The Trouble with Thinking: The Dangerous Trip from In the Head to Out the Mouth

In this entertaining and thought-provoking account, Powers demonstrates how our habits of thinking don t always help us. The Trouble with Thinking interweaves scientific research with an irreverent style to reveal how often we automatically make up negative stories about our lives and the people in them. The decisions we make based on this autopilot thinking can lead to all kinds of unhappiness misunderstandings, self-doubt, and irritating relationships.

By turns hilarious and poignant, The Trouble with Thinking looks at personal gaffes, historical mistakes, and the latest brain science to show that how we interpret affects our lives deeply. Happily, as Powers illustrates, it s entirely possible to move beyond this unconscious pattern of thought. For the truth is, we can make choices about how we interpret information, how we react to other people, and how to own our thinking instead of letting it own us.

Finally a communication expert who explains the deep reason that we don t understand each other. Powers shows how we are stuck in our own private realities. And how our very perceptions are keeping us there! We cannot truly work together or communicate well until we identify and remove the blinders that keep us isolated. Powers shows us how. This is an important book. And what a delight to read my engineering students love it. This book has a permanent place on my syllabus.
Randi Voss, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin