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157 reviews for:
Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
Temple Grandin
4.02 AVERAGE
157 reviews for:
Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
Temple Grandin
4.02 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I enjoyed this book and it led to over-reading Grandin for the past month. She's fascinating in herself, and her insights into animals were too.
this thing is absolutely amazing.
fun facts. animals perceive details only,
animals sees everything as individuals and doesnt catagorize as much
Dopemine is triggered by anticipation and maybe not pleasure exactly. hunting chemical
fun facts. animals perceive details only,
animals sees everything as individuals and doesnt catagorize as much
Dopemine is triggered by anticipation and maybe not pleasure exactly. hunting chemical
Temple Grandin is a huge name in animal welfare. Or, she was. She contributed amazingly to the field, but this book is definitely a product of its time.
I couldn't finish it.
Some of the anecdotes were interesting, but a lot of the information itself was outdated. Dominance theory hasn't been taken seriously in the animal world for some years now and this was the main theory of her book. The parts about how animal brains work and how she related it to her experience as an autistic woman were really interesting, but after the chapters on how you have to show pigs and horses and dogs who's boss I'm left wondering how much of the rest of it is out of date and considered ridiculous in 2019 by brain...scientists? I wonder how much of it even Ms. Grandin would still stand by.
Even back when it was considered cutting edge, there were certain things that would have bothered me. She mashed personal opinion with scientific evidence with abandon. There was a lot of speculation, a lot of "No one has done any studies on this specifically, but I bet that..." which is not what I'm looking for in an educational read. I think that when you're writing from such a position of authority it's irresponsible to throw your opinion around like it's fact. It also didn't have the circumspection I've come to expect in pop science books. The first few chapters focusing on the basics of the field and disclaiming on how their results aren't necessarily definitive, how narrow the case study was, how new research is coming out, etc. I'm gonna be honest, I love that part. It was a little disappointing for it to be missing in one of the first books I've been able to read about my own field.
From a writing standpoint, it was pretty awful. She's very "write how you talk" which makes it easy to follow, but it must take decades to have a conversation with her with the way she's constantly inserting irrelevant facts and stories. If she wants to write a memoir that's fine, but this book was supposed to be about a specific topic and she apparently had no editor to ask if paragraphs or entire pages were actually contributing to her point. This book could have been like 150 pages and been complete. I'm sorry Ms. Grandin but I'm not reading a book about animal behavior to find out how the government would be so much better if everyone just thought like you did.
I did make it an admirable halfway through before giving up. I just have more valuable things to read with my time. If you're looking for a meaningful read about animal behavior, pick up something shorter that was written in the past couple of years.
I couldn't finish it.
Some of the anecdotes were interesting, but a lot of the information itself was outdated. Dominance theory hasn't been taken seriously in the animal world for some years now and this was the main theory of her book. The parts about how animal brains work and how she related it to her experience as an autistic woman were really interesting, but after the chapters on how you have to show pigs and horses and dogs who's boss I'm left wondering how much of the rest of it is out of date and considered ridiculous in 2019 by brain...scientists? I wonder how much of it even Ms. Grandin would still stand by.
Even back when it was considered cutting edge, there were certain things that would have bothered me. She mashed personal opinion with scientific evidence with abandon. There was a lot of speculation, a lot of "No one has done any studies on this specifically, but I bet that..." which is not what I'm looking for in an educational read. I think that when you're writing from such a position of authority it's irresponsible to throw your opinion around like it's fact. It also didn't have the circumspection I've come to expect in pop science books. The first few chapters focusing on the basics of the field and disclaiming on how their results aren't necessarily definitive, how narrow the case study was, how new research is coming out, etc. I'm gonna be honest, I love that part. It was a little disappointing for it to be missing in one of the first books I've been able to read about my own field.
From a writing standpoint, it was pretty awful. She's very "write how you talk" which makes it easy to follow, but it must take decades to have a conversation with her with the way she's constantly inserting irrelevant facts and stories. If she wants to write a memoir that's fine, but this book was supposed to be about a specific topic and she apparently had no editor to ask if paragraphs or entire pages were actually contributing to her point. This book could have been like 150 pages and been complete. I'm sorry Ms. Grandin but I'm not reading a book about animal behavior to find out how the government would be so much better if everyone just thought like you did.
I did make it an admirable halfway through before giving up. I just have more valuable things to read with my time. If you're looking for a meaningful read about animal behavior, pick up something shorter that was written in the past couple of years.
Overall, this was an interesting and insightful read.My big problem with the book was that it was less scientific than I was expecting. While Grandin does reference various studies, a lot of her ideas are based on anecdotal evidence about animals and people she knows or has heard of. While this makes reading the book interesting, it doesn't really give any hard conclusions (although that could just be me taking a very neurotical stance on the whole subject and just looking at the big picture). Much of what Grandin shares are her own personal thoughts and opinions as well as connections she has made based on her own experiences. While she has had a lot of experience in this field, I still would have liked to see some hard evidence to back up her claims, just to add a little more authority to the work. The writing was well-done and overall very easy to follow. Grandin discusses many animals including dolphins, dogs, cattle, horses, and parrots. I think the strongest part of the book was the beginning in which Grandin explains how she thinks animals perceive the world, which she based on her own experiences on the autism spectrum and her ability to put herself in situations in order to understand what an animal sees and feels.Another issue I had with the book was there were a lot of generalizations not just about animals (pit bulls are aggressive), but also about people on the autism spectrum. It is well known that Grandin thinks in pictures and in the book she makes the assumption that all people with autism think in pictures. However, there have been people on the autism spectrum who have specifically stated that they do no think in pictures and that this assumption can easily become a harmful stereotype that hinders the education of people on the spectrum. It may be that the majority of people with autism do think in pictures, but by including everyone in the generalization, it excludes the people who do not fit into that category.Overall, this was an interesting read, but I would have liked to have seen more scientific data. I think Grandin took a very good perspective on animals and presents her thoughts in a way that is persuasive without feeling too forceful. Her basic premise is that animals are definitely much smarter than people believe and that animals deserve respect and kindness from humans. She questions the overall hierarchy humans have created in relation to animals and I think she backs this idea up with enough stories that should make the reader question the social status of humans in the world.
This is certainly an interesting book. Temple Grandin is an autistic woman who found a way to apply her specific autistic sensitivity toward the solution of real-world problems. She works as a consultant for slaughterhouse and placed where animals are raised, treated, and killed. She draws parallels between her experience with autism and her understanding of how animals think, and experience/feel the world.
The book is written in a non-fluid English: each sentence sounds of independent from the previous and the next ones. But after a while I got used to that. What I didn't like was mostly her way of mixing scientific statement with her intuitions, hypothesis, and some anecdotal evidence. A more rigorous distinction between facts and non-facts could help to increase her credibility.
Despite all the explanations she provided, I still have problem to understand how an animal lover can work for a slaughterhouse.
The book is written in a non-fluid English: each sentence sounds of independent from the previous and the next ones. But after a while I got used to that. What I didn't like was mostly her way of mixing scientific statement with her intuitions, hypothesis, and some anecdotal evidence. A more rigorous distinction between facts and non-facts could help to increase her credibility.
Despite all the explanations she provided, I still have problem to understand how an animal lover can work for a slaughterhouse.
I recommend this for people who are interested in learning about autism or animals themselves. The book does delve into the cattle industry a bit since that's where Grandin's experience lies.
Every person who wishes to understand their animals better should read this book. Insightful, clear and compassionate ideas that will make you stop and think.
Very informative, about animals of all sorts including humans.
very technical book - but with many opinions/insights from the author