Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes - Hardcover

Konnikova, Maria

3.54

7,987 ratings by Goodreads

9780857867247: Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0857867245 ISBN 13: 9780857867247

Publisher: Canongate, 2013

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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. 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.

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From the Back Cover:

"A delightful tour of the science of memory, creativity, and reasoning, illustrated with the help of history's most famous reasoner, Sherlock Holmes himself. Maria Konnikova is an engaging and insightful guide to this fascinating material, which will help you master your own mind." (Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought)
"Far from elementary, Maria Konnikova's new book is a challenging and insightful study of the human mind, illustrated with cases from the career of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes himself would have been proud to author this fine work!" (Leslie S. Klinger, New York Times-best-selling author/editor of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes)
"Maria Konnikova's bright and brilliant new book is nothing less than a primer on how be awake, a manual on how to work ourselves free of our unconscious biases, our habitual distractions, and the muddle of our everyday minds. Holmes fan or not, the reader will find Mastermind to be bracing, fascinating, and above all -- and most important -- hopeful." (Daniel Smith, author of Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety)
"'You know my methods,' Sherlock Holmes once said to Dr. Watson. 'Apply them!' Science writer Maria Konnikova has made those instructions the inspiration for what turns out to be a delightfully intelligent book. Using Holmes and Watson as both muse and metaphor, she shows us some of modern psychology's most important lessons for using our minds well. I probably won't be able to solve murders after having read Mastermind, but I will have much to reflect on." (Carl Zimmer, author of Soul Made Flesh and Parasite Rex)

About the Author:

Maria Konnikova is a contributing writing for The New Yorker online and her writing has appeared online and in print in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Salon, The Boston Globe, WIRED, The Observer, Scientific American MIND, The Smithsonian, and Scientific American, among numerous other publications. She graduated from Harvard University and received her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University.

Karen has voiced projects for high profile clients around the globe. Karen began her voiceover career 30 years ago, and in 1994 Karen became a full time, freelance voiceover talent. Karen has worked with Microsoft, HarperCollins Audio, Time Warner, Sony and many others. Whether it's television or radio commercials, narrations for audiobooks, textbooks, multimedia, interactive, or film.

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