## Metadata - Author: [[John Brockman]] - Full Title:: This Will Make You Smarter - Category:: #📚Books - Finished date:: [[2023-02-02]] ## Highlights > Because so many scientific theories from bygone eras have turned out to be wrong, we must assume that most of today’s theories will eventually prove incorrect as well. ([Location 907](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=907)) > human memories are deeply subject to context. ([Location 1039](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1039)) ^9b3bae > When two people disagree, it is often because their prior beliefs lead them to remember (or focus on) different bits of evidence. ([Location 1045](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1045)) > Guns don’t kill people, after all; people kill people. But guns are much more biased toward killing people than, say, pillows—even ([Location 1056](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1056)) > Too often, we assume that willpower is about having strong moral fiber. But that’s wrong. Willpower is really about properly directing the spotlight of attention, learning how to control that short list of thoughts in working memory. It’s about realizing that if we’re thinking about the marshmallow, we’re going to eat it, which is why we need to look away. ([Location 1122](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1122)) > However, for each transaction there is both a buyer and a seller, and their worldviews must be opposite for the transaction to occur. Markets work only because there is a plurality of views. ([Location 1260](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1260)) > the correlation of depression to happiness is not minus 1.00, it is only about minus 0.35, ([Location 1686](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1686)) > competition does not tell the whole story of biology. I doubt many realize that, paradoxically, one way to win the struggle for existence is to pursue the snuggle for existence: to cooperate. ([Location 1754](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1754)) > Two techniques seem promising: varying what you learn and varying where you learn it. I try each week to read a scientific paper in a field new to me—and to read it in a different place. ([Location 1800](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1800)) > In my view, we should each invest a few hours a week in reading research that ostensibly has nothing to do with our day jobs, in a setting that has nothing in common with our regular workspaces. ([Location 1815](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B005LC1OR0&location=1815))