Here's the link to the Kindle edition.
New Review in the Midwest Book Review
What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite comes from a science writer who considers the difference between what a brain wants versus what it needs. Much of what makes the brain 'happy' is actually counter-productive and leads to errors and distortions. This study includes evolutionary and social psychology, neurology and even business and includes interviews with neuroscientists as it provides insights to identify the brain's problems and how to overcome them. The focus on actionable methods for leading better lives makes this a powerful presentation suitable for psychology, self-help and business collections alike. Link to Midwest Book Review page
Great New Review at Tiger21.com
New Article in the Sydney Morning Herald
Three New Interviews!
New Review on Psychology Today
Reading about cognitive science is intriguing—but a little scary, too.
New Interview on Real Recognition Radio
Interview on the net radio show, Real Recognition Radio
What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite
January 24, 2012
Hosted by Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown
[Download MP3] [itunes] [Bookmark Episode]
Why do we sabotage ourselves? Why do we do what is NOT in our best interest? On the next Real Recognition Radio program, Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown will be speaking with David DiSalvo, the author of What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite. David has served as a consulting research analyst and communications specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several other public and private organizations in the U.S. and abroad, spanning from Boston to Beijing. His work appears in Psychology Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. David has appeared on the NBC Nightly News, CNN’s Headline News, and his work is referenced in news outlets worldwide. Don’t miss the next Real Recognition Radio to learn how many self-help and motivational books mislead us and why our desire for perfection derails us.
A Collection of Great Editorial Reviews
"David DiSalvo takes us on a whistle-stop tour of our mind's delusions. No aspect of daily life is left untouched: whether he is exploring job interviews, first dates or the perils of eBay, DiSalvo will change the way you think about thinking...an enjoyable manual to your psyche that may change your life."
—New Scientist
“The expression ‘knowledge is power’ has never been more appropriate. Mr. DiSalvo takes the mystery out of our daily self-sabotage. Using science and psychology he leads us into awareness and provides us action steps to make our lives better.”
—New York Journal of Books
“This lively presentation of the latest in cognitive science convincingly debunks what DiSalvo calls ‘self-help snake oil.’"
—Publisher's Weekly
"DiSalvo offers 'science-help' (as opposed to self-help) by detailing the mental shortcuts our minds like to take but that don't always serve us well, with the assumption that understanding brain function helps us fight its stubborn behavior."
—Psychology Today
“Anyone interested in gaining insight into why they respond to certain situations the way they do need to get a copy of this.”
—Monsters & Critics
"By weaving together the latest studies, science writer DiSalvo examines why people’s desires often thwart their goals."
—Science News
“Science writer-blogger DiSalvo (Neuronarrative and Neuropsyched) points out that many of our actions that make our brains "happy" actually place roadblocks in our way. With input from many of the top thinkers in psychology and neuroscience, he offers helpful strategies to avoid pitfalls.”
—The Sacramento Bee
“A really fascinating look into the workings of the brain, combining a physiological and psychological model, with chapters that are linked together like literary sausages, making it hard to put the book down.”
—San Francisco Review of Books
“Lots of books tell you what you should do to be happy. But call me thorough -- I like to know what not to do, too. Science writer David DiSalvo fills out the "happiness" category with insights into why we pursue things that don't really make us happy…you will learn a lot about the self-destructive behaviors that keep you from being fulfilled.”
—The Huffington Post
" With one eye on neuroscience and the other on cognitive psychology, David DiSalvo reveals what's 'behind the curtain' when it comes to common self-defeating human behaviors...written in an engaging yet erudite style anyone can grasp. Read it for the science and DiSalvo's very solid and evidence-based advice."
—Good Reads
New Review in Monsters & Critics online
Book Review: What Makes Your Brain Happy
By Sandy Amazeen Dec 20, 2011, 2:49 GMT
DiSalvo’s latest, engaging look at the workings of the brain explains how certain behaviors that have evolved to keep us safe can frequently sabotage us. This is because everyone’s brain is wired to quickly recognize patterns, often where none beyond a passing coincidence exists. Our brains crave the feeling of being right and toward that end; will work hard at making information fit into our preconceived notions, even if it means disregarding valid input to the contrary. Such cognitive bias can frequently get us into trouble as graphically illustrated by several entertaining antidotes but what sets this book above so many others on the subject is the very helpful chapter on recognizing and counteracting the brain’s natural tendencies.
Engaging, often amusing in an “I can’t believe someone did that” vein, DiSalvo touches on several hot button topics including religion, the evidence (or lack of) for the existence of God, politics and more. Readers will gain a great deal of insight into why they think the way they do, what shortcomings they have and best of all, how to address them. The list of internet and published resources is extensive and should prove invaluable to anyone looking to follow up on interesting points or read more about a particular study. Anyone interested in gaining insight into why they respond to certain situations the way they do need to get a copy of this.
My Interview with Amy Alkon, aka The Advice Goddess
Listen to internet radio with amyalkon on Blog Talk Radio
New Review in the San Francisco Book Review
What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite
By David DiSalvo
Prometheus Books, $11.99, 288 pages
ISBN 9781616144845
Being happy is not always what it should be about.What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite explores what makes our brains happy and why that kind of thinking is bad for us. The problem is that our brains seek the path of least resistance, and that can easily put us in the mode of least thinking. This book explores how to take the path of most resistance in order to encourage more effective thinking, and how we can encourage our brains to do so.
Although it does get bogged down in technical language every so often, overall this is a great book. It explores some of the more interesting recesses of our minds and why they work the way they do. It is a really fascinating look into the workings of the brain, combining a physiological and psychological model, with chapters that are linked together like literary sausages, making it hard to put the book down. There is even a deleted scenes section for vignettes that were just too fun to not include but did not fit anywhere else. This makes for an interesting read for anyone looking for a fun read on neuroscience.
Reviewed by Jamais Jochim
New Review at the New York Journal of Books
“The expression ‘knowledge is power’ has never been more appropriate. Mr. DiSalvo takes the mystery out of our daily self-sabotage. Using science and psychology he leads us into awareness and provides us action steps to make our lives better.”
In What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite David DiSalvo wakes us up and sets us free.
The expression “knowledge is power” has never been more appropriate. Mr. DiSalvo takes the mystery out of our daily self-sabotage. Using science and psychology he leads us into awareness and provides us action steps to make our lives better.
The book is fascinating and fast-paced. You feel like you are on a journey of self-discovery with more than one “squirm moment” where he hits a little too close to home. What Makes Your Brain Happy exposes things we all do such as “confirmation bias,” in which we think we are being objective, yet we gravitate only toward information that confirms our existing positions. Mr. DiSalvo opens our eyes to the fact that if we only see what we want to see, we can potentially make decisions that negatively impact our jobs and our relationships.
He also alerts us to the trap many of us find ourselves in of discounting the future—where we agree to a distant commitment to get an immediate positive feeling of being a nice guy, only to find ourselves deeply despondent when the due date finally rolls around. By illuminating our brain’s desire for short-term gain, author DiSalvo helps us achieve our long-term goals.
What Makes Your Brain Happy integrates sophisticated concepts of neurology into simple examples of what we do in everyday life. It helps us understand ourselves by drawing on research about evolution. With the information Mr. DiSalvo provides, we can see how we have been living reactively instead of proactively. And after he opens our awareness up to what we blindly do he tells us how to stop. He offers 50 specific “knowledge clues” drawn from his research and discussed throughout the book.
If you have no interest in changing and think you are doing everything perfectly, you should be the first in line to read What Makes Your Brain Happy.
Salon.com runs an excerpt from the book as a feature about memory
Science shows our memory can easily be distorted and erased -- but our forgetfulness also helps us survive
(Credit: MR.LIGHTMAN via Shutterstock)
New review at New Scientist magazine!
Our deluded minds are just trying to make us happy
David Robson, feature editor
LET there be no mistake: nothing that you remember, think or feel is as it seems. Your memories are mere figments of your imagination and your decisions are swayed by irrational biases. Your emotions reflect the feelings of those around you as much as your own circumstances.
In What Makes Your Brain Happy, David DiSalvo takes us on a whistle-stop tour of our mind's delusions. No aspect of daily life is left untouched: whether he is exploring job interviews, first dates or the perils of eBay, DiSalvo will change the way you think about thinking.
DiSalvo's talk in his title of "happy brains" has little to do with joy and well-being, though. Instead, it is shorthand for our grey matter's tendency to choose the path of least resistance. When explaining confirmation bias, for instance, DiSalvo cites brain scans showing that we treat conflicting information as if it is a physical threat. As a result, we choose the "happier" option of ignoring details that don't fit our views.
DiSalvo admits in his introduction that the happy brain metaphor is "intentionally oversimplified". Indeed, by the end of the book it has been stretched dangerously thin. In a chapter on imitation, for example, he tells us that "a happy brain is happy to copy". But an "unhappy" brain is just as big a copycat - that is how our mirror neurons work, whatever our mood.
If you can ignore these glitches, What Makes Your Brain Happy is an enjoyable manual to your psyche that may change your life. As DiSalvo says: "The brain is a superb miracle of errors, and no one, except the brainless, is exempt."
Online Commercial #3 is up!
Online commercial #2 is up!
The first online commercial for the book is up!
Interview on NBC Nightly News
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Did this interview a few weeks ago about a Forbes piece I wrote about Kodak.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The Publisher's Weekly review of "What Makes Your Brain Happy" is out! Full text below, link here.
What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why you Should Do the Opposite
Science writer DiSalvo analyzes the relationship between human consciousness and our brains, challenging the notion we should make important decisions with our brains before conscious thought has a chance to weigh in. As he argues: "Our brains are prediction and pattern detection machines that desire stability, clarity, and consistency--which is terrific, except when it's not." Our brains evolved to help us survive in less complex situations where rapid decision making was often a matter of life and death. We like to feel that we're in a charge of a situation, and dislike uncertainty. DiSalvo provides many examples to bolster his argument that it's important to train ourselves not to respond too quickly to our impulses--jumping to unwarranted conclusions, failing to consider the long-term ramifications of our actions, and overestimating our ability to control our impulses, from overeating to addiction. But, he believes, the final decision remains with us, even though "wrestling with the stubborn tendencies of the happy brain is at times frustrating, exhausting, and even infuriating," if we're to live meaningful lives. This lively presentation of the latest in cognitive science convincingly debunks what DiSalvo calls "self-help snake oil." (Nov.)
Interview with "Big Picture Science"
Listen to an interview David recently did with the public radio show, "Big Picture Science."