The Age of Magical Overthinking
Notes on Modern Irrationality
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- 159,00 kr
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- 159,00 kr
Utgivarens beskrivning
In the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to eleven. Amanda Montell blends cultural criticism and personal narrative to explore our modern cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages and highlights of magical overthinking.
"Magical thinking" can be broadly defined as the belief that one's internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world. Whether that's "manifesting" their way out of poverty, staving off cancer with positive vibes, or transforming an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one through loyalty alone.
In a series of razor sharp and introspective chapters, Montell delves into cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the "halo effect" cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the "sunk cost fallacy" can keep us in detrimental relationships long after they no longer serve us.
Told with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell's prevailing message is one of hope and forgiveness for our anxiety riddled human self. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason through the noise of information overload, this book aims to make sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds and let the fresh air in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, and maybe, even hear a melody in it.
Reviews
"Empathetic and enviously shrewd, The Age of Magical Overthinking will cleanse your beleaguered mind the was a TikTok 'guru' never could. Amanda Montell is a relatable and often brazenly funny narrator, as she creates a blueprint to breaking our minds' worst habits. Who knew there was a path out of the forest of brain rot!" - SABRINA IMBLER
"Written with wit, smarts and self-deprecating charm, The Age of Magical Overthinking is at once a guidebook for the era of misinformation and an illuminating, palm-to-the-forehead reveal of the delusions that underlie our own beliefs. Rarely have so few pages explained so much, so entertainingly." - MARY ROACH
"Amanda Montell's unbeatable intellect helps make human life much more interesting, and a little less baffling." – MICHELLE TEA
"Reading The Age of Magical Overthinking feels like talking to a brilliant friend. With vulnerability, humour, and refreshing sincerity, Montell excavates everything from celebrity worship to toxic relationships to the allure of nostalgia. In readable, stylish prose, she offers nuanced insights into contemporary culture, all while giving the reader companionship and hope." – HEATHER DRAKE
"An engaging package suitable for anyone who wants to better understand the chaos of our modern society. Montell's take on how irrationality went mainstream is informed by erudite wit and an eye for telling images." – KIRKUS, starred review
"The Age of Magical Overthinking is a fantastic voyage into the furnace room of the modern mind. I emerged from these enlightening pages with a new understanding of my own cognitive biases, as well as an unbiased awe of Amanda Montell's abundant gifts." – MONA AWAD
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Linguist Montell follows up Cultish with a ruminative examination of "self-deceptive thought patterns," which she contends are a powerful substratum of the modern psyche. While "magical thinking," or the belief that one's thoughts can affect the real world, may function as a necessary mental shield in certain situations (Joan Didion famously wrote about its importance for dealing with grief), Montell argues that "magical overthinking" is that same tendency set into irrational overdrive by the internet era's overabundance of information. To illuminate this phenomenon, she dissects pop culture oddities and contemporary relationship issues to show how they are symptomatic of otherwise anodyne "cognitive biases" run amok. One standout chapter posits that fans' "parasocial" relationships with celebrities, which rely on attributing to the celebrity an invented personality based on scant evidence, are an instance of the "halo effect" (the "unconscious tendency to make positive assumptions about a person's overall character"). Originally documented decades ago as characteristic of how people think about close associates, this cognitive bias is made irrational by "closeness" to celebrities via social media. Other chapters analyze the "sunk cost fallacy" in relationships and "confirmation bias" in astrology. Montell's arguments sometimes hinge on reductive generalizations (e.g., everyone believes they are a good person), but she makes more than enough astute connections to compensate for occasional glosses. It's an alluring diagnosis of what ails modern minds.