Mastermind

Reviews / Votes

Fascinating...A delightful tour of the science of memory, creativity and reasoning -- Steven Pinker An entertaining blend of Holmesiana and modern-day neuroscience * * New York Times * * Here is a giant helping of Daniel Kahnemann, a tincture of Atul Gawande, a whiff of Nassim Taleb, a dollop of Jonah Lehrer...and the whole assemblage served, Heston Blumenthal-style, in a deerstalker hat -- Sam Leith * * Guardian * * Devotees of Arthur Conan Doyle's conundrum-cracker will be thrilled by this portmanteau of strategies for sharpening cognitive ability * * Nature * * Serves the non-Holmes aficionado as a route into the stories without any spoilers. And for those of us who have enjoyed the intellectual might of the great detective before, it gives us a fresh insight into Conan Doyle's deductive masterpieces * * We Love This Book * * Ingenious... thoughtful... covers a wide variety of material clearly and organizes it well * * Wall Street Journal * * Steven Pinker meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in this entertaining, insightful look at how the fictional London crime-solver used sophisticated mental strategies to solve complex problems of logic and deduction...This practical, enjoyable book, packed with modern science and real-life examples, shows you how to get your inner Holmes on and is worth at least a few hours of pipe-smoking reflection in a comfortable leather chair * * Boston Globe * * Based on modern neuroscience and psychology, the book explores Holmes's aptitude for mindfulness, logical thinking and observation... * * Washington Post * * With wit and real flair, Konnikova suggests that by properly harnessing the great detective's [Sherlock Holmes] methods we can significantly improve our mental ability... Konnikova offers a way to turbo-charge our mental faculties, enhancing creative thinking and developing our powers of logic * * Good Book Guide * * A treatise on how the Watsons of the world can smarten up...culled from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original works and cutting-edge psych research * * New York Post * * Weaving together the fictional detective's cases and modern day neuroscience... important for solving cases or simply staying sharp as we age * * Psychology Today * * The book is part literary analysis and part self-help guide, teaching readers how to sharpen the ways they observe the world, store and retrieve memories, and make decisions * * Scientific American * * Ms Konnikova has that rare ability to make the complex easily understandable. And enjoyable, too. The reader is enlightened, and also entertained * * Business Times * * An entertaining and perhaps surprisingly practical guide to being more observant. Like Holmes, she eschews emotional responses for intellectual ones * * Independent * *