Head in the Cloud: Why Knowing Things Still Matters When Facts Are So Easy to Look Up

Most people imagine that they are less ignorant than everyone else. They might want to think again. Head in the Cloud offers a broad study of the Dunning-Kruger effect, in which "those most lacking in knowledge and skills are least able to appreciate the lack." The more ignorant someone is, the more confident they are likely to be in their knowledge, and the less likely they are to look something up. They continue to believe that gluten is a carbohydrate, that the firearms death rate in the U.S. is rising and that Einstein was the father of the atom bomb. If you can laugh at those--there is much more.

William Poundstone (Rock Breaks Scissors) understands that there is good reason to ignore much of the information that floods the modern world. But too much ignorance makes people vote against their values and interests, and decide foolishly about finances, health and personal lives. "We just don't care enough; we don't feel we need to know. Yet we walk around with misperceptions that shape attitudes, votes, and policy."

Poundstone looks at surveys and studies, combined with many of his own Internet panel polls, to explore the practical benefits of broad knowledge, how individuals can best stay selectively informed and how companies and organizations can adapt to a low-information society. But change must begin at home. "The first place to look for a Dunning-Kruger ignoramus" he writes, "is in the mirror." --Sara Catterall

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