What's the point of knowing anything when facts are so easy to look up? Just reach for your computer, tablet or mobile and ask the sky. We're living in the golden age of rational ignorance where more people know who Khloe Kardashian is than who Rene Descartes was and most of us can't name the largest ocean on the planet. Yet the latest research indicates that the better informed are healthier, happier and often dramatically wealthier.

Bestselling author William Poundstone conducts a hilarious and humbling investigation into the true worth of knowledge. What does it tell you, for example, when those who can pinpoint a country on a map are less likely to favour invading it? Underpinned by big data analysis and illustrated with eye-opening anecdotes, Poundstone's Head in the Cloud is an entertaining manifesto on the surprising benefits of broadening your horizons, as well as a warning of the dangers of an ill-informed electorate.