David Yoffe

Inspired by Erasmus of Rotterdam's *Praise of Folly*, this work is a satirical exploration of the timeless human appetite for deception and self-deception. In a series of sharply humorous essays, the author catalogues and dissects a gallery of cognitive biases and rhetorical tricks that enable manipulation-presenting some of these biases as mock "patents" that, of course, could never be patented in reality.
This conceit allows the book to move playfully between intellectual history, contemporary psychology, and cultural critique, offering both entertainment and insight into the mechanisms of persuasion.