Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars | 134 ratings

Price: 13.12

Last update: 12-22-2024


About this item

This “smart and fun read, and a valuable way to revitalize your life” (Walter Isaacson) deftly explains how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate and reset our brains for the better.

Have you ever noticed that what is exciting on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even passionate relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. As easy as it is to stop noticing what is most wonderful in our lives, it’s also possible to stop noticing what is terrible. People get used to dirty air. They become unconcerned by their own misconduct, blind to inequality, and are more liable to believe misinformation than ever before.

Now, neuroscience professor Tali Sharot and Harvard law professor (and presidential advisor) Cass R. Sunstein investigate why we stop noticing both the great and not-so-great things around us and how to “dishabituate” at the office, in the bedroom, at the store, on social media, and in the voting booth.

This groundbreaking and “sensational guide to a more psychological rich life” (Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author), based on decades of research, illuminates how we can reignite the sparks of joy, innovate, and recognize where improvements urgently need to be made. The key to this disruption—to seeing, feeling, and noticing again—is change. By temporarily changing your environment, changing the rules, changing the people you interact with—or even just stepping back and imagining change—you regain sensitivity, allowing you to identify more clearly the bad and more deeply appreciate the good.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Charles rankin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book
    Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2024
    teaching a new way.
  • Lauren
    4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overall concept book. strong start
    Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2024
    Good book and the concept and a lot of great ideas. I liked the original thought in the first half of the book. I felt the book started stronger with a lot more innovation. It ended much slower and notas strong. But worth the read.
  • Steve Berczuk
    5.0 out of 5 stars Reconsidering Taking Things for Granted
    Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2024
    Look Again explores the effect of habituation -- the mechanism we use to adapt to the familiar -- on our lives. Sharot and Sunstein explain why habituation is useful (we’d be spending energy on being distracted otherwise) and how to leverage it (when you have an unpleasant task, taking breaks delays habituation, so it might be better to plow through). They explain reasons we may want slow the mechanism down (habituation can lead to less innovation as we get too accustomed to how things are), including some techniques to slow down habituation or even dishabituate in our personal, work and family lives.

    The authors explain how the same mechanisms impact our families and society, doing an interesting job of connecting the various aspects or our lives. For example they explain why it’s best to discourage lying -- even small, well intentioned lies-- in our family life, and connect that to ethics in the workplace, and the dynamics of the political sphere.

    This is an engaging, thought provoking, read which mixes facts, history, and personal stories to help you to understand the hows and why’s around something we take for granted.
  • Amazon Customer
    3.0 out of 5 stars Footnotes don't sync with the text.
    Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024
    For example, footnote 12 shows details for footnote 11. Always off by one number.

    Looks like somebody missed the copy proofing.
  • Scott Ward
    5.0 out of 5 stars Avoid slow-boiling tolerance of misinformation, disinformation, risky behavior…
    Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2024
    This may become one of my favorite, go-to, oft-quoted books, like “Invisible Gorilla,” “Nobody’s Fool,”“Tipping Point,” “Black Swan,” “Abolishing Performance Appraisals,” “Progress Principle” and others of this sort that challenge our paradigms. Sharot and Sunstein alert to how easy it is to become habituated to our routines, our beliefs, our ingestion of news and friends’ stories. The “Power of Habits” taught us that 40-60% of our routines are habits: decisions we made once and don’t re-evaluate unless there’s a disruption. These authors encourage the disruption so we can avoid becoming tolerant of lying, misinformation/disinformation, risky behavior and slow adjustments to the political enterprises…and more. They also provide ways to break “the trance” that don’t provoke defensiveness, fear, flight/fight when our own ‘habits’ of thinking, deciding, acting are challenged.

    The book is easy to read, digest and act on, if you’re willing to “look again.”

    I appreciate the opportunity to get an advance copy provided by the publisher.
  • Kindle Customer
    2.0 out of 5 stars Repetition of the obvious
    Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2024
    The authors took the concept of habituation and used it as a blanket explanation for complicated actions and perceptions. They would give token disclaimers, but then carry on with the generalizations. I didn't get any insights from this book. The principle could have been adequately explained in one page. The book was an act of habituation in and of itself.
  • Lucile Guillaud
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
    Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2024
    A captivating exploration of how we habituate, and how it impacts us, delving into the intricacies of perception, memory, and change; with plenty of examples we can all relate to. The auhtors intertwine cutting-edge neuroscience with captivating anecdotes, providing a lucid exposition of how our minds habituate - for good or for worse! Highly recommend.
  • NJ
    2.0 out of 5 stars At best a refresher
    Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2024
    At best, "Look Again " is a moderately useful exploration and a serviceable reminder of our behavioral blind spots.

    The book's premise is well-known: we all have unconscious biases and habits that can limit our happiness and other emotions. We often overlook the obvious, and a conscious effort to "look again" can yield surprising insights.

    The author attempts to shed light on these issues, encouraging readers to become more aware of their surroundings and thought processes. At its core, "Look Again" discusses the phenomenon of habituation. This is the well-documented tendency for our responses to stimuli to diminish over time. The authors extrapolate this physiological concept into the broader realm of human behavior and social interactions to conclude that we are inherently susceptible to boredom and require novelty to sustain engagement and excitement.

    The book's brevity is a weakness. At around 200 pages, it's an accessible read, but this conciseness limits its ability to dive deep into complex topics. The book skims the surface of complex topics like neural plasticity and hedonic adaptation without providing a nuanced understanding of their limitations and controversies. This superficial treatment of the subject matter may leave readers with an oversimplified view of how habituation impacts our lives.

    The field has some extraordinary books, and amid them, this title is not going to stand on its own as one of the better ones.

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