Hot take: the "we only use 10% of our brains" line is 100% made up, and a 1907 psychology book by William James is where the mess started

Troy Chen · 2026-10-17T18:25:07.599768+00:00

I always assumed that stat was just sloppy science writing, but a footnote in a used copy of a 1908 book I picked up at a library sale in Portland traces the whole thing back to a guy misreading James's line about "reserve energy," and now I want to know which other famous stats have a paper trail like that.

Vivisector

Loading…

Hot take: the "we only use 10% of our brains" line is 100% made up, and a 1907 psychology book by William James is where the mess started | Bad Takes Autopsy - Vivisector