Frans de Waal

Are We Smart Enough Know How Smart Anima

Pratul

More than “are we smart enough…”, the book tries to make you understand “what does smart even mean?”. It does this using different lenses — psychology, evolution, cognition, consciousness, etc. Before my reading, I wasn’t even aware of the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between a lot of the concepts, and it seems like science doesn’t always agree on the definitions either. 

I wish the book was written better — in a way that a layperson may be able to better follow the train of thought of the author. I’ve still given it 5 stars because there is so much incredible stuff the author talks about, and I will definitely read this book again in a few years.

So, the author cites a ton of scientists and studies and papers, and they’re mentioned multiple times across the text. So you might read about a particular paper in a chapter and the author will refer to the same paper in a different chapter later, where you (almost certainly) would have forgotten the name of the scientist who wrote the paper. If you’re like me, you will now go through the indexes and refresh what the earlier context was… and it will give you satisfaction to understand both the points. However, that doesn’t take away the annoyance of having to repeat this multiple times while reading the book! 

I should add that I kept looking at my cat while reading the book (and she kept looking at me), wondering all the time what she thinks of me and what she expects out of me.

Are We Smart Enough Know How Smart Anima

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