The Age of Magical Overthinking

Notes on Modern Irrationality

De: Amanda Montell

Narrado por: Amanda Montell

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A BookPage Best Nonfiction Book of 2024

From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.

Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant” (Blyth Roberson, author of America the Beautiful?) first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.

“Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.

In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the 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 we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.©2024 Amanda Montell (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Sorry. I could not make it out of the first chapter

I am pretty sure that I am not the target audience for this book. The premise seems good, but it does not start strong.

Eye Opening!

Loved this book. Montell has this passionate way of speaking that can make any subject fascinating. She highlights the different kinds of biases that influence our relationship with information, and now I can’t help but see these tricks in action everywhere I go (recency bias, haha). Thank you!

Modern-Day Sociology Recap

This books definitely broadened by view on society as a whole and really gave a feeling of humility. We get so caught up in our lives and forget we are a part of one big group. Each of us having our own version of the same reality. Love that this was read by the author to really get the feel and tone.

Me encantó

Definitivamente es un gran libro, me motivó a comenzar a seguir a la escritora. Lo recomiendo.

This was a memoir pretending to be something more scientific

I get what she was trying to do but it fell flat because I didn’t pick up this book to hear personal stories from the author but I wanted to be well thorough researched book from someone that’s knowledgeable about the subject. The author was decidedly, not.

Nothing new

I really enjoyed her last book but found that while there were some interesting new points here, particularly about social media, the book was mostly rehashing a lot of pop psychology concepts.

Couldn’t put it down

This was a quick fascinating read! Amanda Montell is an incredible explainer and story teller, and it was lovely getting to hear it in her voice!

Maybe my favorite of her work so far

I am a big fan of Amanda’s work! Her previous books, her weekly substack posts, her published articles and pieces, and all of her other work is wonderfully written, thoughtful, well researched, interesting, informative, and fills a new niche in literature. This book does all of what Amanda’s work does best, but I may be biased because I love magical overthinking :)

I am in awe by the writing, and I truly learned so much

This book was existential in all the best ways. Diving into the author’s other book Wordslut now. This was memorable and impactful ❤️ I learned a lot and I’m extremely moved in “awe”

Interesting ideas buried

This could have been a wildly helpful, informative book for those looking for the "whys" of what goes on in our minds and emotions as we navigate our lives. Unfortunately, so much of what the author is trying to communicate is abscured by unnecessary academic vocabulary. Also, the metaphors, so many metaphors.