I just love Amanda Montell! I have thoroughly enjoyed all of her books so far, and the Age of Magical Overthinking fit right along with Montell's other works. The perspective and examples, just make a reader think. There were multiple times I found myself lost in thought about the various ideas she presents like the halo effect - especially with our perceived beliefs about "knowing" celebrities! A great book to really get you to overthink!

As a big fan of Montell’s previous book “Wordslut,” I was very excited and intrigued by this book. Unfortunately, the work felt too disconnected and bogged down by Montell’s personal antidotes.

I found myself intrigued by the topics, but just as I started to really become invested the chapter came to an end and a new topic was introduced. I think this book could have been improved by sticking to and flushing out a singular topic.

At the end of the day, this book reads like a collection of online articles and should be read as such. For those who find themselves intrigued, I think this book is best used as a jumping off point for more research, opposed to a comprehensive guide of the Age of Magical Overthinking.

In the all-too-adorable The Age of Magical Overthinking, author, linguist and podcast host Amanda Montell uses contemporary, online examples and personal anecdotes to explore a series of fallacies and cognitive biases that will be familiar to anyone who’s read a few Reddit meltdowns. She explains the diagram of the bomber jet with the red dots on it (survivorship bias). She talks about pop music stan culture (halo effect). She falls back again and again on the laziest kind of evolutionary pop psychology. Though she fits in a few good lines and stories, for the most part her analyses are unoriginal and surface-deep. The title suggests that Montell has some kind of unifying thesis unique to our age, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t have an analysis of class, money, or power either, which means that when her examples inevitably touch on politics, tech, and the attention economy, she’s woefully out of depth.

DNF at 46%

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. The title really pulled me in, but while reading it just wasn’t clicking. I couldn’t find motivation to pick this up, and can’t really remember what I read. Some part are witty, while other parts feel like a thesaurus of big words that made reading difficult. I think people that like, psychology, reflection type non fiction would like this, it just didn’t work for me.

This was a very thought-provoking collection of essays told with Montell's particular brand of wit and wisdom, making them as entertaining as they are insightful. I really enjoyed the setup and presentation, as well as the blend of anecdote and evidence.

I’m a chronic overthinker. Whenever I think I have a solution to a problem, or a course of action, I start doubting myself. I consider multiple other contingencies or potential outcomes. The result is some kind of neurotic paralysis, or a panicked impulse.

If overthinking means doubting the obvious solution in order to find a more complex (or hidden) answer, a lot of us are guilty. But not without cause. Today, the old adage of “if you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras” has been turned upside down. We’ve been told to doubt the obvious. Not least by mainstream media snafus, telling us not to notice the horses right in front of our eyes.

In Amanda Montell’s new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking, she wants to explain what she sees as a chaos of irrationality, driven by the information age. According to Montell, “While magical thinking is an age-old habit, overthinking feels distinct to the modern era—a product of our innate superstitions clashing with information overload, mass loneliness, and a capitalistic pressure to “know” everything under the sun.

Belief in authority started to slide in the 1960s, it has reached a new nadir since the Iraq war, the opiod epidemic (and other prescription drug scandals), and covid. Whatever your political stripe you’ve been given reasons for skepticism. And the online realm is full of hucksters ready to play on that:plus charge you a monthly subscription. Part of the problem of course is that what gets called “disinformation” turns out next week to have more than a grain of truth to it.

It was also easier for an educated caste to maintain mystique when there were fewer of them (and they weren’t showing their own idiocy on twitter). Social media is a magic cauldron of belief, the virtual Magic 8-ball of Tiktok or Instagram: every time you visit you can be served a new influencer offering you life guidance. And a video from some random person on instagram can be just as - if not more - convincing than an interview with a medical professional, zooming into CNN from his living room.

She wants to explore “so much of the zeitgeist’s general illogic, like people with master’s degrees basing their social calendars on Mercury’s position in the cosmos, or our neighbors opting not to get vaccinated because a YouTuber in palazzo pants said it would “downgrade their DNA.”

Yet Montell is relunctant to lay this at the feet of postmodern views in education, which allow for “different ways of knowing” and people to have their “own truth”. Indeed, people with Master’s degrees are precisely the target market for many Youtube influencers. The group most likely to be seduced by a message of “you’re not among the moronic masses, falling for the big con. You’re smarter. After all, you were curious enough to come looking for the truth”. And that’s the real lure of some scams, just as it is for cults. The victims are lured in by being told they are smarter than everyone else.

Pop-up ads tell us about this “one simple trick” that will melt belly fat, or cure baldness. That the medical profession is either oblivious to this “cure” (or conniving in hiding it, because they are in cahoots with the pharmaceutical companies), are the explanations for why we are learning about this medical miracle from Tiktok and not Johns Hopkins.

Montell writes about various oddballs, including the “Manifestation Doctor”, who apparently offers paid subscribers life advice. As she notes:

“Manifestation Doctor’s rise to fame, trust in the U.S. healthcare establishment, which was supposed to keep us safe from things like deadly plagues, had fractured so severely that plenty of citizens didn’t even want conventional shrinks. They were sick to death of red tape, insurance policies, and waffling chief medical advisers in $2,000 suits. They wanted a relatable populist who spoke their language, and whom they could access for free on their phones, to tell them in certain terms that there was one big, on-purpose reason why they were feeling terrible”

The “law of attraction” has been around for a long time, at least as far back as Napoleon Hill’s various bestsellers.

It’s the idea that if you just want things hard enough they will come to you. If you put a picture of a Maserati up on your wall, and just believe hard enough, you can get that car. Its an inherently moronic (and narcissistic) worldview, but it comes back each generation in different guises: and has expanded its reach thanks to social media.
a young woman imagining a sports car

After all, we can “manifest” what we want to be thanks to photo editing and filters. We can believe that we are the facetuned and airbrushed person in our pictures. Online communities mean people can live as though the “believing” and “being” phases are one and the same. The downstream effects of this shouldn’t be underestimated.

As Montell reminds us, “In 2022, a Bloomberg survey found that 98 percent of American middle and high schoolers expressed the desire to be internet famous.” This shocking statistic shows how much this world of manifestation and influencers have become our new reality. We may be under, rather than over, thinking how this is damaging both society and our shared sense of reality. These are the kids who are driving less, dating less, in many senses living less than earlier generations.

After all, if you live in an online world where you present yourself in one way, why would you ever wish to be seen in any other? (Huddling inside living on “no contact” doordash deliveries is an option, the accelerated hikikomori of a generation)
I'd stay at the door and start eating': Entitled takeout customers split opinion with excessive no contact delivery signage - Memebase - Funny Memes

It’s a rather disturbing paradox, of teens wanting to “influence” others but at the same time feeling the generational vibe that any unmediated human contact is an affront.

I’m reminded of the Bruce Willis film, Surrogates, where everyone stays at home behind a computer screen while androids of themselves (perfect in appearance and un-aging) go about their daily lives. We’re not at the android stage yet, but we have social media projecting perfection while we hide our imperfect selves at home.

The Age of Magical Overthinking is a general overview of different kinds of cognitive biases. It covers confirmation bias, the halo effect, declinism, and more. Amanda Montell shares research and anecdotes to reveal how these cognitive biases manifest today, both individually and as a society.

This book had many interesting nuggets of information. I especially enjoyed the chapter on sunk cost fallacy and how it can influence us in some of our most important relationships. It was an intimate chapter that showed just how much these thought patterns can unknowingly affect us.

However, I think I was expecting the book to go deeper. I was aware of most of these cognitive biases, and of the ones I wasn't aware of, I left with only a surface-level definition. I wonder if I would have enjoyed this more if she tackled less of them, but shared more research and application. In some ways, this felt more like a collection of essays. Structurally, I also wish there had been more of a conclusion. To me, it ended quite suddenly and felt unfinished.

Montell's voice is unique and fun, but I sometimes had a hard time clicking with it. The fluctuations between an academic and casual tone pulled me out of the reading experience quite a bit. It was hard to settle in.

Overall, I would still recommend this book, especially to someone is who is unfamiliar with cognitive biases. It's a great place to start, and I wish I had known that getting into it.

Amanda Montell has done it again. She is my auto-read author. Here is yet another one of her books that I will rave about to everyone.

Montell explores different cognitive biases, and how they affect us in today’s social media centered world. Every single chapter felt relatable.

I love how much of her personal story is in this book, more than in her other works. I got an insight into her life, and her own connections made the piece even more impactful.

I honestly love pop science books! Let’s make knowledge accessible and fun and interesting for everyone!

Ever wonder why conspiracy theories and vaccine denialism increased when the United States was in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Or maybe you are curious about the rise of Instagram and Tik Tok healers and wellness specialists ready to help you manifest dreams, attract wealth, or direct the flow of feminine light for a small membership fee (or donation)?

Linguist, podcast host (Sounds Like a Cult), and writer Amanda Montell explores contempory cognitive biases in her newest non-fiction tome "The Art of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Irrationality" (One Signal, 2024).

Thorough research, personal anecdotes, and deft explanations of why we do the wacky, often unexplainable things we do lay the stage for Montell. But her sharp wit and usage of pop culture icons (Taylor Swift, Betty Crocker, IKEA) is the icing on the instant gratification reading cake!!

Readers of Angela Duckworth's Grit, Susan Cain's Quiet, or any of Daniel Kannehman's, Daniel Ariely's, or Stephen J. Dubner's books on behavioral economics will enjoy the "The Art of Magical Overthinking."

Thank you to Amanda Montell, One Signal, and NetGalley for the eARC.

I really enjoyed this fascinating and well researched book! It was so interesting to see how much of a role different biases play out in our everyday work from pop stars to our own level of confidence. While I appreciated the opportunity to read an advanced copy, I will definitely have to purchase a final copy for a re-read in the future. Loved this reading experience.

I loved this book so much. I’m a huge fan of Amanda’s podcast and previous writings but this might be my favorite of her titles! This is perfect for believer, skeptics and anyone who finds theirselves somewhere in between.

Thank you to the publisher and author for a chance to review this title in exchange for my honest opinion!

Book Review! ⭐The Age of Magical Overthinking ⭐

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Genre:
Self help
Non fiction

Read if you like:
Overthinking
Cults and cult like relationships
Books that call you out and make you laugh

Synopsis:
In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “Halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the “Sunk Cost Fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.

Review:
I enjoyed this book! It's a collection of essays about different cognitive bias that we deal with in the modern age. Some of my favorite things that were discussed in this book were manifestation, toxic/cult like relationships, sunk cost fallacy, and our unhealthy relationship with online celebrities. This book felt like a fun mix between a memoir and a collection of essays. I enjoyed how Montell was able to incorporate her experiences with toxic relationships and beauty culture into this book. I also enjoyed how every chapter started with a different quote (the essay on over confidence with a Kendrick Lamar lyric definitely made me chuckle).

I feel like I'll definitely need to reread this book at some point because I feel like there were some parts I wasn't completely focused on while reading it. Overall this was a good nonfiction read and I recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting read.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

While much of what Montell discusses in this collection of essays is not novel and may have its roots in common understandings of psychology and sociology, I did find the way in which she discusses each of these trends and phenomena in our current to be entertaining and relatable. Montell weaves personal stories and events in to each of her essays that tackle different aspects of "modern irrationality" as the title puts it. She has a good handle on many aspects of culture and communicates her ideas in a relatable way. I wouldn't rate this is a great non-fiction, but it was a fun read that kept me entertained and also made me think about some of the topics discussed in different ways.

After reading and enjoying Cultish, I went into this book knowing less but expecting the same. I was disappointed to find a series of half-baked pop psychology loosely connected to the author's own experiences or pop culture references. The arc copy I received in exchange for my review had a lower page count than I've seen elsewhere online, so hopefully the published edition has more meat on the bones. What I read seemed like leftover pieces of research from Montell's first book that were uncomfortably combined together under a weak hypothesis- that humans are sometimes illogical? What could have been an interesting blog post, essay, or podcast episode was stretched into a full-length book. The ideas put forth were far from groundbreaking and will sound familiar to anyone who has sat through an intro level psychology course. While entertaining at times, overall this book felt both tedious and self-indulgent. I was disappointed to feel as though Montell was talking down to her audience. Overall I'd skip this one and stick with her previous work.

Thank you to Net Galley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it looks at all the ways we overthink or use a kind of magical thinking in day to day life. The title is a riff from Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking where Didion used "magical thinking" to get through one of toughest times when her husband unexpectedly died, basically that one's internal thoughts can change real life events. Magical thinking gives us agency in a situation where we don't have any or very little. But in our present times, we are overloaded due to the internet and our brains can't process all of it. The author focuses on all the types of biases humans use in life from halo effect, sunk cost fallacy, confirmation bias, confidence bias, group think, etc. Think of the cancel culture that Taylor Swift followers can achieve and far right politics. She keeps it interesting with studies, real-life examples and humor. I learned alot and this is one of those books that helps the reader look at the world in a different way, hopefully, with the added knowledge and perspective that it contains.

I was/am a fan of Amanda Montell and her work. However, I had an extremely difficult time both understanding the purpose of and following the narrative of this book. I didn't see the connections between the anecdotes and research, and felt as if in many instances they book contradicted itself (often with the same section). Perhaps this was intentional given the goal of highlighting irrationality, but I just ended up feeling lost, bored, and completely unconvinced of Montell's arguments.

This is similar to her previous book Cultish in that Montell relates very engaging, entertaining, and highly informative psychological and social concepts to useful and memorable examples. This goes a lot more personal than Cultish, but I found the memoir portions and anecdotes for the most part interesting and relevant. There were some really fascinating factoids in this one (including some of the most surprising in the footnotes!). It did feel a bit broad at times for a short book, especially since these chapters read more as essays, so I think the "Notes" in the subtitle is very fitting, that's what these felt like: interesting, highly relevant to the current moment notes on our overly online existences and what it's doing to our brains, personalities. I think the main takeaway is it's healthier all around to spend less time online and worry less about what we read and see there, or at least take it less seriously.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the E-ARC! All opinions are my own.

I've been a long-time fan of Amanda Montell. Her nonfiction books are probably the only ones I can stomach and read through. When I saw she was coming out with a new book about overthinking, I knew she wrote it for me (this is completely rational).

Each chapter of The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality dives into different types of biases and mental processes that constitute societal interactions. I found myself reflected in a lot of what she discussed, and although I had a basic understanding of many of the different types of biases she presented, I genuinely learned a lot! I also appreciated how she was more vulnerable in this book than some of her others, embedding her personal stories alongside scientific research. Her voice really shines through in this book, which is one of the reasons I love her writing style so much.

That being said, I think the pacing of this book could be a bit better. For some sections, I was left wanting more as the topic was very engaging, whereas others felt like it was droning on and on. While this isn't my favorite book of hers, I definitely enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to anyone!

I liked Cult-ish, and I liked this even better. Sometimes it feels like she has too many ideas to cohesively communicate them, but I was able to sort of fit the puzzle pieces together in my own head and appreciate why she had put them all there in the first place. I find her highly-researched yet personal approach to nonfiction refreshing.

I find books like this hard to rate because each chapter feels like different articles and some resonated with me more than others. If I were to rate chapter 3 on its own, it would be 5 stars. If I were to rate chapter 11 alone, it wouldn’t be as high. There were a lot of interesting insights in this book however, I was hoping for more insights on how to making the best of my overthinking and manage it.