Maybe not super deep or anything, but lovely humanistic writing on an important topic - why our brains allow us to be deluded, and why that’s frequently for our own good. Liked this quote in the final chapter:

“Many intelligent people have come to believe—with near religious fervor—that reason and rationality constitute the highest good, and that these alone can produce the outcomes we want. As a card-carrying rationalist, I would love for this to be true. But as a card-carrying rationalist, I also need to follow the evidence where it leads. And the evidence (ah, the irony!) tells me that in many situations, we need to work with the self-deceiving brain even if—especially if—we want to achieve the goals of the rational brain.” ( )

4,5 stars

I kept thinking of the Emperor without any clothes. A "tailor" sells the emperor clothes made of magical thread that could only be seen by intelligent people. Otherwise, the clothes would be invisible and the wearer naked. The emperor wants to look intelligent so he pretends to see the beautiful clothes. He doubles down on the idea and has a parade displaying his "clothes". Everyone in his kingdom hears about the magical properties of his clothes celebrate with him and each other. Well, everyone except for one boy who shouts, "Why is the emperor naked?"

As a child, this story taught me not to be tricked and the boy is a hero. But maybe not. Because everyone else in the kingdom is celebrating under a useful delusion. They were happy. The boy is a stick in the mud.

Sometimes our delusions keep us happy and surviving. Like one truthful viewpoint, we are just walking decaying and defecating meat sacks. But focusing on that truth can be debilitating and depressing. Another inconvenient truth being how insignificant our actions are in context of the age of the Earth or Universe. I kinda like the useful delusion that I matter and what I do matters.




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Kind of interesting but doesn't present any ground-breaking concepts. All of this material will likely be familiar to those who read about neuroscience regularly. ( )

The author makes a simple point – – that we often lie or delude ourselves and others not necessarily out of malice or ignorance but often to promote happiness, comfort and reassurance. He cites the example of the story of the Church of Love. These were men duped into thinking that they were corresponding personally with women and developing personal relationships. The Church of Love was a scam and when mail authorities filed charges, some of these men, instead of being upset about the scam, were upset with the postal authorities in filing charges. These men were content with the delusion and fantasy – – many sent thousands of dollars by mail to help the women when they cited financial burdens.

Religion has been cited as possibly man's greatest illusion. The author suggests a "terror management theory” where religion provides comfort and security against the fear of death and impermanence.

This book is an easy read, about 200 pages. I was able to finish it in less than two days. Not sure how much information in this book will be new to the reader or revelatory but I found it interesting. It has made me review my own “delusions.”

Some of my notes from the book listed below:

Could self deception ever lead to good outcomes?

We say "have a nice day" when we couldn't care less.

It should not be surprising, therefore, that we lie most regularly to those who are closest to us, to people whom we care about deeply.

There are circumstances where we must temper our desire to tell the truth with the imperative to protect and comfort.

Benjamin Franklin once offered the advice, "keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut afterward.”

Scandinavians have lots of trust in their governments, excellent social services and high functioning states. They also have some of the lowest levels of religious belief in the world.
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Thanks to W. W. Norton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many of us are delusional: to be precise, all of us. We have to be, in order to maintain the will to survive. This is the theme of Shankar Vedantam and Bill Mesler's book "Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain." Not only are we delusional, we actually evolved that way via natural selection because cheerful blindness about some things helps us survive better.

Whether we are talking about religion, relationships, medicine, or commerce, the ways in which our brains trick us (or lead us to be easily tricked by others) can certainly be harmful or even deadly. We harshly judge others for being so easily tricked. Why can't they just open their eyes? It's so obvious that they are being had!

We do not often consider that first, scientific data tends to demonstrate that we are just as deluded as others in some ways (sports anyone?) and that moreover, being deluded may sometimes be very good for both us and those poor suckers we are so harshly judging. If you don't think you have your own sacred cows and sacred causes, odds are, careful self-examination would reveal otherwise.

Crippling existential dread is not conducive to human flourishing, even if it constitutes the last word in "getting real" or "being truthful." Many of our useful delusions can promote our health and our well-being in numerous ways, so why not be humble and cut our fellow delusional saps a little slack?

"Useful Delusions" can be repetitious, and as hard as I tried, I could not muster much sympathy for many of the authors' examples of deluded people, no matter how many times I was asked to pity or understand their views and behavior. However, I enjoy a good and frequently witty thought exercise, and "Useful Delusions" was a fun shake-you-up self-help guide. The book goes pleasantly against the grain of modern hidebound certainty with everyone's cocksure social media platform on blast at full volume. Repeat after me: "I might be wrong." ( )