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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
This is one of those nonfiction books where the information is amazing and so interesting, and the organization of that information is head-scratchingly weird. But overall, it's good stuff!
Fascinating and enjoyable read. A really insightful look into our own psychology, peppered with great real-life cons and the research that proves that we are all programmed to react in a similar way - no matter how clever we think we are.
Well-built examination of the human psychology behind cons, fraud and scams, partly from the perpetrator's side but more from the mark's side. Kind of like a more focused, less gauzy version of a Malcolm Gladwell book. The book is patterned after the building blocks/structure of a con game, with each section looking at the research and theory that underlie why we're susceptible at each step, illustrated by real-life examples. I went in expecting more of those real-life examples and would have liked to see more of them - this is much more about the analytical structure of why cons work than it is the sort of delightful catalog of "wow" cons I thought it would be, but still good.
dark
informative
medium-paced
I don’t think I have ever been conned. Lied to? Sure. Deceived? Absolutely. Been hurt by an abuse of my trust? Without a doubt. But Maria Konnikova’s The Confidence Game isn’t a book about your everyday thief or hustler; it’s an investigation into the “minds, motives, and methods” of true con artists. Although she discusses frauds as petty as shell games and the three card monte, Konnikova’s true focus is on something bigger, something deeper: why even the smartest fall prey to what may seem, to an outside observer, like obvious tricks...
To read my full review, check out my blog post blog post.
To read my full review, check out my blog post blog post.
I read most of this but could not shake the feeling that I had read all of it before.
This book was well researched from the perspective of having loads of examples on scams and cons of all sorts - not just modern cons but those dating back to the 19th century, even though cons are normally not well reported because people don't want to admit that they have been scammed. In fact, it read almost like a pile of research spun into a story, one after the other and because cons (when you're not the one being conned) naturally read like ludicrous stories ("how could they have fallen for this!"), too many of these one after the other quickly got stale.
The author acknowledged that most of those having been scammed didn't even want to talk to her, let alone be willingly quoted, so perhaps it was difficult for the author to have gotten into the heads of those scammed and reveal more about what they were thinking when they fail for the scam - something that I would have found way more interesting. Instead the author had to rely on explaining popular psychology on various cognitive bias and how con artists (aka the "confidence artists") exploit our core beliefs, especially the core beliefs about our strengths and areas of expertise, to those scams to work. The key takeaway was that we are most likely to fall for scams in an area that we know the most about - because we're so sure of our own areas of expertise, we refuse to see our own cognitive bias and lack of objectivity that we walk straight into the trap.
The author acknowledged that most of those having been scammed didn't even want to talk to her, let alone be willingly quoted, so perhaps it was difficult for the author to have gotten into the heads of those scammed and reveal more about what they were thinking when they fail for the scam - something that I would have found way more interesting. Instead the author had to rely on explaining popular psychology on various cognitive bias and how con artists (aka the "confidence artists") exploit our core beliefs, especially the core beliefs about our strengths and areas of expertise, to those scams to work. The key takeaway was that we are most likely to fall for scams in an area that we know the most about - because we're so sure of our own areas of expertise, we refuse to see our own cognitive bias and lack of objectivity that we walk straight into the trap.
Really interesting, very readable, full of examples of real-life con tricks tied together by their various stages. Also shows you can never be too aware of the potential for a con...
Part of the problem here, I realize, is that I was hoping this would be a different book. I wanted a catalogue of classic confidence games, for two reasons: 1. Future writing research. 2. I wanted a final, definitive answer on whether the “biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever” from Ocean’s 11 is a real game. I did not get what I was hoping for.
But even discounting that: this is a stodgy and depressing read. The writing is fine, but the story portions are, for obvious reasons, both sad and repetitive. Person trusts someone, person gets taken in, disaster befalls person. There are only so many times I want to read that story, and this book exceeded my limit by chapter 3. And the science portions are not what I want from science writing.
Overall, I’m not sorry I read it, but I’m not glad, either. (Oh, and if you’re wondering why we fall for it every time, I’ll save you some glum reading. We fall for it because a) we’re human and b) con men are very good at exploiting human strengths and weaknesses for gain. That’s it! That’s the book.)
But even discounting that: this is a stodgy and depressing read. The writing is fine, but the story portions are, for obvious reasons, both sad and repetitive. Person trusts someone, person gets taken in, disaster befalls person. There are only so many times I want to read that story, and this book exceeded my limit by chapter 3. And the science portions are not what I want from science writing.
Overall, I’m not sorry I read it, but I’m not glad, either. (Oh, and if you’re wondering why we fall for it every time, I’ll save you some glum reading. We fall for it because a) we’re human and b) con men are very good at exploiting human strengths and weaknesses for gain. That’s it! That’s the book.)