The Invention of Error
Good Fit
- Readers wanting a simple Turkish-language introduction to evolutionary psychology and the brain
- Younger readers who haven't yet read Harari, Kahneman or Ariely
- Anyone curious about the evolutionary roots of everyday habits
Not a Fit
- Readers who already know the classics of the field — they'll find little new
- Those who expect rigorous sourcing and citations
- Readers sensitive to text quality — the editing is weak
The book opens with a «conclusion» the author wrote in 2019: biologically, we live by decisions aimed at producing the most varied offspring; genetically, we continue the behaviours that survived; neurologically, we favour the neural paths we use most — and despite all this, we claim to have character, intelligence and choices. The back cover states the aim plainly: starting from Dean Burnett's remark that the brain makes these mistakes «when it's working properly», to chase the errors a healthy brain makes.
Part I opens with a well-chosen story: in 1859 Thomas Austin brought 24 rabbits from England to Australia and released them. With no natural predators, they multiplied into the billions over decades and stripped the vegetation. Foxes were released, traps set, a 3,200-kilometre fence built, and finally the myxoma virus was spread. Ninety percent of the rabbits died, but resistant survivors kept breeding. The author uses this to explain how natural selection works and the «mismatch» humans create when they change an environment.
The section on happiness hormones in Part III is among the clearest. The author explains hedonic adaptation — the same thing doesn't bring the same joy twice — and retells Wolfram Schultz's famous monkey experiment, in which dopamine fires at a yellow light that predicts an apple and stops once the link is learned, via Turkish educator Özgür Bolat's commentary; «the new quickly becomes normal» comes from Eagleman. But the weakness shows here too: figures like «you need about 4.7 times as much money to get the same happiness a second time» come without a source.
The book's main weakness is a lack of originality. The bibliography consists of Turkish translations of popular books by Jared Diamond, Yuval Noah Harari, Adam Rutherford, Ronald Giphart and Mark van Vugt, Dean Burnett, Loretta Breuning, David Eagleman, Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely and others. The author describes the book as «a step between science and the reader» — a compilation and commentary rather than original work. It is best read with that in mind.
Physically, the book was designed by the author and published by the family's own publishing house, and the editing is weak, with many typos and run-together words. Still, its genuine enthusiasm comes through, and it is a readable starting point for newcomers.
- A clear, symmetrical structure across six parts
- Well-chosen stories and experiments
- A broad Turkish bibliography as a guide to further reading
The main source on evolutionary mismatch
The brain's quirks that inspired this book
A broad view of the agricultural and cognitive revolutions
The happiness-hormones part of the third section is among the book's clearest. The author explains hedonic adaptation: the same thing does not give the same joy a second time. He tells of Wolfram Schultz's famous dopamine experiment with monkeys — the apple that follows a yellow light, and dopamine responding after learning to the light, and then to nothing. The idea that «what is new quickly becomes normal» is taken from Eagleman.
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