I had the pleasure of seeing Amanda talk about this book (and getting it signed!) during her tour back in April–it was a blast!
The Age of Magical Overthinking is in some ways a series of essays about modern cognitive fallacies, all linked by the fact that the Internet has forced most of us into more than one of them. It tells a cohesive narrative, but I also like how you could pick any chapter that looks interesting, jump in, read it, and jump out. In fact, that’s how I’ve encouraged other people to try the book–pick the best chapter title and see if it’s for you.
- Are You My Mother, Taylor Swift? (A note on the halo effect)
- I Swear I Manifested This (A note on proportionality bias)
- A Toxic Relationship Is Just a Cult of One (A not on the sunk cost fallacy)
- The Shit-Talking Hypothesis (A note on zero-sum bias)
- What It’s Like to Die Online (A note on survivorship bias)
- Time to Spiral (A note on the recency illusion)
- The Scammer Within (A note on overconfidence bias)
- Haters Are My Motivators (A note on the illusory truth effect)
- Sorry I’m Late, Must Be Mercury in Retrograde (A note on confirmation bias)
- Nostalgia Porn (A note on declinism)
- The Life-Changing Magic of Becoming a Mediocre Crafter (A note on the IKEA effect)
I read, enjoyed, and reviewed Montell’s second book, Cultish, a while back and, honestly, I think I enjoyed this one even more. The Age of Magical Overthinking feels much more thorough, more researched, and more relevant to my everyday life. A lot of the topics I knew a little bit about, mostly from pop culture, so it was cool to be able to recognize the things being discussed but then still learn something about them. I can definitely see myself revisiting sections of this in the future, and bringing some new fun facts to dinner parties!
Words Per Mile 