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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.45 — 254,914 ratings — published 2011
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avg rating 4.45 — 254,914 ratings — published 2011
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Thinking, Fast and Slow (Hardcover)
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avg rating 4.13 — 221,728 ratings — published 2011
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avg rating 4.13 — 221,728 ratings — published 2011
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Train Your Brain
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avg rating 3.85 — 108 ratings — published 2003
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avg rating 3.85 — 108 ratings — published 2003
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If you're looking for books that make you smarter, we've rounded up the ultimate list. This article has something for every type of curious mind, with subjects ranging from world maps to memory tricks to motivational tips to the odd wonders of the human digestive system.
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (Hardcover)
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avg rating 3.87 — 63,535 ratings — published 2011
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avg rating 3.87 — 63,535 ratings — published 2011
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Manuscript Found in Accra (Hardcover)
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avg rating 3.81 — 21,903 ratings — published 2012
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avg rating 3.81 — 21,903 ratings — published 2012
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The Help (Hardcover)
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avg rating 4.46 — 1,883,475 ratings — published 2009
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avg rating 4.46 — 1,883,475 ratings — published 2009
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One Hundred Years of Solitude (Hardcover)
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avg rating 4.06 — 661,939 ratings — published 1967
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avg rating 4.06 — 661,939 ratings — published 1967
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Building Self-Esteem in Children (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.50 — 8 ratings — published 1999
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avg rating 3.50 — 8 ratings — published 1999
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The Book Thief (Hardcover)
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avg rating 4.37 — 1,580,247 ratings — published 2005
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avg rating 4.37 — 1,580,247 ratings — published 2005
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Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.77 — 56 ratings — published 2002
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avg rating 3.77 — 56 ratings — published 2002
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A Short History of Nearly Everything (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.20 — 250,475 ratings — published 2003
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avg rating 4.20 — 250,475 ratings — published 2003
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Green Porno: A Book and Short Films (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.26 — 141 ratings — published 2008
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avg rating 4.26 — 141 ratings — published 2008
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The Catcher in the Rye (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.80 — 2,434,717 ratings — published 1951
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avg rating 3.80 — 2,434,717 ratings — published 1951
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Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.11 — 877 ratings — published 1987
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avg rating 4.11 — 877 ratings — published 1987
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Where Mathematics Come From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.98 — 301 ratings — published 2000
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avg rating 3.98 — 301 ratings — published 2000
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Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective (Encyclopedia Brown, #1)
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avg rating 4.04 — 35,660 ratings — published 1963
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avg rating 4.04 — 35,660 ratings — published 1963
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The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.14 — 5,250 ratings — published 1981
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avg rating 4.14 — 5,250 ratings — published 1981
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The Riddle of Scheherazade: And Other Amazing Puzzles (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.10 — 192 ratings — published 1997
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avg rating 4.10 — 192 ratings — published 1997
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Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.23 — 732 ratings — published 1997
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avg rating 4.23 — 732 ratings — published 1997
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.30 — 38,147 ratings — published 1979
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avg rating 4.30 — 38,147 ratings — published 1979
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Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.18 — 3,373 ratings — published 1985
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avg rating 4.18 — 3,373 ratings — published 1985
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Metaphors We Live By (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.09 — 4,264 ratings — published 1980
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avg rating 4.09 — 4,264 ratings — published 1980
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Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.03 — 1,320 ratings — published 1996
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avg rating 4.03 — 1,320 ratings — published 1996
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Catch-22 (Catch-22, #1)
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avg rating 3.98 — 661,796 ratings — published 1961
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Exodus (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.34 — 86,334 ratings — published 1958
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Trinity (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.24 — 18,768 ratings — published 1976
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Franny and Zooey (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.98 — 174,588 ratings — published 1961
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Nine Stories (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.19 — 125,206 ratings — published 1953
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avg rating 4.19 — 125,206 ratings — published 1953
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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.12 — 43,950 ratings — published 1955
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avg rating 4.12 — 43,950 ratings — published 1955
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Slaughterhouse-Five (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.07 — 1,018,099 ratings — published 1969
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Breakfast of Champions (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.08 — 206,324 ratings — published 1973
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avg rating 4.08 — 206,324 ratings — published 1973
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I Am the Cheese (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.75 — 14,031 ratings — published 1977
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I, Lucifer (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.63 — 8,344 ratings — published 2002
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No Country for Old Men (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.13 — 127,390 ratings — published 2005
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The Painted Bird (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.94 — 18,545 ratings — published 1965
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avg rating 3.94 — 18,545 ratings — published 1965
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Désirée (Hardcover)
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avg rating 4.06 — 7,898 ratings — published 1951
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Trumpet (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.05 — 3,740 ratings — published 1998
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avg rating 4.05 — 3,740 ratings — published 1998
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Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes: Fifty Tantalizing Problems of Chess Detection (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.29 — 221 ratings — published 2012
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What Is the Name of This Book? (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.25 — 679 ratings — published 1978
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More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.94 — 218 ratings — published 1989
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The Tumult of Inner Voices or What Is the Meaning of the Word 'I' (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.09 — 23 ratings — published 1982
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Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.06 — 1,145 ratings — published 1998
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Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies (Paperback)
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avg rating 3.97 — 544 ratings — published 1991
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avg rating 3.97 — 544 ratings — published 1991
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The Book of the SubGenius (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.10 — 2,087 ratings — published 1987
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The Lady or the Tiger? And Other Logic Puzzles (Paperback)
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avg rating 4.30 — 358 ratings — published 1982
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Edge.org presents brilliant, accessible, cutting-edge ideas to improve our decision-making skills and improve our cognitive toolkits, with contributions by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Richard Dawkins, Brian Eno, Steven Pinker, and more. Featuring a foreword by New York Times columnist David Brooks and edited by John Brockman, This Will Make You Smarter presents some of the best...more
Published February 14th 2012 by Harper Perennial (first published 2012)
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Antonio AlvarezFor sure! I learned a lot from this book, and I was able to immediately apply all this knowledge in my daily life.
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This Will Make You Smarter is a challenging book that leaves you with a lot to think about. The essays are short — some shorter than a single page — that cover interesting scientific concepts, new and old ideas to help us think about the world.
The founder and publisher of the online science salon, Edge.org, John Brockman, does a great job editing this collection, turning more than 100 essays on a wide range of topics into a coherent manuscript that works its way across the spectrum. You start ou...more
The founder and publisher of the online science salon, Edge.org, John Brockman, does a great job editing this collection, turning more than 100 essays on a wide range of topics into a coherent manuscript that works its way across the spectrum. You start ou...more
Jun 16, 2013Graham Herrli rated it really liked it
The Edge.org question of 2011 was 'What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?' Many of the world's most famous thinkers responded to it, and their responses are compiled in this book in one-to-four-page essays organized thematically.
It's somewhat ironic that although the book is a collection of the ideas of 'great minds,' many of the essays emphasize the importance of not trusting authority.
Debates over climate change and creationism were mentioned often enough to beco...more
Aug 17, 2013Pvw rated it liked itIt's somewhat ironic that although the book is a collection of the ideas of 'great minds,' many of the essays emphasize the importance of not trusting authority.
Debates over climate change and creationism were mentioned often enough to beco...more
Shelves: social-criticism, science, toilet-literature
Edge is an organisation that promotes the spreading of cultural and scientific knowledge to a general public. Every year they pose a general philosophical question and publish some of the best answers by prominent intellectuals. This book contains the answers to the proposition: 'Which new scientific concept should belong to everyone's conceptual toolkit?'
In bundling the answers, the editor made one unfortunate mistake. He grouped them thematically. Since many researchers promote the same concep...more
In bundling the answers, the editor made one unfortunate mistake. He grouped them thematically. Since many researchers promote the same concep...more
Aug 17, 2012Ben Lever rated it it was ok · review of another edition
It didn't.
No, in all seriousness, I think this book would have been quite good for me about five years ago - many of the cognitive tools they bring up are indeed very useful. But this book suffers from having too many authors - so for one thing there is quite a lot of redundancy, as multiple people advocate very similar principles, which often overlap with the essays of others, and for another thing everyone was limited to an average of two pages, so there isn't enough room to say anything with...more
No, in all seriousness, I think this book would have been quite good for me about five years ago - many of the cognitive tools they bring up are indeed very useful. But this book suffers from having too many authors - so for one thing there is quite a lot of redundancy, as multiple people advocate very similar principles, which often overlap with the essays of others, and for another thing everyone was limited to an average of two pages, so there isn't enough room to say anything with...more
Each essay is only 3-5 pages, making this a great book to pick up when you have a few minutes of free time and want a little bit of intellectual stimulation. That said, some essays were great and thought-provoking, but others were painfully dull and a chore to get through.
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I read this because I wanted to think about how to write accessible, sexy-sounding prose to use in grant proposals. It contains plenty of both good and bad examples of how to make complicated ideas sound exciting to non-experts. The social psychologists and pop-minded economists are the masters of this particular skill. Basically they can just present a couple of examples of goofy human behavior and their job is done. (Though there is also a nice entry on 'Anecdotalism', which points out the pro...more
Jul 09, 2016Ali Sattari rated it really liked it
Well, it gave me a rather long list of new things to further read on! :)
Jul 15, 2012Robin rated it liked it
The author asked many famous people, 'What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?'
The idea intrigued me; from each successful, 'famous' person, what single thing is it important for people to know? It seemed like the book would be full of good advice.
However, I didn't enjoy reading it. I suppose all the concepts were scientific ones, which didn't interest me. None of the writers (I only read a few. I didn't read the whole book.) spoke about why or how their particular co...more
The idea intrigued me; from each successful, 'famous' person, what single thing is it important for people to know? It seemed like the book would be full of good advice.
However, I didn't enjoy reading it. I suppose all the concepts were scientific ones, which didn't interest me. None of the writers (I only read a few. I didn't read the whole book.) spoke about why or how their particular co...more
Jul 10, 2012Butch Hamilton rated it really liked it
It started with good intentions and bought into the title. After one hundred pages in, I had to put it down. Why? The more I read, the dumber I got. Hoping to get a brain implant - saw one on Craigslist denoted as A.B. Normal - so I can finish it and restore any self-esteem I have left. . .
. . .the new cranium must have helped because I can discuss collective intelligence, defeasibilty, and Black Swan technologies with some modicum of confidence. The cover's secondary title is 'New Scientific Co...more
. . .the new cranium must have helped because I can discuss collective intelligence, defeasibilty, and Black Swan technologies with some modicum of confidence. The cover's secondary title is 'New Scientific Co...more
Mar 31, 2013Alex Zakharov rated it did not like it
The book is just a printed collection of one page blog entries from edge. com in response to their now famous annual question. Well, wrong medium and rather disappointing uniformity of thought - stick to edge online during your lunch break.
A few themes come up over and over again - complexity, unpredictability, evolutionary biology, cognitive biases. While these subjects are certainly intellectually stimulating and while i like other longer works by a handful of the participating authors , readi...more
A few themes come up over and over again - complexity, unpredictability, evolutionary biology, cognitive biases. While these subjects are certainly intellectually stimulating and while i like other longer works by a handful of the participating authors , readi...more
The best compilation of essays on scientific concepts and the importance of critical thinking I have read to date.
Feb 01, 2013Book rated it really liked it
This Will Make You Smarter: 150 New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking by John Brockman
'This Will Make You Smarter' is a thought-provoking book of scientific essays brought to you by The Edge that provides readers with better tools to think about the world. The Edge is an organization that presents original ideas by today's leading thinkers from a wide spectrum of scientific fields. The 2011 Edge question is, 'What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?' This w...more
Mar 09, 2016Menglong Youk rated it really liked it'This Will Make You Smarter' is a thought-provoking book of scientific essays brought to you by The Edge that provides readers with better tools to think about the world. The Edge is an organization that presents original ideas by today's leading thinkers from a wide spectrum of scientific fields. The 2011 Edge question is, 'What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?' This w...more
Shelves: nonfiction, inspirational, science, psychology
3.5 stars
'This Book Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking' is the collection of essays of various scientists', journalists', professors', and many educators' answering to the editor's question, 'What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?'. The perspectives of the essays are ranging from biology, sociology, astronomy, technology, all the way to psychology.
Personally, during the first tens pages of the book, I enjoyed cramming the new in...more
'This Book Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking' is the collection of essays of various scientists', journalists', professors', and many educators' answering to the editor's question, 'What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?'. The perspectives of the essays are ranging from biology, sociology, astronomy, technology, all the way to psychology.
Personally, during the first tens pages of the book, I enjoyed cramming the new in...more
Feb 09, 2013Morgan Blackledge rated it really liked it
Brockman is the prince of nurd pimps. He's got all the big brained studs in his stable. He's a rock star of science lit agents (who even knew you could be that). I fuckin hate dinner parties and that kind of stuff. But I would love to attend one of Brockman's wing dings. He's bros with the smartest, most interesting people in the world.
Anyway. He's cranking out these little essay books and they're all really good. The way it works is he periodically asks all of his crew to write short (usually o...more
Anyway. He's cranking out these little essay books and they're all really good. The way it works is he periodically asks all of his crew to write short (usually o...more
This is a small-plates restaurant for the brain. More than 150 of today’s top thinkers from many different fields answer a simple question: What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit? “Scientific” includes any endeavor that seeks analytical knowledge and understanding. Each dish runs anything from one to four pages. Occasionally I could gobble up ten in a sitting, but often one would be so delicious and filling that I would need to stop reading and ponder its ramificatio...more
Dec 12, 2012Michael Zhang rated it really liked it
not smarter a bit but annoyed
This will make you smarter. Weh?
Well, if knowing the words Copernican principle, gedankenexperiment, or nexus causality will make you sound smarter, er, smarter, then grab it. The book offers a wide array of answers to the Edge Question 2011: 'What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?'
The essays are grouped topically. Two flaws of putting into a book a number of different field specialists: (1) some authors basically repeat what the other authors have said (2) some aut...more
Well, if knowing the words Copernican principle, gedankenexperiment, or nexus causality will make you sound smarter, er, smarter, then grab it. The book offers a wide array of answers to the Edge Question 2011: 'What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?'
The essays are grouped topically. Two flaws of putting into a book a number of different field specialists: (1) some authors basically repeat what the other authors have said (2) some aut...more
'This will Make You Smarter' is a compilation of short essays from scientists of every discipline imaginable designed to illuminate scientific concepts that would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit. I was disappointed at both the redundancy and inapplicability of the answers. There were several discussions about the asymmetrical nature of top-down and bottom-up manners of investigation, the subjectivity of observation, the need for replicability, the imperfect but well-intentioned nature of t...more
I approached this book with some caution - but fortunately, using Kindle preview, you can try before you buy.
This is a book to be read in short bursts and digested. Since most of the 'chapters' are from one to three pages in length, that's easy. You will definitely want to savor each, since they can really challenge your assumptions, and give you a lot to consider.
The speakers/writers are notable scientists and thinkers and their ideas range from changes in national policy to simple things the...more
This is a book to be read in short bursts and digested. Since most of the 'chapters' are from one to three pages in length, that's easy. You will definitely want to savor each, since they can really challenge your assumptions, and give you a lot to consider.
The speakers/writers are notable scientists and thinkers and their ideas range from changes in national policy to simple things the...more
This book has a pretentious title. I prefer the original question: 'What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit?' A long list of deep thinkers were asked this question and they each provide a brief answer in this book. If you would like to read it for free, you can find their answers on Edge.org under the title of the original question.
The book is pretty interesting. If you're already a scientific thinker, then you will be familiar with many of the ideas. I found it to be...more
The book is pretty interesting. If you're already a scientific thinker, then you will be familiar with many of the ideas. I found it to be...more
Dec 31, 2012Bastian Greshake Tzovaras rated it liked it
I guess I expected too much from this book, given its not so humble title. The selection of topics is okay. But if you've been into the science blogosphere and/or TED for a while you will probably be familiar with most of the ideas presented in the book already.
The essays are all really short, most are not longer than a typical blogpost. For many topics a bit more background to the ideas would have been a good thing. If you want a crash course in modern scientific ideas (without actually learni...more
The essays are all really short, most are not longer than a typical blogpost. For many topics a bit more background to the ideas would have been a good thing. If you want a crash course in modern scientific ideas (without actually learni...more
Feb 27, 2013Ariadna73 rated it it was amazing
To read my review in my Spanish blog; click here: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2...
There more than 150 bits of very valuable knowledge in this book. There are reflections on time; space science; physics; ethics; death; knowledge; learning; perspective; perception; etc. I liked that every articla was maximum two pages; and that the authors of each article made a real effort to be as clear as possible. I would like to have read a book with more quality in the printing or the quality of the...more
There more than 150 bits of very valuable knowledge in this book. There are reflections on time; space science; physics; ethics; death; knowledge; learning; perspective; perception; etc. I liked that every articla was maximum two pages; and that the authors of each article made a real effort to be as clear as possible. I would like to have read a book with more quality in the printing or the quality of the...more
Dec 06, 2014Arminius rated it it was ok
The book is a collection of articles written by scientists who explain how to improve our cognitive toolkits. Rather than improve my cognitive tool kit I just want to point out what I found of interest in the book. Strangers apparently find people more likable and form good first impressions if they are holding a cup of hot coffee. Rainy weather makes us introspective and thoughtful which improves our memory. It also drives down the stock market which loves sunny days.
A salient point in the book...more
A salient point in the book...more
I am proud of myself that I already knew many of these scientific concepts, thanks to intense reading and audiobooking over the course of years...but I also felt humbled by how much I didn't know, or didn't completely understand...the wonderful thing about this book is that it is comprised of short essays, so the sheer volume of thought-provoking knowledge does not become overwhelming...
The vast majority of the essays are VERY accessible, and each one could be a spur for much further research....more
The vast majority of the essays are VERY accessible, and each one could be a spur for much further research....more
This book did make me smarter, but then again... Don't all books do that in some way? Overall, the essays were well organized and flowed from one topic to the next. The book was DEFINITELY elitist, and some of the essays were so condescending to nonscientists that they made me wonder if the authors were living in a bubble. There were some fantastic essays too, and I think the book could have been shortened to focus on those ideas.
Major focuses: using data in everyday life, how your brain works,...more
Major focuses: using data in everyday life, how your brain works,...more
Apr 02, 2013Becky Roper rated it it was ok
I'm not sure what I was hoping for here, but this was a collection of very short pieces by a variety of authors, mostly scientific experts of one kind or another. They each give a short description of a concept they feel could make you think better. Since the authros are almost exclusively academics, the ideas they share are long on concepts but very short on practical application. A few were too obtuse to even comprehend, and a few others were quite thought-provoking. All in all it was a long w...more
Apr 10, 2016Zivile rated it liked it · review of another edition
John Brockman apparently loves releasing compilation books on some topic. The title is very misleading. Knowing that Brockman loves scientific topics, this book is one of the lesser quality. It has bunch of short thesis-type statements about various things but without any deep arguments. We just have to simply believe it because some scientist hypothesized that idea.
Not my cup of tea in science department...
Not my cup of tea in science department...
Aug 18, 2013Bruno Santiago rated it really liked it
Very nice collection of essays. I recommend for anyone with background in sciences or those who likes sciences overall.
It is a very good read for short periods of waiting, like my daily ~12 minute ride on the subway, when I could read ~2 essays per ride.
Not every essay is good, but most of them were good enough. About 40 of them are top notch and marked for future rereading. My favorite on was Kakonomics by Gloria Origgi.
It is a very good read for short periods of waiting, like my daily ~12 minute ride on the subway, when I could read ~2 essays per ride.
Not every essay is good, but most of them were good enough. About 40 of them are top notch and marked for future rereading. My favorite on was Kakonomics by Gloria Origgi.
Jul 04, 2018Sharad Nag rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
A must read.
Maybe will not make you smarter but will equip you with tools to understand things better, be more compassionate and at the same time more rational about every thought that comes to the mind. Contains great insights about the universe, consciousness, probability, evolution, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, organisation, complex systems and what not.
Maybe will not make you smarter but will equip you with tools to understand things better, be more compassionate and at the same time more rational about every thought that comes to the mind. Contains great insights about the universe, consciousness, probability, evolution, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, organisation, complex systems and what not.
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With a broad career spanning the fields of art, science, books, software and the Internet. In 1960 he established the bases for 'intermedia kinetic environments' in art, theatre and commerce, while consulting for clients such as General Electric, Columbia Pictures, The Pentagon, The White House... In 1973 he formed his own literary and software agency. He is founder of the Edge Foundation and edit...more
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