This Will Make You Smarter

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Synopsis
Featuring a foreword by David Brooks, This Will Make You Smarter presents brilliant-but accessible-ideas to expand every mind. What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit? This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to the world's most influential thinkers. Their visionary answers flow from the frontiers of psychology, philosophy, economics, physics, sociology, and more. Surprising and enlightening, these insights will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the world. Daniel Kahneman on the "focusing illusion" Jonah Lehrer on controlling attention Richard Dawkins on experimentation Aubrey De Grey on conquering our fear of the unknown Martin Seligman on the ingredients of well-being Nicholas Carr on managing "cognitive load" Steven Pinker on win-win negotiating Daniel C. Dennett on benefiting from cycles Jaron Lanier on resisting delusion Frank Wilczek on the brain's hidden layers Clay Shirky on the "80/20 rule" Daniel Goleman on understanding our connection to the natural world V. S. Ramachandran on paradigm shifts Matt Ridley on tapping collective intelligence John McWhorter on path dependence Lisa Randall on effective theorizing Brian Eno on "ecological vision" Richard Thaler on rooting out false concepts J. Craig Venter on the multiple possible origins of life Helen Fisher on temperament Sam Harris on the flow of thought Lawrence Krauss on living with uncertainty
Copyright:
2012

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780062109408
Publisher:
HarperCollins
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
HarperCollins
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Categories:
Nonfiction, Science
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

4 out of 5

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Will this book make you smarter? What is smart? It is a synonym for intelligent and Stephen J. Gould described intelligence as a vernacular term that describes a wide variety of abilities propensities and interests none of which are very closely related to most of the others. If that is the case then it is hard or even impossible to measure smartness so that we can tell if someone has gotten smarter. What this book does do, though, is to teach you to think scientifically. That is, it teaches you to think scientifically if you are willing to learn to think scientifically. I have met all too many people who just reject not only learning to think rationally, but also reject learning what rationality even is. However, science is the study of reality and everything we want is gotten only by manipulating reality and the closer we can come to understanding what reality actually is the more efficiently can we manipulate it to our liking. That means that learning to think scientifically is a great benefit to all of us, both individually and collectively. If you learn to think scientifically and act accordingly then you will be acting in a way that can be said to be -- to use a vernacular term -- smarter. This book is well worth reading.


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