The Defeat of Reason
<i>&gt;People are gullible. Humans can be duped by liars and conned by frauds; manipulated by rhetoric and beguiled by self-regard; browbeaten, cajoled, seduced, intimidated, flattered, wheedled, inveigled, and ensnared. In this respect, humans are unique in the animal kingdom.</i><p>a lot of this could be mitigated through better awareness and early education. Unfortunately &quot;how to think&quot; or &quot;how to reason&quot; about logic is not something most of us learn from their parents or from the education system (even though it would be trivial to do so).<p>If you know your Kahneman, Tversky (and others) and learn and understand Cognitive Biases the advantage is huge. It&#x27;s like Neo in the Matrix when he picks the bullets from the air :-)<p>But it needs to be applied continuously using practical applications (not just by reading 2 papers). People don&#x27;t have to be an expert on psychology, game theory &amp; risk but at least should expose themselves to the basics (preferably at an early age).<p>If you want to get beyond the basics then read also D Hofstaedter, D Dennet, K Popper, B Russell, NNTaleb. I wish I would have come across this when I was 10 yro not in my 30ies.