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Everyone should read the book "Risk" by Dan Gardner. How's that for an opening sentence? But seriously, you should read it. It is both well researched and written, and is a pretty fascinating read to boot. The basic idea of the book is that the human brain is pretty much built for a bunch of pre-literate hunter gatherer types wandering around, barely surviving day to day, so that when bombarded with the complexities of modern life, we pretty much don't know how to react. He talks a lot about psychology and sociology and how thee two fields in particular need to be better understood in order for people to better understand how they should make decisions, and why the way they do it now is more or less wrong.

He also uses a lot of fascinating examples, and explains a bunch of psychological concepts like confirmation bias, the rule of typical things, the example rule and more. It is definitely a good entry point into understanding these concepts, and getting a solid footing in understanding the human decision making process.

The best part of the book, however, is, like I mentioned before when I suggested that people read his newspaper columns, is that he causes you to rethink the way you think. I know that recently I have found myself rethinking a lot of things I always thought, or things that I always just assumed were fact, or could only be looked at from one perspective. Writer like Gardner have definitely helped me in my reconsideration of many of the "sacred truths" I find myself questioning. But more importantly, writers like Gardner help me to question these things logically, and not just because I like to be oppositional. I don't think I am the only middle-class white male who was frequently against things just to be against them. I still talk to people who approach opposition this way, railing against things without taking the time to understand why those things exist, how and why they came to be, and, most importantly, understanding the supporters of whatever you oppose position. You might surprise yourself into actually coming to some sort of understanding with something you thought your whole life was wrong headed, or evil. And it can be pretty fun. So as I said, everyone should read "Risk" by Dan Gardner.