Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

by Gary Marcus
Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind  
published April 16th 2008 by Houghton Mifflin
binding Hardcover
isbn 0618879641   (isbn13: 9780618879649)
pages 192
description How the accidents of evolution created our quirky, imperfect minds-and what we can do about it. Are we noble in reason? Perfect, in God's image? Far ...more
date added
01-24-08



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 114)



Lena
Lena rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/24/08

bookshelves: non-fiction
Kluge is a slang term for "a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem." In this new book, psychologist Gary Marcus argues that the human mind itself is a kluge, and then goes on to discuss how this explains why you can't remember the name of that woman from your yoga class when you run into her at the movie theater.

The basis of Marcus' argument is that evolution was working with the tools at hand when it whipped up the more complex parts of our brain and that the result—while g...more
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Eric
Eric rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
06/18/08

Read in June, 2008

This book has an interesting and appealing premise, which is that many aspects of human behavior, language, and thought can best be understood if we regard the brain as a barely-adapted Rube Goldberg contraption.

In support of this there are a number of interesting anecdotes, quotations, and results from psychology and behavioral economics.

However none of the argumentation is very deep. There are endnotes and references, but the lay reader doesn't know how much confidence to give any p...more
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Nathan
Nathan rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/28/08

bookshelves: science-fact
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Nathan by: Dale Dougherty
I've read a few of these popular science books about the brain, and Kluge is the best of them all. He provides intriguing experimental result after intriguing experimental result. He's a product of his times, too--computer metaphors abound, from operating systems theory to addressable RAM. This makes it very readable for geeks, and yet not as lightweight as John Medina's "Brain Rules".

The only thing I'd have like to see would be a section on how to recognize and defeat these qui...more
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Derrick
Derrick rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
04/27/08

bookshelves: non-fiction
Read in April, 2008
Marcus takes a new slant: our brains are the products of evolution, and as such, are not perfect. In fact, they're a "kluge" of different evolutionary developments, each overlaying on top of each other. He ends the book with some advice on how we can handle our imperfect minds - sort of like a self-help book on how we can deal with our klugey minds.

One annoying thing - he gradually uses more footnotes toward the end of the book. For some reason, it began to annoy me. M
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Jeff
Jeff rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/03/08

Read in May, 2008
recommends it for: nerds, geeks, dweebs, brainiacs
Just started this yesterday at lunch, so far, it's AWESOME! (I'm such a nerd...)

(update 6/3/08)

Finished this last week, I LOVED it! Definitely a book for nerds, Kluge taught me a lot about the human mind and its evolution. More than that, it taught me that the mind is fallible at every level, not simply memory (like most of us imagine), but in the way we perceive sights, sounds, words, expressions...our minds can be our best friend or our greatest enemy, either way, don't trust your m...more
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Terence
Terence rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/09/08

bookshelves: evolution, general-science
Read in June, 2008
Another nail in the coffin of "Intelligent Design" since any engineer that put together a project as ill organized as the human brain would be sent back to school.

It's a bit discouraging to discover how ill prepared the brain is to interpret and react to reality but the author does have 13 pointers in the final chapter that helps the hapless homo sapiens cope.
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Pam T.
Pam T. rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
04/26/08

recommended to Pam T. by: It was an ARC
recommends it for: nobody
Absolutely painful to read not because of the message but because it was sophomoric and so dummed-down as to be insulting.

The author added nothing new to what little I know, and resorted to cherry-picking definitions and straw-man arguments, the sorts they warned us about in Logic 101.

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megan
megan rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/10/08

Brings up some interesting points, but a little beleaguered. It couldn't decide if it was anecdotal or academic. I did enjoy the evolutionary psychology. Refutations needed some work.
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Rachel
06/26/08

Read in June, 2008
recommended to Rachel by: Heard an interview with the author on NPR
recommends it for: non-science types curious about the mind
Relatively light science book about the imperfections of the human mind. So far it's encouraged me to think a lot about contextual memory, labeling and belief systems.
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Ginnie
Ginnie marked it as to-read
05/06/08

bookshelves: science, to-read
From what I've read already (an excerpt on my library's website and several reviews) I am really looking forward to this. Nice title too.
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Tracey
Tracey marked it as to-read
05/20/08

bookshelves: recommended, to-read
NOT AT LIB 5/08 - Ginnie marked as to-read + great title!
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Burt
Burt is currently reading it
06/14/08

bookshelves: currently-reading
Evolution and development of the brain.
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Sat
Sat is currently reading it
07/02/08

bookshelves: currently-reading
 

Lynne
Lynne added it
04/25/08

bookshelves: wishlist-nf
 

Jess
Jess rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
07/01/08

Read in July, 2008
 

Jason
Jason marked it as to-read
04/09/08

bookshelves: to-read
 

Joe
Joe marked it as to-read
04/09/08

bookshelves: to-read
 

Derek
Derek marked it as to-read
05/23/08

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Nicole
Nicole marked it as to-read
06/22/08

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David
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05/06/08

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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 3.42 (19 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 3.39 (18 ratings)
number of reviews: 12






other editions

Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind
Kluge (Hardcover)