About
You Are Not So Smart is a blog I started to publicly explore our self delusions through narrative journalism.
When it started, I had a love for psychology, some skills as a writer, and a lot of curiosity, but I had no idea how much material was out there to explore. So far, this has been fun, enlightening, and humbling.
The central theme here is that you are unaware of how unaware you are. There is branch of psychology and an old and growing body of research with findings that suggest you have little idea why you act or think the way you do. Despite this, you create narratives to explain your own feelings, thoughts and behaviors, and these narratives become the story of your life.
I am not the only person writing about these topics, or the first, or even close to the smartest. I want my stuff to be fun and entertaining, but you can deep dive into many of these topics at Wikipedia’s biases page, Wikipedia’s fallacies page, and Wikipedia’s heuristics page.
- BEFORE YOU POST NASTY COMMENTS OR WRITE ANGRY EMAILS:
I, David McRaney, am not a psychologist or an economist. I am a journalist and fan writing about what those super-smart and hard-working people are discovering on these topics. Sometimes, I get it wrong. I’m doing my best to translate it all and make it fun, but If I’m wrong and you know it, please let me know instead of flaming me in the comment sections. These things can be edited and corrected. I welcome assistance in clarifying the concepts. In addition, if you are new to these concepts, please don’t stop here. This blog (and the book) should promote discourse and provoke thought. Do your own research.
Remember, my synthesis of the topics that I research is just my own interpretation of facts. I try to include all the sources I pull from so readers can come to their own conclusions. If you feel like an attribution or citation is missing, please let me know so I can add it.
Trackbacks
- M3talinks for Jul 30th
- Personal Development Five for Friday – The Full of Irony Edition — LymanReed.com
- 4 liens rapides pour la semaine (2010-44) « La BI ça vous gagne!
- Recommended Reading: You Are Not So Smart - College Bound
- Asking Directions « The Narrative Imperative: Tell Stories or Die
- The war inside your brain « here's the thing:
- "We suffer the brain pain so you don’t have to." | Sonlight Blog
- Helpless? « A View From The West
- Tu non sei così intelligente come pensi. Anche tu. | Il blog dell'ADCI
- You are not so smart, nope, really | Warston
- A ‘Versatile Blogger?’ Me? | The Sandwich Lady
My God this is all so true. Not sure about it keeping you sane…
Sane, because our egos rely on the illusion of self-image to be able to function amidst so much chaos swirling about us constantly.
If anything, the truths probably cause people to lose faith in themselves, and life.
maybe, but there’s always that slight chance that they’ll suck it up and keep living.
Great blog!
I am guessing you have read The Black Swan.
If you haven’t, you should. I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.
I haven’t, but I just ordered it. Thank you.
Sorry, it’s OK and funny to have such a condescending blog and I could really use it from time to time, but for that it’s just not good enough. Keep up the effort!
I forgot: the Black Swan is annoyingly wrong. Do not buy.
David, you’re making the world a better place one post at a time.
In other words, this blog is the ****.
Looking forward to further revelations about my/our/everyone’s mental flaws :)
This blog is the fuck?
This blog is the fuck, in the best possible way.
“You’re not so smart.”
Why use “you” instead of “we”?
It’s a common expression, and although I use “you” as a style choice, rest assured I’m thinking “me” and “we.”
Just one thing that came to mind when I saw this post – are you saying that you are trying to mke people insane???
I believe that what you are doing with this blog, and the information you are giving me in it is making me into a better person, definitely not a more insane person.
I really enjoy your blog (I’m a Psychology/Cognitive Science major at UC Berkeley), I just found it a little disconcerting to find out that you believe that with every post you are helping people lose their sanity. Explain!
Thanks for your work either way :)
There is a safety inside insanity.
only for the self
Because literally everyone considers themselves to be the beacon of truth surrounded by sheep. By using “we,” his target is less likely to pick it up as “we” doesn’t apply to them. I’m assuming.
cool god blog, i mean cool dog blog…no…cool blog dog! Yeah that!
this is an awesome site!! everything posted is basically everything we learned in my social psychology class in college
Nice site! I’m happy to find it. Although I’m not on a journey of self-awareness or enlightenment or anything. I’m a sales copywriter, and I actually use a lot of this stuff as – what’s the word? Weaponry. Yeah.
So it’s nice to be able to reference this, rather than having to read scientific papers. I will probably be reading this whole website today. And all bookmarking it and stuff.
Kudos, sir! Keep it up.
P.S. I started out in journalism one time, but selling out pays a lot more. And I can lie and trick people now, which is often way more fun than “just the facts.”
@Colin
“P.S. I started out in journalism one time, but selling out pays a lot more. And I can lie and trick people now, which is often way more fun than “just the facts.”
Let’s just hope no one digs up that quote 10 years from now when you’re running for
-ceo
-mayor
-president
You sound like a trustworthy young man indeed.
(pssssst everything you type into this little box will come back to you someday )
@JamieTabs
I guess I should have held my tongue a little more visibly in my cheek – but then again, in what way does lying and tricking people disqualify me from politics and executive positions? I thought that was kind of par for the course. :)
I do stand by what I said though – I’m a sales copywriter, I tell people little lies and fictions that trick them into buying one thing vs. another thing.
People like to have excuses to justify buying the things they already want. My work is to make up better exuses than they can come up with themselves. Hopefully, the excuse I make up is so good, they can’t justify NOT buying, even if they didn’t want it in the first place.
Just because I’m realistic about what I do for a living doesn’t make me a bad person or untrustworthy in private life.
I’m no Don Draper! :)
But journalism is on the opposite side of the “writing” spectrum from what I do, there’s no doubt. Also, I’m 99% sure it pays more unless you’re Nancy Grace.
Besides, a lot of the stuff described on this blog was discovered by doing psychological research – not for funsies – but expressly FOR the purpose of creating more effective marketing. One could say I’m actually pursuing the intended purpose of this knowledge.
But that would kind of be a lie. :D
Although I realize that this post is a little old, I just wanted to offer up a brief comment.
Much of the research featured on this site, regardless of its source, help us to better understand how humans, as a species, work. However, I believe that this knowledge represents merely the tools available. The ‘good’ or ‘evil’ outcome depends entirely on the user.
Marketing techniques are just that, tools. They can be used to persuade kids to pick up smoking, or they can increase literacy rates. How they are used (in both the public/private sectors) makes all the difference in the world.
What if one day we just stopped buying the crap they are trying to sell us? What would they do for jobs? It would be hard for them to be honest, therefore they wouldn’t be able to survive. They would have to be honest to survive. Survival of the more honest person. What an idealistic notion.
It’s proof of what, I think, I’ve often said: We are the stories we tell about ourselves.
Loved reading some good insights on relationships…..
Hey, I love this blog. I’ve recommended it to every semi-intelligent friend of mine (I’m a teenager, go figure). I’ve always been interested in psychology and reading this just shows, “Oh wow that definitely happens to me.”
Anyways, just want to say that you should continue writing. It’s really helpful to bringing interest to the general teenage population.
Aaah, self delusion. I’ve never studied psychology as a subject but I still find it very interesting and I find self delusion one of the most interesting topics. Will definitely go through this blog. Thanks so much for making a blog about it and presenting it in such a simple way. Keep writing!
Thanks a bunch for reading. I’m trying to post at least once a week and sometimes more.
This blog is awesome. The contents of this site is critical to living in this modern age. If I could, I would make this mandatory education before passing high school. My kids are going to get a whole lot of this.
Hey David –
David here as well. I am glad you appreciate your talents and the ability to verbalize the internal dialogue that most of play in our heads on a daily basis. Your ability to quantify this dialogue seems to allow a deeper understanding of the human condition here on earth, as scary as it might be. Whether we like it or not, we are all existing at the same moment in time and space and our actions do affect others, whether it be writing a blog or holding a door for a stranger.
I would like to ask you a question. With this greater and deeper understanding of our “humaness”, how can you, specifically, positively affect the world on a large scale? As we know, this is not a just world, so, in my opinion (which doesn’t mean jack), dedicating time and resources to those who have the short end of the stick is the only “logical”/”rational” way to make our lives not futile as privileged humans.
Check out the concept of, “Survival of the Nicest” that was first coined by Samuel Bowles. I am sure you’ll appreciate the read.
This is really one of the best sites I’ve ever seen on the web. Please keep up the good work The comments are just as great and informative too. And its’ very kind of you to reply to them. I think I’ll be a regular here from now on.
@Mehrzad – I appreciate your kind words. I’ll keep plugging away as long as I can.
I’m loving it… hahahah
Terrific site, thank you! A FB contact saw my link to a recent Boston Globe article- http://www.boston.com/yourtown/milton/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
and suggested I come here.
Would you think about having a suggested reading list? I noticed a recent post suggested The Black Swan, to which I would add The Drunkard’s Walk and the uncannily relevant On Being Certain.
@Jefferson – I’m holding off on a reading list for a reason…which will soon be revealed.
Thanks for the reminder. I totally needed it.
Keep up the good work! I really enjoyed your blog.
Looks like my original comment didn’t make it, so here’s my redacted one.
Thanks. I’m a fan.
I recognise some of myself = Oh Boy !
So I must say that i’m pleased to have found this site. It explains why my friends and others around me look at me strangely when I explain how I see life. Also, I think these posts remind us that we have the capability to set the pace of how others think. Not everyone needs a doctorate degree to create something, all it takes is a good idea, oh and a healthy credit rating, ha.
wow this blog will make a great side dish to my reading list. ‘praise of folly’, ‘utopia’, ‘the idiot’, ‘stupidity’, and probably when i’m all done, a night cap of of ‘forrest gump’.
also i agree emphatically with the keeping sane through foolishness bit. as folly put it, “those who find this too ridiculous should please consider whether they’d rather spend a life sweetened by folly like this or go and look for the proverbial beam to hang from.”
This is my new favorite website. How often do you post new articles?
This is my new favorite website. How often do you post new entries?
Thought-provoking. Worthy of late-night, caffeine-inspired conversation with other insomniacs. May I quote some of the text in my small biz newsletters? Citing my source, of course. Credit where credit due, always. My audience is my few employees, although I never know where they’ll run with it. One could hope to strike a chord, tap the intellect. Just sayin’.
How do you feel about other bloggers quoting you and linking back to your site? I have a blog that is broadly speaking skeptical and might want to quote you if it is okay.
This is a marvelous site.
For the layman, it is wonderful reading; very well informed, without sway either to the esoteric or to the sensationalist end of the blogging spectrum.
I’d read a few articles from your blog, always linked in from other sites, before I even realised that I was revisiting the same site again and again.
Very interesting reading!
Don’t stop writing! ^__^
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Love your website!!!
Please keep writing.
Hey, Just wanted to say that I really enjoy reading your blog. It’s really well written, reminds me of why I enjoyed taking sociology / Psych / and Anthropology classes back in college. Keep up the good work!
I have to admit one strange thing I noticed about the site though. I don’t know how much control you have over the ads on your site but it is weird to see ads for Scientology here. It does make me interested in knowing what kind of techniques they use to get and keep members, and the science behind it.
Looking forward to further posts!
A great informative blog I should say :) I think I’ve got a self-serving bias prob lol I did use it to illustrate my point in one of my university assessment and reference your blog :)
I enjoy keeping a critical mind (and that gets me in trouble most of the time), and this blog is just perfect for it.
Thank you for this.
This blog is win.
@Matt – Scientology is no longer allowed to advertise here.
Great! Always extremely interesting.
To be almost perfect, let me suggest you to put some references at the end of your posts. However, references or not, I’ll keep reading.
Fabrizio (from Italy)
Been sayin’ this for years.
If only every vile nitwit little human beast could be strapped to a chair and forced to read this entire blog over and over until they could RECITE IT WORD FOR WORD.
I love this idea. Happy I randomly found you!
Nice:)
David here as well. I am glad you appreciate your talents and the ability to verbalize the internal dialogue that most of play in our heads on a daily basis. Your ability to quantify this dialogue seems to allow a deeper understanding of the human condition here on earth, as scary as it might be. Whether we like it or not, we are all existing at the same moment in time and space and our actions do affect others, whether it be writing a blog or holding a door for a stranger.
+1
This semester, I have been teaching a freshman comp sequence that focuses on information gathering and processing, and how technology shapes us – both in terms of influencing ideas, and by physically restructuring our brains and bodies. I’m sure you’re familiar with Daniel Gilbert (Stumbling Upon Happiness – 2006) and Richard Restak (The New Brain: How the Modern Age is Rewiring Your Mind – 2003). If you haven’t, you should – they both have ideas that echo many of yours.
What’s interesting to me, though, is how they tie into my Cyborg Theory class; Andy Clark’s “Natural Born Cyborgs” (2003 – but he’s got a new book out this yr.) also reiterates the importance of cerebral plasticity.
Thanks for some thoughtful insight – and excellent resources – that I can use!
Brilliant website.
I’ve read every entry and look forward to the future ones.
Keep it up!
if we’re irrational then how are you claiming to KNOW truth and misconceptions?
a website devoted to irrational thinking will only provoke stale irrational thoughts.
I am irrational. I can sometimes point out irrational behavior of other people, but it takes a lot of energy not to repeat that behavior myself :) but it is possible.
This site is pure gold. I have just discovered the sunk cost fallacy, it was a form of irrational behavior I didn’t even know I possessed!
I think I needed this blog right now. I borrowed a book from a friend of mine, called “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives” by Leonard Mlodinow and it covers some of the topis you discuss here. I’d say that the universe is teying to tell me something, but I know better now. Thanks for the very excellent and well written blog.
Want a new TV? Go to Walmart for all your TV needs.
“He welcomes criticism of his work and assistance in clarifying the concepts. Most of all, this blog should promote discourse and provoke thought. Do your own research.”
You have puzzle pieces, I have puzzle pieces. I have found more people who have puzzle pieces too. We need to connect via email:)
I’ve just discovered this blog! Excellent stuff and congratulations on the book!
Tuchodown! That’s a really cool way of putting it!
Eureka! Just read Backfire Effect and I’m gobsmacked(Brittons would say). I’ve got this kind of self loathing and self deprecation too, I just cannot write excellently like you do. And because I am a female, people always think I’m too much to take. Talking about ruining your stereotype, huh?
Thank you for your writings. Keep posting I’ll be back checking you out;-)
This is brilliant. I know I’m going to be hooked to this blog. I love you ‘do your own research’ comment.
The photo you use appears to me to be of a bearded man holding a handgun. is this in fact what it is? Just checking before getting into stuff.
Hmm, something like losing one’s mind to gain sanity.
love your blog, you’re a cool cat
I knew this shit already, guess this makes me pretty smart
Well, since this site has bored you so, why don’t you check out merriam-webster online? They’ve got loads of better words for you to pepper comment sections with. :)
Hi,
I’m wondering how serious you are =). Obviously, our brains have been shaped by millions of years of evolution and we cannot fully understand the way the work, but it’s a de facto admission of lack of perfection. Human beings strive for rationality and logic, because those are concepts which produce good effects most of the time. It’s good to be e.g. rational about your spendings, but it’s evident that it’s rarely the case. You can still become better at it and there is a high chance that some people are far worse at it than you are. It’s good to base your decisions on logical arguments rather than on pure emotions, because there is a higher chance that decisions that were based on them will be sound and beneficial to you. There is no guarantee, of course, because a plethora of factors is involved (luck, lack of information, imperfect knowledge about the world etc.).
In my opinion a rational person is the one who really tries to see the truth and at the same time knows that it’s very likely that they will ever know the full part. An element of this rationality is the admission of imperfection. Emotions shaped by evolution are part of our lives and we “simply” have to know how to deal with them (this is very pragmatic and rational BTW). In fact, you can use them to your advantage if you know what you are doing. They also do not exclude the free will, although I can see how a person could delude themselves that they do, as it can be very convenient to blame the outside factors for our failures (“it’s not my fault, I did nothing wrong” – =) ).
I have not comment at the moment, just discovered this blog but please keep me posted
Hi David!
Enjoyed your half-hour with Dr. Michael A(ranoff?) on SiriusXM Doctor Radio this week. Will be looking for YOU ARE NOT SO SMART next sojourn to the book store … and will be suggesting to Dr. Michael (via e-mail at docs@siriusxm.com) that you get much more time. Randolph
Thanks for the brilliant website. Will find ways to promote it :)
Keep up the awesomeness!
Just read about your book deal. Congratulations!!
Jog your memory read wordpress.com (My Appetite for Anxiety!)
awesome. Just found your blog through word press marketing. Now I have yet another distraction from work. thanks.
Big fan of your blog, just bought the book too!
Amazing book but what is the picture on the cover suppose to be?
I can’t tell enough people about this blog. It blows me away every time I get sucked into it. Thank you for making this, and making it so well.
Hey, it looks like you’re pouring alot of your life into this site, with it being so well thought out. In one part of your recent post, you said that if you don’t “step back and feel a little funky about your socially constructed mask, then you’re probably a psychopath.” I’ve also heard that one loses their mind in their 20′s, which seems awefully objective. I do believe everyone faces the fear of going insane, and I want to know what you guys say about this: what if one refuses to build a social mask- what if they never smile or talk unless they feel the impulse? What if they begin to fear- insanity, health problems- and this leads them to overthink so that their very core energy slows down? Is this a step toward a singleminded, non-facade life…? Is it healthy?
I listened to you on radio today look forward to reading your book.I was going to call in but couldn’t,wanted to share a story on good luck/intuition .While living in NYC I was playing the lotto’s pick4 the # was 1441,I was playing it on&off for few weeks.One day when paying for groceries the total was $14.44 I looked at it and thought how it looked like 1441.Later while walking to work I decided to put a dollar on it.The next day I check & there it was 1444.I go to a grocery to collect $600 of a total of $3100 prize.As I walk into grocery store one guy is asking the other,what was the pick4 last nite,the reply’s 1444 what idiot played that # I then hand him the tix and say Iam your idiot.Some time idiots are smart.I recently finished a book,Creativity by Mihaly Csikszent ,one of best books on subject of creativity and luck plays it’s part along side of hard work.Good Luck
I think you’re great, more please.
and thank you.
I am thoroughly enjoying your blog! Just nominated you for a “Versatile Blogger Award.” Click on my link to find out more about it. Congratulations and thanks for inspiring me!