books on the mind, consciousness, cognitive science…
February 21, 2013
$2.99 kindle ebook on Amazon: What To Do When There’s Too Much To Do: Reduce Tasks… by Laura Stack amazon.com/gp/product/B00… via @amazon
— Debbie A Foster (@mymindonbooks) February 21, 2013
February 20, 2013
The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More by Bruce Feiler (William Morrow, 2013)
Book description from the publisher:
In The Secrets of Happy Families, New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler has drawn up a blueprint for modern families — a new approach to family dynamics, inspired by cutting-edge techniques gathered from experts in the disciplines of science, business, sports, and the military.
The result is a funny and thought-provoking playbook for contemporary families, with more than 200 useful strategies, including: the right way to have family dinner, what your mother never told you about sex (but should have), and why you should always have two women present in difficult conversations…
Timely, compassionate, and filled with practical tips and wise advice, Bruce Feiler’s The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More should be required reading for all parents.
See also: Author’s website
February 19, 2013
Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman (Twelve, 2013)
Book description from the publisher:
It’s a Dog Eat Dog World. Don’t Be on the Menu.
What are the differences between a winning and losing performance? Why are we able to rise to the challenge one day, but wilt from it the next? Can we in fact become better competitors? In TOP DOG, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman use cutting edge science to tease out the hidden factors at the core of every great triumph – and every tragic failure. By enabling you to identify your own competitive style, TOP DOG will help you tip the odds of success in your favor. Integrating wisdom from politics, finance, genetics, neuroscience, psychology, military training, sports, economics, education and more, TOP DOG offers counterintuitive, game-changing insights into the nature of competition, such as:
- Why the home field advantage in sports is just as relevant in diplomacy and deal-making
- That women are better at judging risk, while men are better at ignoring it – and how this plays out on K Street and Wall Street
- Why younger siblings are more competitive than first-borns, and how early-childhood influences shape competitive styles forever
- That the shape of entrepreneurs’ hands can be just as revealing as their business plans
- How a single biochemical can predict a winner before an event has even begun
- Why discord can be better than harmony, and why stars on a team do deserve special treatment.
As President Dwight Eisenhower said, “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight-it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” In TOP DOG, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman reveal the size of the fight in all of us.
See also: Book website
February 18, 2013
A Slap in the Face: Why Insults Hurt–And Why They Shouldn’t by William B. Irvine (Oxford University Press, USA, 2013)
Book description from the publisher:
Insults are part of the fabric of daily life. But why do we insult each other? Why do insults cause us such pain? Can we do anything to prevent or lessen this pain? Most importantly, how can we overcome our inclination to insult others?
In A Slap in the Face, William Irvine undertakes a wide-ranging investigation of insults, their history, the role they play in social relationships, and the science behind them. He examines not just memorable zingers, such as Elizabeth Bowen’s description of Aldous Huxley as “The stupid person’s idea of a clever person,” but subtle insults as well, such as when someone insults us by reporting the insulting things others have said about us: “I never read bad reviews about myself,” wrote entertainer Oscar Levant, “because my best friends invariably tell me about them.” Irvine also considers the role insults play in our society: they can be used to cement relations, as when a woman playfully teases her husband, or to enforce a social hierarchy, as when a boss publicly berates an employee. He goes on to investigate the many ways society has tried to deal with insults-by adopting codes of politeness, for example, and outlawing hate speech-but concludes that the best way to deal with insults is to immunize ourselves against them: We need to transform ourselves in the manner recommended by Stoic philosophers. We should, more precisely, become insult pacifists, trying hard not to insult others and laughing off their attempts to insult us.
A rousing follow-up to A Guide to the Good Life, A Slap in the Face will interest anyone who’s ever delivered an insult or felt the sting of one–in other words, everyone.
Google Books preview:
See also: Author’s website
February 13, 2013
$2.99 kindle ebook on Amazon: From Apes to Apps: How humans evolved as storytellers… by Trish Nicholson amazon.com/gp/product/B00… via @amazon
— Debbie A Foster (@mymindonbooks) February 13, 2013
