book

Rated Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America's Edge 10/10

Wants to read The Tattooed Girl

Rated Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass 10/10

Rated Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness 8/10

Rated This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking 6/10

Editor John Brockman posed the question "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?" Leading scientists, psychologists, writers and general advanced "thinkers" responded with the short answers that make up <i>This Will Make You Smarter</i>, and the result is indeed thought-provoking, but not always interesting.<br><br>However, the most interesting portion, to me, is that this was published before the self-plagiarizing/Bob Dylan quote fabrication scandal of Jonah Lehrer. Lehrer's contribution to this book, "Control Your Spotlight," has to do with a study conducted with small children. The children were in a room with a bowl of marshmallows and told that if they could wait a short period of time alone, they could have more than one to eat. The study looked at impulse control, mainly, and the children who were better able to resist taking a marshmallow early were the ones who put their attention elsewhere. Some kids sang songs, others covered their eyes, etc. But what I find rather amusing is this bit from Lehrer:<br><br><blockquote>Willpower is really about properly diverting the spotlight of attention, learning how to control that short list of thoughts in working memory. It's about realizing that if we're thinking about the marshmallow, we're going to eat it, which is why we need to look away.</blockquote><br><br>So, am I to understand that he gambled on the working memory of Bob Dylan fans, and hoped that they were looking at other things when he made up those quotes? That's a pretty big gamble, that spotlight "control." He didn't have the smarts suggested in David G. Myers' contributing essay, "Self-Serving Bias:"<br><br><blockquote>Being mindful of self-serving bias beckons us not to false modesty but to a humility that affirms our genuine talents and virtues and likewise those of others.</blockquote><br><br>In other words, work with what you've got, and work it well. Don't be a self-serving jerk who tries to make his book better with fake quotes. Also, never underestimate a music super-fan’s skills.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/09/this-will-make-you-smarter-edited-by.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)<br>

Rated Arms of Nemesis 4/10

Rated Doctor Who: The Book of Kells 10/10

I very much enjoyed this historical! I like Tamsin, I like the setting, the twist(s), all of it.

Rated Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing 6/10

Rated Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change, and Courage 8/10

Rated Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization 4/10

Rated Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways to Save Money and Build Your Wealth 6/10

Rated Thinking, Fast and Slow 8/10

Rated Tender Is the Flesh 8/10

Rated The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life 10/10

Rated Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar 10/10

Wants to read M Train

Rated Foster 8/10

Wants to read Feral: Losing Myself and Finding My Way in America’s National Parks

Rated Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk 8/10

Rated Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be 10/10

Rated How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self 10/10

Rated Astrophysics for People in a Hurry 10/10

Rated Walden on Wheels: On The Open Road from Debt to Freedom 10/10

Rated Blonde 10/10

Wants to read The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World