Mastermind
How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes
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3.7 • 99 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling guide to thinking like literature's greatest detective. "Steven Pinker meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" (Boston Globe), by the author of The Confidence Game.
No fictional character is more renowned for his powers of thought and observation than Sherlock Holmes. But is his extraordinary intellect merely a gift of fiction, or can we learn to cultivate these abilities ourselves, to improve our lives at work and at home?
We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and in Mastermind she shows us how. Beginning with the “brain attic”—Holmes’s metaphor for how we store information and organize knowledge—Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology, Mastermind explores Holmes’s unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it shows how each of us, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers. For Holmes aficionados and casual readers alike, Konnikova reveals how the world’s most keen-eyed detective can serve as an unparalleled guide to upgrading the mind.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers who esteem Sherlock Holmes as superhuman will be pleasantly surprised by Konnikova's first book, wherein the Scientific American columnist makes good on her premise that the average person can indeed train his or her mind to emulate the thinking style of the iconic fictional sleuth. Partial proof comes, in fact, from his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who in a number of cases used Holmesian deduction to rectify real miscarriages of justice. Starting with Holmes's concept of the "brain attic," where care is taken to maximize the use of limited space, Konnikova uses illustrative examples from the original stories to make her points, along the way correcting several misconceptions, pointing out where Holmes went astray, and highlighting his reliance on curiosity and the imagination. She stresses that training one's brain requires "mindfulness and motivation," and elucidates the negative effects of continuous partial attention, a hallmark of today's wired world. (But Konnikova is no Luddite; she observes that while relying on Google can affect one's ability to remember specific facts, it enhances the ability to know where to find them.) Not for Baker Street Irregulars alone, this fascinating look at how the mind works replete with real-life case studies and engaging thought experiments will be an eye-opening education for many. B&w photos.
Customer Reviews
Informative
Frankly, the book was a bit clunky. It was also not exactly an instructional book, more of a informative book. But I definitely became more cognizant of my biases, and I will re-read it to absorb as much as I can. It has definitely effected me mentally, and that is all that matters for me. I think I am on my way to become a more intelligent person, who is aware when it is important, thanks to this book.
This is one of the best books I have read
I really enjoyed this book and discovered that in many ways I do think like Sherlock Holmes. A few years ago I wrote the eBook titled "How to Think and Lose Weight" which is all about learning to think like the people think who control their weight so you will produce a similar result. "Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes," reinforced my thinking process. And...I learned so much more about thinking and problem solving. It has already proved it's usefulness. I highly recommend this great book!
Idealistic
In my opinion, i dont know if you would really want to try and consider this as some type of self help book to boost logical aptitude. In mentioning this, I would like to remind anyone who has ever read the Sherlock Holmes series, (which is available for free on iTunes, and I highly recommend) Holmes was a masochistic, substance abusing, self loathing, misanthrope. But nevertheless, this does make for an extremely captivating fictional character of super hero proportions. Essentially though, It is just not healthy to go through a real human life thinking like Holmes; It will only distance yourself. Read this book because you lose Sherlock Holmes, not because you want to emulate him.