Head in the Cloud: Why Knowing Things Still Matters When Facts Are So Easy To Look Up

Poundstone's (Are You Smart Enough To Work at Google??) newest title centers on the hypothesis that knowing more is more beneficial than simply asking the Internet for answers. Conducting surveys on a variety of topics, the author offers some startling results. People on the whole regardless of factors such as gender or political leanings would be well served retaining a bit more seemingly useless information; this assertion appears to correlate not only with greater income levels but also feelings of satisfaction. Divided into three segments, the book begins with explaining the Dunning-Kruger effect (ignorance of our own ignorance), then moves onto survey results, and concludes with a convincing argument for accumulating facts. Ultimately, learning nuggets of wisdom that may not serve an immediate purpose could be well worth the long-term rewards. Despite covering a touchy subject, the narrative never gets personal. Aiming for the benefit of humanity as a whole, Poundstone's book merely wishes enlightenment—"the only thing you can't Google is what you ought to be looking up."