A book of con-sequence
Book Review: Maria Konnikova, "The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for It Every Time", Canongate, 2016. When you find a book with an epigraph like this: How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in With gently smiling jaws! -- Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" ...then you know it's going to be a cynical one. Over the past week-and-a-half, I've been reading this book by Maria Konnikova about con artists, scams, fraud and other forms of deception. And indeed, the author does seem cynical: she writes in the introduction that "Given the right cues, we're willing to go along with just about anything and put our confidence in just about anyone." The confidence game is at its core a game of storytelling; one in which we find ourselves complicit because we want to believe -- to believe in justice, fairness, meaning and certainty, and to believe ...