BOOK REVIEW: THE AGE OF MAGICAL OVERTHINKING

This book was exceptional and so timely to understand the forces working for and against us in the age of social media and digital church. The author Amanda Montell goes into breaking down all of the different psychology (biases, effects, beliefs, etc.) that cause us to stay addicted to our socials, capitalism, and looking outside of ourselves for worthiness. Each chapter is dedicated to breaking down different coping mechanisms that “have been overloaded” and cause us to dial up our irrationality. Her approachable way of writing about complex brain workings definitely had me hooked (so much that I bought her other book Cultish & subscribed to her podcast Sounds Like a Cult). I can’t wait to share the specifics below:

Book title: The Age of Magical Overthinking

Book author: Amanda Montell

Favorite part of the book: I loved Amanda’s easy, modern approach to understanding the psychology that gets preyed upon by capitalist social structures and the way she approaches it with dry humour and honesty. I also like that each chapter focused specifically on a different bias/effect/approach - it made it easy for reading and percolating on each chapter to integrate what I had just learned.

What was my favorite quote:
There were a few:
”…cultlike influence shows up in places we might not think to look—our own relationships, for example—and none of us is above it.”
”The emotional burden of too much information can’t always be quelled by more information.”
”But if we can’t honor the fact that life isn’t either all panic or all contentment, then that just exacerbates feelings of anxiety and depression. It isn’t helpful. We need to honor that multiple truths can exist at once,” said Minaa.

Things I responded to: The actual structure of the book was great for short attention spans - I could read one chapter without remembering what came before or needing to know what came after. Each chapter was essentially it’s own essay. As far as the content of the book goes, I was eager to learn about all of the different biases that are heightened in today’s age and I liked thinking about how they make sense with the areas of interest that I have (body image, authenticity, creative business growth). One of the more fascinating aspects was learning how we have shifted our idolization from parents to politicians and now, to celebrities (though some haven’t moved on from politicians). Another area of interest was learning about how easy the human brain wants to believe in a cause & effect and when we have the effect, but not the cause we will seek out the cause in something called proportionality bias - “the psychological craving for big events (and big feelings) to have equally big causes is instinctive.” Lastly, the focus on sunk cost fallacy is incredibly imperative and I see this impacting a lot of creative entrepreneurs who want to change their careers, but feel “stuck” thinking they’ve invested so much time and money: “To fess up to such a miscalculation might lead others to think you’re either a loose cannon who has no idea what they want, or an incompetent hack who lost a bet - and not just any bet - a bet about yourself. Honoring sunk costs might make you seem more consistent, like you know yourself well and can make shrew predictions about your happiness, which might frame you as a kind of player others will want on their team in the game of life.”

Something in the book that stayed with me: no one is immune to the way our brains just want us to survive - even if it means falling prey to thinking we are different than others or needing to believe that life is a series of checks and balances.

Ideas explored by the author:
-halo effect: how we can only see the goodness of those we idolize which is another form of dehumanization
-manifestation is often little more than a combination of proportionality bias, confirmation bias, & frequency bias.
-making meaning of things is a human job, but natural things are just doing their things.
-sunk cost fallacy
-zero sum bias : believing that if one person is successful, that means we failed. If we focus our efforts on helping one type of person, believing we are neglecting others - instead of understanding that one does not have anything to do with the other
-recency illusion: something that is new is threatening because it’s new.
-how our brains hijack us so we can redirect/shift as necessary

Book rating: 5/5