Guy P. Harrison - Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, and Wiser

I am deeply grateful to the following people for their valuable contributions to this book: Jade Zora Scibilia, Sheree Harrison, Coni Harrison, Nicole Sommer-Lecht, Catherine Roberts-Abel, Steven L. Mitchell, Peter A. Lukasiewicz, Mark Hall, Fred Gage, Mahzarin Banaji, Jon Simons, Lane Kamp, Benjamin Radford, Kenneth Feder, Nick Wynne, John F. Pfister, Jim Bower, John Byrne, Chanel Prabatah, Cameron Smith, Julien Musolino, and Seth Shostak.

Guy P. Harrison is a passionate advocate for science and reason who says he hates to see people suffer unnecessarily. He calls the challenge of good thinking a moral issue and points to poor reasoning as humankind's great unrecognized crisis. Guy enjoys sharing his positive, constructive style of skepticism and science appreciation with people whenever possible. He has a degree in history and anthropology and has visited more than twenty countries on six continents. Having seen some of the best and worst of our world, he believes that we can do better. Guy maintains that if more people embraced critical thinking and had a better understanding of basic brain processes such as sensory perception, memory, and subconscious biases, we could eliminate a significant amount of human suffering and become much more efficient, safer, and productive as a species.

As a journalist, Guy has worked in many roles, including editorial writer, world-news editor, sports editor, reporter, feature writer, and columnist. He won the Commonwealth Award for Excellence in Journalism and the WHO (World Health Organization) Award for Health Reporting. Guy has also interviewed many leading scientists and significant historical figures. He has written about many diverse topics, including poverty in the developing world, conservation issues, religion, war, racism, gender discrimination, space exploration, and human origins.

Although he says he's an introvert, Guy never misses a chance to spread science and reason with others. He has been a guest on more than one hundred radio shows and podcasts and was a featured speaker at a science festival in New Zealand and at a Random House conference in San Diego, California.

Guy is the author of five previous books that have been popular with readers and highly acclaimed by critics. They are: Think: Why You Should Question Everything; 50 Simple Questions forEvery Christian; 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True; 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God; and Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know about Our Biological Diversity. Random House selected Think as part of its national First Year Experience/Common Reads program, which promotes it as recommended reading for first-year university students.

Guy is a lifelong fan not only of science and history but also of science fiction. He says he's not ashamed to confess his deep love for robot uprisings, time machines, and interstellar travel. He lives in Southern California, where he enjoys running, hiking, biking, and writing.

Guy is also an expert blogger for Psychology Today. Read his essays at About Thinking, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/about-thinking. Visit his website at www.guypharrison.com.

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