John.Brockman-This.Will.Make.You.Smarter

Includes contributions from Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel C. Dennett, Steven Pinker, Lawrence Krauss, Matt Ridley, V. S. Ramachandran and many more...

Featuring a foreword by David Brooks, This Will Make You Smarter presents brilliant—but accessible—ideas to expand every mind.

What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit? This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to the world’s most influential thinkers. Their visionary answers flow from the frontiers of psychology, philosophy, economics, physics, sociology, and more. Surprising and enlightening, these insights will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the world. Amazon

Topics:
Richard Dawkins on experimentation
Sam Harris on the flow of thought
Lawrence Krauss on living with uncertainty
Daniel C. Dennett on benefiting from cycles
Steven Pinker on win-win negotiating
V. S. Ramachandran on paradigm shifts
Matt Ridley on tapping collective intelligence
J. Craig Venter on the multiple possible origins of life
Brian Eno on “ecological vision”
Daniel Kahneman on the “focusing illusion”
Jonah Lehrer on controlling attention
Aubrey De Grey on conquering our fear of the unknown
Martin Seligman on the ingredients of well-being
Nicholas Carr on managing “cognitive load”
Jaron Lanier on resisting delusion
Frank Wilczek on the brain’s hidden layers
Clay Shirky on the “80/20 rule”
Daniel Goleman on understanding our connection to the natural world
John McWhorter on path dependence
Lisa Randall on effective theorizing
Richard Thaler on rooting out false concepts
Helen Fisher on temperament