Excellent, but a difficult listen.

What made the experience of listening to How the Mind Works the most enjoyable?

Pinker answers a lot of questions about how and why people think the way they do. As always, he doesn't just make assertions, he backs everything up by explaining the state of the research and the ideas of the researchers in the field (even when those ideas are different from his). It's a much easier read than actual research papers, and has wit and good story telling to leven the large doses of information, but it's not easy to follow when listening. It requires a lot of concentration or you can do what I did and just listen to everything twice, sometimes three times, until you get it.

If you consider yourself an intellectual, you'll want to be familiar with Stephen Pinker's work. The Better Angels of our Nature, and The Blank Slate are easier to pick up just listening once so I would recommend one of those as a place to start.

This book was written more than 10 years ago. It's holding up very well though and an afterword written only a couple of years ago is included which explains how recent research relates to the book.

150 people found this helpful

There are so many better books on this topic

Any additional comments?

I got this audiobook on sale for $4.95 and probably wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. I really liked Eagleman's Incognito, Lehrer's How We Decide, Nørretranders' User Illusion and even Kahneman's plodding Thinking Fast and Slow, so How the MInd Works seemed like a good fit. The author is not particularly interested in how the mind actually works (and when he does talk about the mechanisms of thinking, he gets terribly bogged down in computer programming minutiae). The book is actually about evolutionary biology, and Pinker spends a huge amount of the book bashing feminists and sociologists. The book was written in the 90's, so the author had probably been on the receiving end of a lot of fuzzy thinking about everything being socially constructed, but his harping makes the book seem incredibly dated (especially compared to the User Illusion, which still seems very fresh). I would also say that as the mother of a truck-loving toddler girl who has been told by other mothers that "girls don't like trucks," I see gender roles being socially constructed every day.

63 people found this helpful

Misleading book title

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I'd definitively recommend it to friends. The book is very interesting, but Pinker got the title wrong. The book explains very well WHAT the mind works, and WHY does it make sense that the mind does what it does. But the book NEVER explains HOW the mind does it.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most interesting is the variety of topics covered in the book. Full with interesting specific cases and references to studies.

The least interesting is the lack of substance in the theory of How the mind works. Pinker basically pushes 3 ideas through: 1) natural selection, 2) the mind is made up of organs like the rest of the body, 3) the analogy of the mind as a computational device

As much as those ideas are interesting, they are old and well accepted. So, the book is just a nice way to put them together, but without bringing any new argument to the discussion.

What about Mel Foster’s performance did you like?

The performance of Mel Foster was outstanding.

55 people found this helpful

Classic!

This is one of my favorite books, and the audio format does not disappoint. If you're interested about human nature, why we are the way we are, why we're so smart, why we're conscious, and even why fools fall in love, this book is for you. (But be warned, this book is for people who like to think; don't expect to breeze through it like a malcom gladwell book.) Also, one recommendation: unless you're really interested in visual perception, I would recommend skipping the chapter called "The Mind's Eye," as it is hard to follow in audio format without the pictures, and it is the most technical chapter.

50 people found this helpful

Classic Pinker

In this wonderfully informative and entertaining book on the human thought process, the source of emotions, sexual desire and everything else this marvelous three pound lump of spam in our head does for us, Pinker writes in the intelligent but amazingly amusing and witty style that makes him one of the greatest translators of complex science into lay terms, in the main because he does so without compromising or dumbing-down in the process. It is no wonder that this man is considered one of the greatest minds of our time. Buy the book and find out how his, and everyone else's works--and why.

20 people found this helpful

Loved it

Would you listen to How the Mind Works again? Why?

Yes, there's. Lot in here, some 25 hours worth of listening, and I want to come ack and listen to some things again!

What was one of the most memorable moments of How the Mind Works?

The development of the sexual brain the differences in the sexual mind was very interesting indeed. It's easy to forget out behaviour and preferences were actually established during our extended hunter gatherer lifestyle, and how this fashioned our behaviour from an evolutionary perspective

Have you listened to any of Mel Foster’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Easy to listen to. Always run at 1.5x

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Certainly made me think.

Any additional comments?

Love Steven Pinker, and would like to just read more. It's so refreshing to hear all the concepts related back to actual studies! I enjoyed this as much as the Blank Slate, possibly more.

14 people found this helpful

Why did he bother?

What disappointed you about How the Mind Works?
More than 1/2 way through, and still didn't have any idea where the book was going.

What was most disappointing about Steven Pinker’s story?
No point was being made. Just a string of thoughts. Kind of like Kurt Vonnegot's "Breakfast of Champions".

Have you listened to any of Mel Foster’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No. He did an excellent job.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
TEEEEDEEEEUUUUUUM.

Any additional comments?
Maybe, if I could have held out longer, I'd have seen a point to it. But, life is way too short. On to the next book. (By the way, I only very rarely give up on a book.)

12 people found this helpful

Old Book, and Obviously Not "How the Mind Works"

This book came out in the 90s and I read it then, and forgot it entirely because it was so obviously wrong about "how the mind works", even for what was known then.

The mind doesn't work as Pinker says at all - it's not even close - and even lay people know it. The book is so intellectually dishonest that the title really amounts to defrauding the reader / listener.

The narrator, Mel Foster, gets a good rating, but I cannot rate the book itself low enough.

Since AI is highly Topical now, the re-marketing of this stinker is more than a little mercenary - unimpressed all over again.

8 people found this helpful

Misleading Title

What would have made How the Mind Works better?

The book started out good and seemed to be on topic. Not long into the book it was no longer about the mind. This should have been titled "An Argument for Evolution and Natural Selection". Never seemed to get back to how the mind works. After hours and hours of why birds have wings and how we grew eyes I just shut if off.

Any additional comments?

If you want a good book on Natural Selection this is a great listen. If you want a book on the mind look elsewhere.

7 people found this helpful

Excellent treatment of a broad topic

Where does How the Mind Works rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have consumed countless books, lectures, seminars, and podcasts about science, skepticism, critical thinking, behavioral economics, evolution, meta-cognition, and everything else that this book touches on. Pinker goes above and beyond by linking it all together in an engaging way. The concepts are deep but he breaks them down in such a way that they become simple.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Not applicable - this is non-fiction.

What does Mel Foster bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Excellent pace and tone. Auditory cheesecake!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed several times, and it made me think very deeply and in new ways about many very basic concepts about life, relationships, and thinking.

Any additional comments?

Though we may be sacks of meat through-and-through we still manage to find each other beautiful, and that itself is beautiful.

6 people found this helpful