job. It can also help those overemphasized critical thinking skills if one has some content stored about the world to work with.
Definitely an antidote to the current conventional wisdom. Nov 27, Meredith Stewart rated it it was ok. Some of it was ok, but a lot of it seemed a bit presumptuous. For example, he calls out millennials for not knowing a two pages worth of facts, much of which deals with decades- old pop culture knowledge. Why would a millennial, or anyone else, need to know who wrote the song "Heartbreak Hotel", or who starred in "Casablanca"? And why does this make them devoid of facts? Would you ask a typical baby boomer what Rihanna's latest album was and then call them ignorant if they didn't know? Of course Some of it was ok, but a lot of it seemed a bit presumptuous.
Mostly, however, he spends a lot of time focusing on what he thinks people don't know, instead of what they should know, and why they need to know it. It's basically a book about a guy rambling about how smart he thinks he is. I'd skip it, or borrow it, but not buy it.
Probably more like a 2. This is another of those books that would have been far superior as a long magazine article. As it stands, the chapters are heavily bloated with a bunch of survey work that Poundstone did. The majority of the text consists of his writeups and explanations of his surveys rather than doing the hard work of thinking about the broader implications, or drawing from research on learning and education.
This wasn't the worst book I've ever r Probably more like a 2. This wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but it certainly wasn't the best either and probably isn't worth buying. Apr 06, Wendy Bunnell rated it it was ok. The content was rather interesting, but the tone was so smug and condescending, it was distracting. And listening to it in audiobook didn't give this smug tone problem any favors, as the reader wasn't inserting anything that wasn't in the text, but man, I don't think a tone could say any more clearly "if you don't know all of these random facts, you are definitely an ignoramous!
This was a professional narrator, and I don't think he got the tone wrong, as it was clearly the author's intent to sneer at his audience. The other main gripe about this book was how "padded out" it seemed.
- have one's head in the clouds.
- Astrologie Active (French Edition)?
- La guerra di Troia: guerra di Troia (Economica Laterza) (Italian Edition).
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- The Voiceover Bible.
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What could have been an article was somehow a book, and as a result seemed rather repetitive. This was terrible, but I did fast forward through a couple chapters when the first couple of paragraphs made it clear that the author was taking some annoying political stance and calling anyone who doesn't agree an idiot. But, now I feel very well versed in the Dunning Krueger Effect sorry if I spelled that wrong - it was an audiobook. I'm sure the author would judge me harshly. Just as he pretentiously judged people who mispronounce words.
Wow, that is the height of snobbery, as many people who mispronounce words are either speaking English as a second language, or they learned the word through reading. Oh, clutch the pearls, some uncouth fool learned a word by reading and didn't have a nanny or private school tutor around to read it to them. It was also very annoying that his only measure of "success" for adults is income. Ok, I'd say more, but here's the parting shot, here is the last line from the official book blurb on Goodreads: But, my thoughts on reading this after finishing, the author is the only person who can't read this book, as he is the only person who already knows everything.
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For the record, my husband and I are often a pretty formidable trivia team. I knew most of the very important facts he vested with so much importance. But then I'm old and still rely on maps and written directions instead of GPS, so I'm not the generation he's talking about. Jul 03, Dan Russell rated it really liked it. William Poundstone is a professional author with 15 books in his publication list.
In short, there are two big findings: That is, as the title suggests, you still need to know facts about the world in order to navigate it with any kind of depth of understanding or efficiency. The more you know, the better off you are in many ways. So I have a bit of potential confirmation bias working here, but at least I know about the existance of confirmation bias, so I can watch out for it. That is, most people rate themselves as above average in almost any area of expertise. And, the less competent you are, the more this is true.
The book is full of data about how people understand rather little. The second section is about the Knowledge Premium—with many of his own surveys showing a correlation between broad knowledge, wealth, and overall benefits in life. The answer is to be mindful about what you learn, and notice that news sources with broad coverage e. The biggest surprise of the book is that so many people are SO convinced about their beliefs religious, political, or economic , but they have little actual knowledge about them.
In a bizzare upending of order, those that have the strongest beliefs on a topic tend to know less about that topic. The more then know, the more they admit there are multiple explanations and strategies. For instance, people who believe strongly that the US should take military action in Syria are also the least likely to be able to find it on a map, or to say anything factual about the country.
By contrast, people who can list the neighbors of Syria have a much more nuanced understanding of the issues about Syria. A few bon mots… p. It boosts your self-assessment. In general, readers of broad news aggregators e. An aggregator does not substitute for a good general purpose newspaper. But you need to know that the north polar ice cap is floating ice, and that melting floating ice makes no change in water level, as you see in your tumbler of ice melting in the midday sun. People tend to echo the beliefs of those around them rather than determining them on their own. To form opinions on the scientific and technical issues driving public policy today—climate change, net neutrality, stem cell research, genetically modified organisms—it is not enough to [just] learn some facts.
One must deliberate over those facts and actively seek out evidence that challenges what one wants to believe or initially suspects to be true. This is not something that many average citizens have the time or inclination to do. We fake our opinion, going along with the crowd.
Head in the clouds: the woman scaling fresh climate change heights
Deliberative polling is a method to teach a group of people about a complex topic. First, you take a poll on the topic. THEN, you teach a class on that topic with all perspectives represented, as unbiased as you can. This adds knowledge to the group and gives them time to deliberate on this.
THEN you re-poll and look for changes. Aug 27, John Wood rated it really liked it. Why do we need to know things if we can look them up on the internet? This book cites many studies to reveal why it is good to know things, basically concluding that good basic knowledge is better than knowledge of a more specific nature and that this knowledge often correlates to higher income. It is also true that often people who know very little, believe that they are quite knowledgeable. I was relieved to know that personally, judging by my knowledge of the sample questions, I really am ind Why do we need to know things if we can look them up on the internet?
I was relieved to know that personally, judging by my knowledge of the sample questions, I really am indeed as smart as I thought I was. Now that I've got the bragging out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed the book and will continue to learn new facts. After all, you need to know what to Google and how to word your query to find what you are looking for. So, keep on learning. Mar 04, Batsheva rated it liked it Shelves: Why is it important to know stuff? From a purely practical perspective, one has to recognize the limits of one's own knowledge to be able to effectively look new information up.
Otherwise, the ignoramus blissfully believes that he or she is an expert, with inevitable disastrous results. TL;DR Knowing facts may not make you rich though it is associated with higher incomes , but may make your brain work better. Also, knowing a few facts along with some critical thinking skills helps you evaluat Why is it important to know stuff? Also, knowing a few facts along with some critical thinking skills helps you evaluate if that information you're googling is legit or belongs in the realm of "alternative facts.
I listened to the audio version of Head in the Cloud. The narration was fine although it was even slower than normal I think, because I set the speed to 2x rather than my usual 1. I suspect there may have been some charts and visuals in the printed and ebooks, but not having access to them didn't make me feel as if I was missing anything.
As for the content -- in general I have to agree with Poundstone's assertion that it's good to know a lot of facts and how to find out things and how to reas I listened to the audio version of Head in the Cloud. As for the content -- in general I have to agree with Poundstone's assertion that it's good to know a lot of facts and how to find out things and how to reason. He argues that it isn't good enough to know that you can access facts anytime through the web, you have to know how to do this effectively, how to sort out the junk from the facts, and you have to know what you don't know.
In other words, it's possible to be so ignorant that you don't even know that you are ignorant. Poundstone sets out to show just how stupid people are by devising and administering a number of quizzes in which he asks questions such as how long does it take to boil an egg and which way does a light bulb screw in. He expresses amazement that people can be so ignorant. Well, I'm amazed that he's amazed. I don't know how long it takes to boil an egg but I can do it. They thrive between 1, and 1, metres and depend on their ability to take water and nutrients directly from the swirling mists that should cloak these slopes.
But the continued existence of the cloud forest in Monteverde, familiar to the millions of tourists who have visited it, is under threat from global warming. Only occurring in a narrow altitude band whose upper limit is defined by where the mountain tops run out and by the altitude at which the trees can grow, it is being squeezed in a vice from below by warmer and drier weather patterns eradicating the enfolding cloud.
Amphibians that once lived here have died back, to the point of species extinction in some cases. Lowland species of bats and birds, including toucans, have begun moving into the cloud forest. A year-old American scientist who has spent almost 40 years climbing ropes to study the forest canopy, she has seen profound changes in the decades she has spent studying the Monteverde forest. Nadkarni is not wrong. Once inside, the forest is a dark and dripping place at ground level, its perspectives shifting spookily with the passage of the mists across the rise of the continental divide.
Subtle mauve bells of drymonia compete with the spiky balls of yellow justicia and the blades of vibrant red that attract butterflies and other insects. There are sloths and monkeys in the branches, while coatis and agoutis scamper in the undergrowth. But it is the trees that are most striking, not least the towering strangler figs with trunks like church buttresses.
The sheer scale of the diversity is explained by another facet of this ecosystem: Following Nadkarni and her colleague Cameron Williams 30m up a free hanging rope into the branches, it is hard to credit that her passion for the forest tops almost killed her three years ago. Then, climbing in a forest in the American Pacific north-west, a rope severed, precipitating a metre ground fall. I always felt that if we take care with our equipment — with our process or protocols — that trees actually are one of the safest places to be.
I just fell like a silent sack of sand.
Head in the Clouds - Wikipedia
I was knocked out for 10 minutes and I was on the forest floor for about six hours before the helicopter came. She lost her spleen as well, and her pelvis was broken in three places; she suffered nine broken ribs, lacerated lungs and a broken fibula. A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark lawsuit. A drama with a two-tiered storyline concerning a mother and daughter who try to form a bond after the young woman's difficult childhood.
A workaholic executive, and an unconventional woman agree to a personal relationship for a short period. In this short period she changes his life. The Jennings' fight for their daughters life after she is kidnapped by an experienced gang of thieves.
by William Delman
Activists arrive in Seattle, Washington en masse to protest a meeting of the World Trade Organization. Riots and chaos ensue as demonstrators successfully stop the WTO meetings. The feature adaptation of Roger Lewis' book about the actor best remembered as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies.
And before he knows it, Guy is love-smitten, and taken in the Parisian apartment of the now famous photographer, Gilda, living under the same roof with her muse and Spanish political idealist, Mia. However, as Spain gradually succumbs to the Nationalists, Mia and Guy's commitment to the cause of the Spanish Republic will threaten to break up their bohemian and almost idyllic coexistence. In the end, as Adolf Hitler rises into power, can a war-torn Europe separate the three companions forever?
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Written by Nick Riganas. This is an absolutely top-rate film, and it's a crime it only has two stars. This finely done epic is perfect in every detail - concept, acting, direction, editing, sound, music, set decoration, costume design and everything else. It is also a crime that Sony didn't get behind it. This is an Academy Award level film that was thrown in the trash by Sony and it's distributors. I can do nothing but complain about the state of the entire American film industry when crappy remakes are pushed to the hilt, and drops of golden genius like this are ignored.
Of course, the studio couldn't think of a "franchise" to make out of it, and there are no action figures to push. How long with audiences put up with the junk being pushed down our throats, remake after remake?
