Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect: How We Make Decisions

Having read rather a lot about cognitive psychology and neuroscience, Montague's book is refreshing in that he takes a very computational, evolutionary view of the brain. Why does it work the way it does and are its limitations features or 'bugs'? Montague argues that the mind works much better than has recently been put forward in the popular press, and in fact manages astonishing feats using architectures that are much more efficient than any computer we've come up with yet.His descriptions of how powerful behavior guidance & reward systems can get hijacked by ideas probably isn't the whole story, but its a very interesting prospective.

great responsecm

This is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately, it was not mentioned anywhere that this is the same book as "Why Choose This Book" before I purchased it.I guess this was not selling with the other name, or the title was badly chosen in terms of describing what the book was about.I was hoping that this book was going to be a refinement and elaboration of his ideas in "Why Choose This Book" instead of the same book.

This book is excellent. It has given my computational pedagogy research a boost.

Since the reviews are quite mixed I thought I might try to give you a good idea whether or not you are the kind of reader who would love the book or hate it. It's ironic that there is such a divergence of opinions about the book since it was originally entitled "Why Choose This Book?". I found it to be an excellent book but you might not. Let's see why.Montague takes a more or less unified academic approach, trying to sketch out an overall theory of the brain as computational machine that assigns values and makes choices in an efficient manner. As a comparaison, it is an easier read and takes less of a textbook approach than Paul W. Glimcher's superb  Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis . Those two books plus  Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain , a book of readings edited by Glimcher, Camerer, Fehr, and Poldrack would be an excellent starter library for someone with a strong interest in neuroscience and decision making.Montague's overarching idea is that a biological system such as the brain uses energy efficiently as a result of evolutionary processes. He uses the idea of the energy-efficient brain to connect a variety of different aspects of neuroscience for the reader. He covers in a fair amount of detail reinforcement learning, dopamine gating, reward-prediction error models of the dopamine system, and temporal-difference reinforcement learning models. I found his discussion of addiction in the context of the David Redish's temporal-difference reinforcement learning model to be very good. He also covers the way marketing interacts with the brain, and reviews altruism, regret, and trust. The chapters on these topics, however, with the exception of discussion of regret, seem to be more animated by a need to round out the book than by his own research interests. One theme carried throughout the book is that our brain has a superpower, which is our singular ability to substitute ideas as rewards. Dopamine is an error signal that is released to inform the rest of the brain that it is on the right track towards gaining food, or water, or sex. But the superpower of the human brain is the ability to use dopamine to track our ability to follow a non-physical goal. This superpower is what allows humans to die for an abstract idea (liberty, freedom, a spaceship waiting behind a comet), an ability that appears to be uniquely human.To read and understand the book requires some work on the part of the reader, especially because Montague is a straightforward writer who is obviously a scientist first and a writer second. Parts of the book are an easy read but much of it conveys its ideas by reviewing some very technical research. Montague overall has done a very creditable job finding the proper level for his audience. However, if you're looking for a popular science book written the way Malcolm Gladwell writes, you will likely be disappointed. But if you're interested in this as a guide to leading edge research in the field, and if you're the type who will spend time on the chapter end notes and perhaps follow up some of the referenced articles, then you can learn a lot and come away with a great deal of appreciation for Montague's effort to bring the reader into the front lines of neuroscience research.

This is quite an unassuming book at first blush. With all the other books out there that deal with human decision-making, this one is by far the most advanced. There are lots of pop-psychology books in this genre ( Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior , Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness , Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking  or  How We Decide ) but believe me when I say that this is hands down the winner. Montague is a top-notch neuroscientist, which means that he delves into the "meat" of the decision-making process; the other guys just look at the consequences.There are many things that Montague covers in this book - Turing's Computational Theory of Mind (CToM), Natural Selection/ Evolution, Reinforcement Learning, Neuroeconomics, Free Will and Philosophy of Mind - which to some reader's, may be overwhelming. However, in my view, it is well worth the effort to try and comprehend what Montague is proposing - a newer "Efficient Computational Theory of Mind (ECToM). His theory is a form of Physicalism, which simply means that what we regard as feelings and emotions are only physical states in the brain. And the brain is hardwired to find 'value' in these emotions; hence, it is possible for humans to disregard their instinct for survival in order to fulfill something that has a greater 'value' to that individual. Montague calls these 'values' that can override our need for survival "superpowers." This is a very interesting concept and helps explain irrational behaviors that people do, such as the cults that commit mass-suicide (Heaven's Gate, Order of the Solar Temple and Jonestown).This is a great book - I wore out my highlighter picking out my favorite passages. There are so many important concepts here that I can't even begin to write them all down. I highly recommend this book. Also, another couple of books that converge well with Montague's are De Marchi and Hamilton's book:  You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions , Metzinger's book:  The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self  and Gazzaniga's book  Human: The Science Behind What Makes Your Brain Unique .