On BUSINESS SEGMENT TODAY, we
bring to you 7 good books that will help you to achieve greatly in your
business and your life generally with the help of your mind, a very vital
aspect of quality life and living. Enjoy the snippets from the books below...
1. Curious
Subtitle: The Desire to Know and Why Your
Future Depends on It
Author: Ian Leslie
5-second summary: Harness your natural
curiosity to develop the ability to think more broadly and deeply.
Best quote: "Curious learners go
deep, and they go wide. They are the people best equipped for the kind of
knowledge-rich cognitively challenging work required in industries such as
finance or software engineering. They are also the ones most likely to make
creative connections between different fields, of the kind that lead to new
ideas and the ones best suited to working in multidisciplinary teams. Consequently,
they are the ones whose jobs are least likely to be taken by intelligent
machines. In a world where technology is rapidly replacing humans even in
white-collar jobs, it's no longer enough to be merely smart. Computers are
smart. But no computer, however sophisticated, can yet be said to be
curious."
Fun factoid: Your brain stopped growing
when you were 18 but continues to make new neurons throughout your life in
response to mental activity.
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow
Author: Daniel Kahneman
5-second summary: Your success in life
depends upon mastering your brain's two systems, one of which is fast,
intuitive, and emotional, and the other of which is slow, deliberate, and
logical.
Best quote: "When confronted with a
problem--choosing a chess move or deciding whether to invest in stock--the
machinery of intuitive thought does the best it can. If the individual has relevant
expertise, she will recognize the situation, and the intuitive solution that
comes to mind is likely to be correct. This is what happens when a chess master
looks at a complex position: the few moves that immediately occur to him are
all strong. When the question is difficult and a skilled solution is not
available, intuition still has a shot: an answer may come to mind quickly--but
it is not an answer to the original question. This is the essence of intuitive
heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one
instead, usually without noticing the substitution."
Fun factoid: The human brain activates
(fires) roughly 20 quadrillion neurons every second.
3. Think Like a Freak
Subtitle: The Authors of Freakonomics
Offer to Retrain Your Brain
Authors: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J.
Dubner
5-second summary: A blueprint for coming
up with new solutions to old problems, accompanied by amusing examples.
Best quote: "It's tempting to
run with a herd. Even on the most important issues of the day, we often adopt
the views of our friends, families, and colleagues. On some level, this makes
sense: it is easier to fall in line with what your family and friends think
than to find new family and friends! But running with the herd means we are
quick to embrace the status quo, slow to change our minds, and happy to
delegate our thinking."
Fun factoid: According to one study
from the London School of Economics and Political
Science, liberal atheists have IQs that are six points higher on
average than devout conservatives.
4. The Power of Habit
Subtitle: Why We Do What We Do in Life and
Business
Author: Charles Duhigg
5-second summary: A guide for using the
human tendency toward habitual behavior to positive use.
Best quote: "In the past decade, our
understanding of the neurology and psychology of habits and the way patterns
work with in our lives, societies, and organizations has expanded in ways we
couldn't have imagined fifty years ago. We now know why habits emerge, how they
change, and the science behind their mechanics. We know how to break them into
parts and rebuild them to our specifications. We understand how to make people
eat less, exercise more, work more efficiently, and live healthier lives.
Transforming a habit isn’t necessarily easy or quick. It isn't always simple.
But it is possible. And now we understand how."
Fun factoid: Your brain uses 20 percent of
the total oxygen in your body and 20 percent of the blood circulating in your
body.
5. Moonwalking With Einstein
Subtitle: The Art and Science of Remembering
Everything
Author: Joshua Foer
5-second summary: A journalist is coached
by the world's foremost "mental athletes" on the latest methods
for improving memory.
Best quote: "The brain is like a
muscle and memory training is a form of mental workout. Over time, like any
form of exercise, it’ll make the brain fitter, quicker, and more nimble... But
while there is much solid science to back up the dementia-defying effects of an
active brain, [the] most hyperbolic claims about the collateral effects of
'brain exercise' should inspire a measured dose (at least) of skepticism.
Nevertheless, it was hard to argue with the results. I just watched a
forty-seven-year-old competitor recite, in order, a list of 100 hundred random
words he’d learned a few minutes earlier."
Fun factoid: While awake, your brain
generates up to 23 watts of electricity, which is roughly enough energy to
power three iPhones.
6. The Future of the Mind
Subtitle: The Scientific Quest to
Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
Author: Michio Kaku
5-second summary: The latest breakthroughs
in neuroscience and physics suggest that several science fiction tropes (mind
control, telekinesis, etc.) might eventual become realities.
Best quote: "To witness the mystery
of our mind, all we have to do is stare at ourselves in the mirror and wonder,
What lurks behind our eyes? This raises haunting questions like: Do we have a
soul? What happens to us after we die? Who am 'I' anyway? And most
important, this brings us to the ultimate question: where do we fit into this
great cosmic scheme? As the great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once said,
'The question of all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all
others and is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination
of man’s place in nature and its relation to the Cosmos.'"
Fun factoid: The first
successful brain surgeries took place during the Stone Age, roughly
around 7000 BC.
7. A Mind for Numbers
Subtitle: How to Excel at Math and Science
(Even If You Flunked Algebra)
Author: Barbara Oakley
5-second summary: An engineering professor
provides alternative and often simple strategies for learning complex subject
matter.
Best quote: "Mathematics, as it's
generally taught in American school systems, can be a saintly mother of a
subject. It climbs logically and majestically from addition through
subtraction, multiplication, and division. Then it sweeps up towards the
heavens of mathematical beauty. But math can also be a wicked stepmother. She
is utterly unforgiving if you happen to miss any steps of the logical
sequence--and missing a step is easy to do. All you need is a disruptive family
life, a burned-out teacher, or an unlucky extended bout with illness--even a
week or two at a critical time can throw you off your game.
"Or, as was the case with me, simply no
interest or seeming talent whatsoever."
Fun factoid: Some researchers believe neurons are quantum computers,
which means your brain is more powerful than all the digital computers in
the world combined.
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