Head in the Cloud

Have your head in the clouds – Idiom Meaning

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William Poundstone starts Head in the Cloud: I knew most of these facts, probably because I spend much of my time reading books or getting high and looking stuff up on Wikipedia. Here's the thing, though: Poundstone seems to just think of random facts, and quizzes people on how well they know them doing online surveys. He doesn't have any a priori reason to select any of these facts, nor does he submit his data to appropriate quantitative analysis to see whether his results are meaningful. In some sections, he seems profoundly confused himself.

He maligns research in university settings for relying too much on a single, self-selected, demographic college students , then talks about how great it is to rely on a single, self-selected, demographic of users of online survey websites. Of course, Apple does announce specs: Poundstone asks his online survey crew to estimate how much memory the average iPhone has, but says "I didn't specify what type of memory the results make it all too clear that this wouldn't have mattered much.

It's a huge difference, and without being specific his results are completely meaningless. Ironically, the whole section reads like it was written by someone who was so sure of his incorrect knowledge that he didn't bother to verify by actually looking it up. Unfortunately, as the book continues, it becomes all too clear that Poundstone suffers from exactly the same thing he rails against: His list of sources is also shockingly small, with few studies lending supporting evidence to his idle musings.

This book certainly presents a powerful argument that knowledge is important: Dec 12, Peter Mcloughlin rated it really liked it Shelves: This book has at its heart as series of statistical findings on general knowledge and income, health, media diets and civics. This book through the studies carried out by the author makes the case that even when knowledge is a click away it is still desirable and valuable to have basic general knowledge of facts in the world.

Education has in the past few decades de-emphasized facts for cognitive processes. Still however just having a store of basics facts about the world seems to be necessary f This book has at its heart as series of statistical findings on general knowledge and income, health, media diets and civics. Still however just having a store of basics facts about the world seems to be necessary for general flourishing in the world even when googling seems like a handy replacement.

It seems that having a basic understanding of facts stored in one's head can help navigate truth from falsity in the era of fake news and supplement and quicken research skills on the internet. It also helps navigate the world better on the fly. I find just knowing certain things in my work and not having the necessity of looking things up makes me better at my job. It can also help those overemphasized critical thinking skills if one has some content stored about the world to work with. Definitely an antidote to the current conventional wisdom. Nov 27, Meredith Stewart rated it it was ok.

Some of it was ok, but a lot of it seemed a bit presumptuous. For example, he calls out millennials for not knowing a two pages worth of facts, much of which deals with decades- old pop culture knowledge. Why would a millennial, or anyone else, need to know who wrote the song "Heartbreak Hotel", or who starred in "Casablanca"? And why does this make them devoid of facts? Would you ask a typical baby boomer what Rihanna's latest album was and then call them ignorant if they didn't know?

Of course Some of it was ok, but a lot of it seemed a bit presumptuous. Mostly, however, he spends a lot of time focusing on what he thinks people don't know, instead of what they should know, and why they need to know it. It's basically a book about a guy rambling about how smart he thinks he is. I'd skip it, or borrow it, but not buy it.

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

Probably more like a 2. This is another of those books that would have been far superior as a long magazine article. As it stands, the chapters are heavily bloated with a bunch of survey work that Poundstone did. The majority of the text consists of his writeups and explanations of his surveys rather than doing the hard work of thinking about the broader implications, or drawing from research on learning and education. This wasn't the worst book I've ever r Probably more like a 2. This wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but it certainly wasn't the best either and probably isn't worth buying.

Apr 06, Wendy Bunnell rated it it was ok. The content was rather interesting, but the tone was so smug and condescending, it was distracting. And listening to it in audiobook didn't give this smug tone problem any favors, as the reader wasn't inserting anything that wasn't in the text, but man, I don't think a tone could say any more clearly "if you don't know all of these random facts, you are definitely an ignoramous!

This was a professional narrator, and I don't think he got the tone wrong, as it was clearly the author's intent to sneer at his audience. The other main gripe about this book was how "padded out" it seemed. What could have been an article was somehow a book, and as a result seemed rather repetitive.

This was terrible, but I did fast forward through a couple chapters when the first couple of paragraphs made it clear that the author was taking some annoying political stance and calling anyone who doesn't agree an idiot. But, now I feel very well versed in the Dunning Krueger Effect sorry if I spelled that wrong - it was an audiobook. I'm sure the author would judge me harshly. Just as he pretentiously judged people who mispronounce words. Wow, that is the height of snobbery, as many people who mispronounce words are either speaking English as a second language, or they learned the word through reading.

Oh, clutch the pearls, some uncouth fool learned a word by reading and didn't have a nanny or private school tutor around to read it to them. It was also very annoying that his only measure of "success" for adults is income.

Ok, I'd say more, but here's the parting shot, here is the last line from the official book blurb on Goodreads: But, my thoughts on reading this after finishing, the author is the only person who can't read this book, as he is the only person who already knows everything. For the record, my husband and I are often a pretty formidable trivia team. I knew most of the very important facts he vested with so much importance. But then I'm old and still rely on maps and written directions instead of GPS, so I'm not the generation he's talking about.

Jul 03, Dan Russell rated it really liked it. William Poundstone is a professional author with 15 books in his publication list. In short, there are two big findings: That is, as the title suggests, you still need to know facts about the world in order to navigate it with any kind of depth of understanding or efficiency. The more you know, the better off you are in many ways. So I have a bit of potential confirmation bias working here, but at least I know about the existance of confirmation bias, so I can watch out for it. That is, most people rate themselves as above average in almost any area of expertise.

And, the less competent you are, the more this is true. The book is full of data about how people understand rather little. The second section is about the Knowledge Premium—with many of his own surveys showing a correlation between broad knowledge, wealth, and overall benefits in life. The answer is to be mindful about what you learn, and notice that news sources with broad coverage e. The biggest surprise of the book is that so many people are SO convinced about their beliefs religious, political, or economic , but they have little actual knowledge about them.

In a bizzare upending of order, those that have the strongest beliefs on a topic tend to know less about that topic. The more then know, the more they admit there are multiple explanations and strategies. For instance, people who believe strongly that the US should take military action in Syria are also the least likely to be able to find it on a map, or to say anything factual about the country. By contrast, people who can list the neighbors of Syria have a much more nuanced understanding of the issues about Syria.

A few bon mots… p. It boosts your self-assessment. In general, readers of broad news aggregators e. An aggregator does not substitute for a good general purpose newspaper. But you need to know that the north polar ice cap is floating ice, and that melting floating ice makes no change in water level, as you see in your tumbler of ice melting in the midday sun. People tend to echo the beliefs of those around them rather than determining them on their own. To form opinions on the scientific and technical issues driving public policy today—climate change, net neutrality, stem cell research, genetically modified organisms—it is not enough to [just] learn some facts.

One must deliberate over those facts and actively seek out evidence that challenges what one wants to believe or initially suspects to be true. This is not something that many average citizens have the time or inclination to do. We fake our opinion, going along with the crowd. Deliberative polling is a method to teach a group of people about a complex topic.

First, you take a poll on the topic. THEN, you teach a class on that topic with all perspectives represented, as unbiased as you can. This adds knowledge to the group and gives them time to deliberate on this. THEN you re-poll and look for changes.

have (one's) head in the clouds

Aug 27, John Wood rated it really liked it. Why do we need to know things if we can look them up on the internet? This book cites many studies to reveal why it is good to know things, basically concluding that good basic knowledge is better than knowledge of a more specific nature and that this knowledge often correlates to higher income.

It is also true that often people who know very little, believe that they are quite knowledgeable. I was relieved to know that personally, judging by my knowledge of the sample questions, I really am ind Why do we need to know things if we can look them up on the internet? I was relieved to know that personally, judging by my knowledge of the sample questions, I really am indeed as smart as I thought I was.

Now that I've got the bragging out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed the book and will continue to learn new facts. After all, you need to know what to Google and how to word your query to find what you are looking for. So, keep on learning. Mar 04, Batsheva rated it liked it Shelves: Why is it important to know stuff? From a purely practical perspective, one has to recognize the limits of one's own knowledge to be able to effectively look new information up.

Otherwise, the ignoramus blissfully believes that he or she is an expert, with inevitable disastrous results. TL;DR Knowing facts may not make you rich though it is associated with higher incomes , but may make your brain work better. Also, knowing a few facts along with some critical thinking skills helps you evaluat Why is it important to know stuff? Also, knowing a few facts along with some critical thinking skills helps you evaluate if that information you're googling is legit or belongs in the realm of "alternative facts.

I listened to the audio version of Head in the Cloud. The narration was fine although it was even slower than normal I think, because I set the speed to 2x rather than my usual 1.

I suspect there may have been some charts and visuals in the printed and ebooks, but not having access to them didn't make me feel as if I was missing anything. As for the content -- in general I have to agree with Poundstone's assertion that it's good to know a lot of facts and how to find out things and how to reas I listened to the audio version of Head in the Cloud.

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As for the content -- in general I have to agree with Poundstone's assertion that it's good to know a lot of facts and how to find out things and how to reason. He argues that it isn't good enough to know that you can access facts anytime through the web, you have to know how to do this effectively, how to sort out the junk from the facts, and you have to know what you don't know. In other words, it's possible to be so ignorant that you don't even know that you are ignorant.

Poundstone sets out to show just how stupid people are by devising and administering a number of quizzes in which he asks questions such as how long does it take to boil an egg and which way does a light bulb screw in. He expresses amazement that people can be so ignorant. Well, I'm amazed that he's amazed. I don't know how long it takes to boil an egg but I can do it. I don't know which way a light bulb screws in but if I screw it the wrong way at first, I know what to do next.

head in the clouds

And it won't be going online to see what Wikipedia says about screwing in lightbulbs. Poundstone peeves away at people who mispronounce words and names Gide, Goethe, Keynes. He thinks we should all know how many candles are on a menorah and recognize the art of Damien Hirst. These are all fine things to know, but there's a hint of snobbism in claiming that people who don't know these things are somehow incapable of reasoning or are somehow inferior.

And there's always the bottom line -- how much more money do people who know these things earn on average? Because I guess that's what really matters. Even if you follow Poundstone this far and agree that everyone should achieve a certain level of cultural education, he takes it a step further by implying that people who lack facts will make stupid political choices. And that people who have the facts and a minimum level of reasoning ability will make smart political choices. If only this were true. Unfortunately or not political choices are made on more than facts and reasoning.

There is also emotion and one's personal circumstances and the fact that there's rarely a perfect candidate or perfect bond initiative, etc. We are not robots, so reason and facts are only a part of our decision making arsenal. Interesting, if sometimes infuriating. Feb 17, AJ rated it liked it Shelves: It requires some kind of justification.

I was hoping this book would help me come closer to a satisfying answer to that question. Unfortunately, and as my intuition had sort of indicated as I picked up this book, as with most popular "science" books, it really just falls flat. The author has conducted a lot of surveys asking people to answer many trivia type questions, and then also gathers demographic information about the participants. He is then able to correlate the accuracy of the trivia responses to things like education levels, salary, net worth, etc.

I will give the author a lot of credit for clearly explaining the basis of his research. He makes convincing arguments into how his internet surveys are representative of a good segment of the population and is more representative than the previous gold standard of random phone calls. He clearly explains the correlation doesn't equal causation argument and explains what other possible conclusions can be made from correlated data. However, he then goes on to provide correlated data points and makes maybe?

People who make more money can answer these 10 questions about history or whatever the survey happened to be about. But, being a good scientist, he of course doesn't come to the conclusion that understanding history leads to making more money. He does explain the other possibilities. But it does not lead to any type of satisfying answer.

have one's head in the clouds

He never does get around to answering his own question of "why knowing things still matters when facts are so easy to look up. That is a terrible, horrible, awful thing to do with data. It made me cringe every time I saw it, which was, unfortunately, frequent. In all, just another pop-sci book with a catchy title and cover with little to no real substance between the covers. Mar 18, Angela rated it it was ok Shelves: If you're smart enough to be reading this book, then it's almost certainly not a surprise to you that "general knowledge" might not be as "general" as the name implies.

What is doubly ironic, given the threat, is that the community in Monteverde has long been ahead of the curve in terms of conservation efforts, in part the result of a historical coincidence. One key element was the arrival in the s of US Quakers — pacifists — who emigrated to the area fleeing the draft for the Korean war. While these new residents cleared forest for pastures for dairy farming, they protected parts of the forest to conserve the watershed. In the s, as recognition of the uniqueness of the infrastructure grew, Quakers, incoming scientists and local Costa Ricans formed an informal coalition that has continued to this day as ecotourism emerged as an economic mainstay.

But if there is a catch, it is that on an isthmus bounded by warming oceans on two sides — the Atlantic on the Caribbean side and the Pacific on the other — it has been impossible to insulate the cloud forest from what is a worldwide phenomenon. And the impact of global warming has been noticed not only in the forest but in the coffee plantations at its edges. On his plantation, Guillermo Vargas, who doubles as the head of the local tourism council, has seen the mountains transform in his 58 years.

It used to be very cloudy most of the year. In the past the bloom was concentrated in a period of maybe four or five weeks in the beginning of May, June. That, says Vargas, has caused economic issues both for farmers and the pickers, including those who come from Nicaragua, who need to come for longer but with fewer coffee beans per day to pick, as the period of the harvest has become much more spread out. It is not only the impact on coffee he is worried about but ultimately on the ecotourism that sustains many of the jobs in the local community.

That this is unique in Costa Rica. It will be like a rainforest. So what visitors can see here, in they will be able to see [elsewhere]. All of which means, says Vargas, that the ecotourism industry — which the community has built from a base of 15, visitors a year to almost , — will also have to adapt to climate change.

Down from the tops of the swaying strangler figs and on solid ground again, Nalini Nadkarni reflects on how the threat of climate change to the place where she has worked for four decades has transformed her in recent years from a scientific researcher into something more activist. It is an issue, she concedes, that has become even more pressing in the Trump era, where climate change denial has been embraced by the White House. I actually feel like going into denial about my own country in terms of its response to global climate change.

Head In The Clouds by 88rising on Spotify

Being caused by human activities, by overconsumption, by use of fossil fuels. And for our leadership to take exactly the wrong turn, to remove ourselves from the Paris treaty, to encourage coal mining …. We have become less afraid to speak out against the political regimes that are making these wrong decisions. In the past, even ten years ago, my fellow scientists would not be making these statements. Nadkarni reflects on the change.

Now the plants are a little bit harder to see. But I know when I climb in the forest, that compared with when I started here 39 years ago, the canopy dwelling plants — the mosses, the filmy ferns — they were much more abundant, much more plush, much more … just wet, than they are now. Global development is supported by.

Costa Rica Americas Climate change features.

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