Nobody's Fool
Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do about It
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Nobody's Fool
Narrated by:
Andrew Sellon
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Andrew Sellon
About this listen
From phishing scams to Ponzi schemes, fraudulent science to fake art, chess cheaters to crypto hucksters, and marketers to magicians, our world brims with deception. In Nobody’s Fool, psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris show us how to avoid being taken in. They describe the key habits of thinking and reasoning that serve us well most of the time but make us vulnerable—like our tendency to accept what we see, stick to our commitments, and overvalue precision and consistency. Each chapter illustrates their new take on the science of deception, describing scams you’ve never heard of and shedding new light on some you have. Simons and Chabris provide memorable maxims and practical tools you can use to spot deception before it’s too late.
Informative, illuminating, and entertaining, Nobody’s Fool will protect us from charlatans in all their forms—and delight us along the way.
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Critic reviews
An outstanding guide to nonsense for critical readers.—Kirkus (Starred)
"This entry provides smart, succinct analyses based in solid cognitive science principles. The gullible and skeptical alike will find plenty to chew on."—Publishers Weekly
“To know if you have been deceived, you must question what you believe—but we can’t always question everything. In Nobody’s Fool, Simons and Chabris address the more difficult and intriguing question: When should you question what you believe?”—Apollo Robbins, theatrical thief and deception expert
“Through captivating storytelling and insightful analysis, Nobody’s Fool provides a fascinating exploration of the human mind’s vulnerability to deception and offers practical tools to help us become more rational decision-makers."—Annie Duke, author of Thinking in Bets and Quit
“Nobody’s Fool is a fascinating and fun read that explores the limits of the human mind and teaches you how to avoid being hoodwinked. Simons and Chabris are outstanding storytellers and scientists who’ve written just the book we all need in a world where misinformation, scams, and everyday duplicity put us at increasing risk.”—Katy Milkman, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller How to Change
“Rarely do you find such practical advice combined with such delicious entertainment. In an age of con artists, charlatans, and conspiracy peddlers, Nobody’s Fool is an essential survival guide for investors, consumers, and citizens. I wondered if the authors could possibly top The Invisible Gorilla, a classic in its field. They have—and we’re all better armed against fraud as a result.”—Diana B. Henriques, author of the New York Times bestseller The Wizard of Lies
“Nobody's Fool is science writing at its best. A must-read for anybody who loves reading about fascinating social-science studies and compelling stories—or just wants to get tricked less.”—Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times–bestselling author of Everybody Lies and Don’t Trust Your Gut
“The vast menagerie of scams detailed in Nobody's Fool makes for entertaining — albeit frightening—reading. Thankfully, Simons and Chabris excavate the inner workings of con-artistry and explain in great detail why we fall for it, again and again, and how we can stop. This book is an inoculation for your brain.”—David Epstein, author of the New York Times bestseller Range
“This book is worth vastly more than its purchase price. It shows, in rich detail, that con artists around the world use strikingly similar tactics to ensnare their victims. Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris offer an engaging master class in how to foil purveyors of false promises.”—Philip E. Tetlock, author of Superforecasting
It may be that I have spent a lot of time reading and hearing about these topics online but I didn't feel there was much in the way of examples and case studies that I hadn't heard before. A lot of references to Theranos, Bernie Madoff, Diederik Stapel and A LOT of examples of hoaxes and misinformed ideas during COVID. Personally, I am both not interested in retreading that last topic all over again and feel that when this book was published, certain revelations that have come to light since, render at least some of their analysis faulty. I suspect time will show that the authors' ideas as to who was right and who was wrong on a bunch of topics will not age well.
This also brings up another point that, though I expect they tried to make the book balanced by showing examples of deceit from both the political 'left' and 'right' they show far more keenness to point and laugh at, for example, those proposing alternate treatments to a certain pandemic, than they do at the government sources who lied about, for example, tha famous 6 foot rule (2m rule outside the US) or the effectiveness and need to wear masks etc. etc. I'm not taking a position either way but I feel they are not suitably skeptical of 'official' sources from official government people who definitely weren't out at the French Laundry restaurant or seeing their mistresses while telling everyone else to lockdown to save lives. In short, I think the authors have a pro-government bias that again, hasn't aged well and I think comes across as naïve given the passage of time. All things considered, given the distress it all caused, the polarizing nature of debate and the recentness of said pandemic, they might have done themselves and their readers a solid by just leaving it alone.
I find that the reader is too softly spoken and that he sometimes reads what I presume are parenthetical comments in the original text as if he is saying them himself under his breath. These comments already wreak of snide and smugness and his delivery just makes them really stand out. There is also frequent use of the term BS, though not abbreviated as I have done here. Such language, though apparently common to academic cognitive research papers, seems out of place to me and brings down the tone to the level of rock music lyrics or moronic podcasters whose vocabulary is sufficiently stunted so as to prevent them sounding even slightly clever. Were the word to appear once, then later referenced as "BS", I would understand the limited usage, given that Cognitive Psychologists appear to have their minds in the gutter but they apparently can't help themselves and drop it in like it somehow makes them authentic or edgy or cool, you know, like it's what the kids are saying these days. It doesn't.
There are in this book some criticisms of other psychologists that are worth paying attention to, though the fact the the main subject of their criticism is a Nobel prize winner and world leader in their field, doesn't do much to dispel the crazy idea that social sciences are a bunch of BS, built on fraud, poor methodology and are generally unscientific. Again, more examples of complete scientific fraud in psychology have emerged since publication, perhaps suggesting psychologists should take the massive tree trunk out of their own collective eyes before removing the spec from the eyes of the rest of us by rendering opinions about everyone else's supposed hoaxes.
If you know nothing of this field, give it a read. If you've been on the interwebs in the past decade or so, you might feel like you've heard much of this before.
Interesting but not groundbreaking psychology
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