The Invisible Gorilla

Author: Christopher Chabris
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 0307459667
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
Reading this book will make you less sure of yourself—and that’s a good thing. In The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, creators of one of psychology’s most famous experiments, use remarkable stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to demonstrate an important truth: Our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we’re actually missing a whole lot. Chabris and Simons combine the work of other researchers with their own findings on attention, perception, memory, and reasoning to reveal how faulty intuitions often get us into trouble. In the process, they explain: • Why a company would spend billions to launch a product that its own analysts know will fail • How a police officer could run right past a brutal assault without seeing it • Why award-winning movies are full of editing mistakes • What criminals have in common with chess masters • Why measles and other childhood diseases are making a comeback • Why money managers could learn a lot from weather forecasters Again and again, we think we experience and understand the world as it is, but our thoughts are beset by everyday illusions. We write traffic laws and build criminal cases on the assumption that people will notice when something unusual happens right in front of them. We’re sure we know where we were on 9/11, falsely believing that vivid memories are seared into our minds with perfect fidelity. And as a society, we spend billions on devices to train our brains because we’re continually tempted by the lure of quick fixes and effortless self-improvement. The Invisible Gorilla reveals the myriad ways that our intuitions can deceive us, but it’s much more than a catalog of human failings. Chabris and Simons explain why we succumb to these everyday illusions and what we can do to inoculate ourselves against their effects. Ultimately, the book provides a kind of x-ray vision into our own minds, making it possible to pierce the veil of illusions that clouds our thoughts and to think clearly for perhaps the first time.

Gorillas in Our Midst

Author: Christopher Chabris
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780648022695
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Catalogue to accompany the exhibition Gorillas in Our Midst, at Mona (Museum of Old and New Art), 2019

There Plant Eyes

Author: M. Leona Godin
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 1524748722
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
From Homer to Helen Keller, from Dune to Stevie Wonder, from the invention of braille to the science of echolocation, M. Leona Godin explores the fascinating history of blindness, interweaving it with her own story of gradually losing her sight. “[A] thought-provoking mixture of criticism, memoir, and advocacy." —The New Yorker There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our ocularcentric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what it means to be “blind.” For millennia, blindness has been used to signify such things as thoughtlessness (“blind faith”), irrationality (“blind rage”), and unconsciousness (“blind evolution”). But at the same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil). Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture (from King Lear to Star Wars) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural history. A genre-defying work, There Plant Eyes reveals just how essential blindness and vision are to humanity’s understanding of itself and the world.

In the Kingdom of Gorillas

Author: Bill Weber
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743200071
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
Chronicles the attempts of the authors to protect and study the mountain gorillas of Rwanda, discussing the foundation of the Mountain Gorilla Project as well as the ecological and political situation of Rwanda.

Last Meeting of the Gorilla Club

Author: Sara Nickerson
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 1101994428
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
A moving new middle grade novel about childhood anxiety and grief, from the author of The Secrets of Blueberries, Brothers, Moose, and Me. Eleven-year-old Josh Duncan has never had much luck making friends--not the real kind, anyway. Moving to a new town is supposed to be a chance to leave behind the problems that plagued Josh at his last school. Problems like Big Brother, Josh's favorite and best friend. Because, as Josh's parents tell him, he's too old to still have imaginary friends. But even before the first day of school is over, Big Brother reappears--and he's not alone. Only this time one of Josh's imaginary friends seems to be interacting with another boy at school, Lucas Hernandez. Can Lucas see them, too? Brought together by an unusual classroom experiment and a mysterious invitation to join something called the Gorilla Club, Josh and Lucas are about to discover how a unique way of seeing the world can reveal a real-life friend.

Everything is Better with a Gorilla

Author: Andrew Gall
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1440507198
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 123

Book Description
Being best buds with a great ape is basically the most awesome thing in the entire world. They're excellent wingmen. They're accomplished bargain hunters. And their impressive dexterity makes them the perfect ping-pong partners. The perks are pretty much endless. Whether you need a hand organizing an Olympic-caliber bobsled team or fancy a leisurely stroll, a Gorilla is the ideal companion for whatever it is you're game to do. And the guidance they give is the absolute tops. Gorillas know the dish on the hippest eateries around and provide financial advice that's unbelievably sound (as they hold true to a "don't spend what you don't have" policy). Everything Is Better with a Gorilla because, well, it just is.

Understanding and Treating the Aggression of Children

Author: David A. Crenshaw
Publisher: Jason Aronson
ISBN: 9780765705617
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
Understanding and Treating the Aggression of Children: Fawns in Gorilla Suits provides a thorough review of the theoretical and research basis of the techniques and interventions in the treatment of aggressive and sometimes violent children. This is not a dry and sterile academic review but rather one that comes from work directly in the therapy room with thousands of hurting and in many cases traumatized children. One cannot read this book without being deeply moved and touched by the pain of these children and yet also be buoyed by their courage and willingness to persevere against formidable barriers. The metaphor of the fawn in a gorilla suit is introduced, followed by chapters covering developmental failures and invisible wounds, profound and unacknowledged losses, the implication of new findings from neuroscience, psychodynamics of aggressive children, risk factors when treating the traumatized child, special considerations when treating children in foster care, strengthening relationships with parents and helping them be more effective, enhancing relationships with direct care and instructional staff, developing mature defenses, and coping skills, creating a therapeutic milieu for traumatized children, and fostering hope and resilience.

Gorilla Ballerina

Author: Neal Zetter
Publisher: Troika
ISBN: 9781912745050
Category : Animals
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description

Gorilla and the Bird

Author: Zack McDermott
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316315117
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Book Description
"Glorious...one of the best memoirs I've read in years...a tragicomic gem about family, class, race, justice, and the spectacular weirdness of Wichita. [McDermott] can move from barely controlled hilarity to the brink of rage to aching tenderness in a single breath." -- Marya Hornbacher, New York Times Book Review Zack McDermott, a 26-year-old Brooklyn public defender, woke up one morning convinced he was being filmed, Truman Show-style, as part of an audition for a TV pilot. Every passerby was an actor; every car would magically stop for him; everything he saw was a cue from "The Producer" to help inspire the performance of a lifetime. After a manic spree around Manhattan, Zack, who is bipolar, was arrested on a subway platform and admitted to Bellevue Hospital. So begins the story of Zack's freefall into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often hilarious struggle to claw his way back to sanity. It's a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, big-hearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack's dark world. Before his odyssey is over, Zack will be tackled by guards in mental wards, run naked through cornfields, receive secret messages from the TV, befriend a former Navy Seal and his talking stuffed monkey, and see the Virgin Mary in the whorls of his own back hair. But with the Bird's help, he just might have a shot at pulling through, starting over, and maybe even meeting a partner who can love him back, bipolar and all. Introducing an electrifying new voice, Gorilla and the Bird is a raw and unforgettable account of a young man's unraveling and the relationship that saves him.

Sway

Author: Ori Brafman
Publisher: Currency
ISBN: 0385530609
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think. Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more. Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us). Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics. Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.