Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for A Field Guide to Lies by Daniel J. Levitin - Wait list

A Field Guide to Lies

Critical Thinking in the Information Age

by Daniel J. Levitin
Dan Piraro
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
Place a hold Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
From The New York Times bestselling author of THE ORGANIZED MIND and THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC, a primer to the critical thinking that is more necessary now than ever.
We are bombarded with more information each day than our brains can process—especially in election season. It's raining bad data, half-truths, and even outright lies. New York Times bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin shows how to recognize misleading announcements, statistics, graphs, and written reports revealing the ways lying weasels can use them.

It's becoming harder to separate the wheat from the digital chaff. How do we distinguish misinformation, pseudo-facts, distortions, and outright lies from reliable information? Levitin groups his field guide into two categories—statistical infomation and faulty arguments—ultimately showing how science is the bedrock of critical thinking. Infoliteracy means understanding that there are hierarchies of source quality and bias that variously distort our information feeds via every media channel, including social media. We may expect newspapers, bloggers, the government, and Wikipedia to be factually and logically correct, but they so often aren't. We need to think critically about the words and numbers we encounter if we want to be successful at work, at play, and in making the most of our lives. This means checking the plausibility and reasoning—not passively accepting information, repeating it, and making decisions based on it. Readers learn to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. Levitin's charming, entertaining, accessible guide can help anyone wake up to a whole lot of things that aren't so. And catch some lying weasels in their tracks!
*Includes a Bonus PDF with Supplemental Graphics

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 6, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781524702557
      • File size: 199329 KB
      • Duration: 06:55:16

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Our poor suffering brains--they're addicted to storytelling, constantly seeking out patterns, and always prepared to justify our emotional biases. No wonder we're so susceptible to lies, half-truths, and counterknowledge (misinformation packaged to look like fact). Narrator Dan Piraro smoothly delivers Levitin's accessible advice on how to sort things out by interpreting statistical data, identifying reliable sources, and distinguishing between faux facts and the truth. The book moves smoothly from the theoretical to the practical. For example, in the book's strongest segment. Piraro modifies his delivery to match the content, slowing the pace during the sections with hard-to-retain formulas and equations, and periodically providing vocal surprises--including a convincing interpretation of Sherlock Holmes. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 27, 2016
      Levitin (The Organized Mind) equips readers with tools to combat misinformation—bad data, false facts, distortions, and their ilk—in this useful primer on the importance of critical thinking in daily life. Levitin divides information (and misinformation) into two categories: numerical and verbal. He begins with an examination of both deliberate and uninformed misuses of statistics and how to spot them. The concepts explored in this section are perennial favorites of critical-thinking instruction, including plausibility, “Axis Shenanigans,” and the different types of probabilities. The second section, on evaluation words, explores less trodden grounds; particularly the discussion about expertise, which explores the concept in the context of individuals and institutions, and the ways that this expertise can be misapplied or misinterpreted. In his final third of the book is dedicated to the scientific method and how it actually works, as opposed to pseudoscientific imitations. In all three sections Levitin explores material that has often been written about elsewhere, but the book still serves its purpose as a valuable primer on critical thinking that convincingly illustrates the prevalence of misinformation in everyday life.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading