Kluge, Gary Marcus
Kluge, Gary Marcus
2 Rating(s)
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Kluge
The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Author: Gary Marcus

Narrator: Stephen Hoye

Unabridged: 6 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/30/2008

Synopsis

Are we "noble in reason"? Perfect, in God's image? Far from it, says New York University psychologist Gary Marcus. In this lucid and revealing book, Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but a "kluge," a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind—think duct tape, not supercomputer—that sheds light on some of the most mysterious aspects of human nature.

Taking us on a tour of the fundamental areas of human experience—memory, belief, decision making, language, and happiness—Marcus reveals the myriad ways our minds fall short. He examines why people often vote against their own interests, why money can't buy happiness, why leaders often stick to bad decisions, and why a sentence like "people people left left" ties us into knots even though it's only four words long. He also offers surprisingly effective ways to outwit our inner kluge—for example, always consider alternative explanations, make contingency plans, and beware the vivid, personal anecdote. Throughout, he shows how only evolution—haphazard and undirected—could have produced the minds we humans have, while making a brilliant case for the power and usefulness of imperfection.

About Gary Marcus

Gary Marcus is a professor of psychology at New York University and director of the NYU Infant Language Learning Center. A high school dropout, Marcus received his Ph.D. at age twenty-three from MIT, where he was mentored by Steven Pinker. He was a tenured professor by age thirty. The author of the Norton Psychology Reader, he has been a fellow at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, the Los Angeles Times, and other major publications.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lena on June 01, 2009

Kluge is a slang term for "a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem." In this new book, psychologist Gary Marcus argues that the human mind itself is a kluge, and then goes on to discuss how this explains why you can't remember the name of that woman from your yoga class when you run into her at......more

Goodreads review by Jim on July 28, 2020

Fairly short & a very interesting look at how our brain evolved which keeps us from approaching anything like true rationality on a regular basis. He discusses many brain bugs, but from a different perspective than Dean Buonomano did in Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives. Marcus gives......more

Goodreads review by Maica on May 08, 2016

As this book suggests, the human mind is a mixture of inconsistencies. It can systematically plan and prepare, but it can also disregard those prepared plans in favor of immediate and short-term gratification. It can store and accurately retrieve memories, but it can also hardly absorb readily avail......more

Goodreads review by Nilesh on October 26, 2024

I recently stumbled upon Kluge, a book published over 15 years ago and likely written around the turn of the century based on all the references within, but truly ahead of its time. I'm astonished that a book of this quality didn't become more famous, nor is it mentioned as a must-read for those see......more

Goodreads review by Al on May 10, 2016

This wonderful book confronts a truth about evolution as it relates to biological science. The title rhymes with 'rouge' or 'scrooge', and is slang for 'a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem'. It is used by Marcus to refer to the haphazard construction of the human mind, as necessitated by evo......more

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