1.0 out of 5 stars
Nonsensical definition of rationality, February 7, 2014
By N N Taleb “Nassim N Taleb”
This review is from: The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think Hardcover
I am not used to give 1 start reviews but I truly feel compelled to do so here, not just because this is a very bad book, but also because the authors are clueless about risk and are dangerously so, promoting silly risk bearing. The authors pathologize people for not accepting GMOs although “the World Health Organization has never found evidence of ill effects” a standard confusion of evidence of absence and absence of evidence. This pathologizing is similar to behavioral researchers labeling hyperbolic discounting as “irrational” when in fact it is the researcher who has a very narrow model and richer models make the “irrationality” go away. They fail to understand that humans may have precautionary principles against systemic risks, and can be skeptical of the unnatural for rational reasons.The book is a rehashing of the general ideas about evolution, except falling for a certain brand of “naive rationalism”.

via Amazon.com: N N Taleb “Nassim N Taleb”‘s review of The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us….
HatTip to Dave Lull