How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age

I honestly thought this book was amazing. Obviously there's a lot of opinion in it, so take it with a grain of salt, but it's definitely provided me with a lot insight.

Not only is this book really informative, it's also entertaining. It goes through most of the 'weird' stories that you have probably heard. Stories like the monster of loch ness, bigfoot, near-death experiences, mediums, haunted houses, etc. And it analyzes each of these claims with a framework built on top of logic and the scientific method.

The authors do a pretty good job of giving each of these issues a fair treatment. E.g. they don't claim that UFOs are non-existant, or impossible to exist. They just claim that for the set of phenomena reported as UFOs, there are other, simpler, explanations.

Somewhere in the book it says "The more a theory contradicts your existing beliefs, the more suspicious you should be of it" (paraphrasing). What I'm driving at is that if you have a lot of beliefs about weird things, like ESP, etc. you will find a lot of the things in this book hard to swallow. If you're already a skeptic you'll be nodding your head a lot.

However, if you believe in something and are trying to convince someone else to believe it too, the tools in this book are probably the only ones that will accomplish the deed.

Reading the first edition of this book this summer was the start of a mental revolution for me. This book can turn your beliefs on their head in a friendly way. I was able to smile at the fact that I could be wrong in how I interpret events.

This book isn't so much about developing better thinking skills as it is a collection of the authors' opinions presented as science. It can help you practice your ability to locate logical fallacies in arguments, since almost every argument in the book contains at least one. My favorite is the voodoo-math that they use to explain apparent pre-cognition as the result of statistical probability. The first half of the formula that they present relies on the notion that the average person knows a very large number of people who are all, for some reason, dying off at a rate faster than one person every four days. The second half of the formula is omitted entirely, and they instead skip directly to their conclusion. I think that the authors were relying on the intimidation that some people feel when faced with a series of big numbers to keep anyone from analyzing their absurd argument.
The authors also frequently use straw man arguments and several variations of the argument from intimidation in an attempt to reinforce their opinions as facts. If you are really interested in developing your thinking skills, then checking out de Bono's books and The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools would be a good start. There are many great books on the topic, and there's also lots of good information for free online.

Received product just over 24 hours from ordering. Was worried about overnight delivery accuracy, but was pleased to receive order on time, as promised.