Map and Territory by Eliezer YudkowskyMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Context & Why I read this book
This is my third book in 2021; part of my challenging 52-book challenge that goes with my slogan "A Year of Ratio & Will". My motivation was to think, become, and act more "rational"; to become a "rationalist" to say it in the author's words.
What the book is about
The book is the first volume in a book series called Rationality: From AI to Zombies, which addresses our "flawed" psyche. In each chapter, a human bias, logical fallacy, or other shortcomings of the human mind is addressed. They are categorized into 4 parts which should give you a very rough feeling of the content:
1. Predictably wrong (e.g. confirmation and availability bias, planning fallacy, ...)
2. Fake Beliefs (e.g. applause lights, religion, retreat to commitment, ...)
3. Noticing Confusion (e.g. Occam's razor, hindsight bias, expecting short inferential distance, ...)
4. Mysterious Answers (e.g. fake explanations, "positive bias",
While some definitions and explanations are given, this book is not an encyclopedia of cognitive biases. Rather, it is a compilation of loosely connected essays that the author compiled over the years. This shows. The style and quality of these essays vary a lot and make this all in all a very sad read.
One lesson I am taking with me
There are a few nuggets to be found in this book. The one I like the most is his recommendation that you should keep asking yourself the following question: "How would I regenerate this knowledge if it were deleted from my mind?". This is to ensure that you are not fooling yourself into believing that you know the meaning/concept behind a certain term. Additionally, I added this quote "That which can be destroyed by the truth should be." P.C. Hodgell to my quote database.
Reading Recommendation / Who should read this?
Ironically, my review might be biased since my two previous reads were both on rationality (A Guide to Rational Living, The Enigma of Reason) and they were exceptionally good. But compared to them, this book very much feels like a concatenation of some cheap "blog posts" the author wrote in his spare time. So, I cannot agree with most of the reviews that came before me. Yudkowsky is not a very good writer. He appears more like an arrogant ranter. Most of the essays are rather confusing and pointing out how flawed we are in our thinking. So, considering there is an almost unlimited number of books on rationality you could read, I would not recommend picking this one and rate it a 4 out of 10 on my personal book rating scale which maps to Goodreads as follows:
1 ⭑ — Abysmal; extremely bad. Couldn't / wouldn't finish. No one should waste his time on this!
2 ⭑— Very bad; skipped part of it; skimmed most of it.
3 ⭑⭑ — Bad, but forced me to finish; close to no nuggets to be found.
4 ⭑⭑ — Rather bad; finished but will not give it a re-read.
5 ⭑⭑⭑ — Modest; a few nuggets; reading recommended in certain circumstances
6 ⭑⭑⭑ — OK; the average read. Tangible weaknesses, but recommended with some reservations
7 ⭑⭑⭑⭑ — Good read, despite minor weaknesses; generally recommended
8 ⭑⭑⭑⭑ — Very good; would recommend nearly without restriction
9 ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ — An outstanding work; worthwhile to be read twice or more often; a definitive recommendation
10 ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ — A work of genius; should be required for everyone
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