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This Will Make You Smarter

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DWill

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This Will Make You Smarter

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I do realize there's probably no hope for me...but couldn't resist this book edited by the founder of Edge.org, John Brockman. It's in a vein similar to the new discussion book on good thinking by Guy Harrison. The book seeks to improve the reader's "cognitive toolkit" through several dozen short chapters, each by a different cutting-edge thinker in diverse fields. Broadly speaking, it's a book about newer scientific ideas, with the social sciences also represented. The intro is by David Brooks of the NY Times, and I have to admit I love that guy. It's entirely fascinating so far.
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geo

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Re: This Will Make You Smarter

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Sounds interesting, DWill. I wonder if this could be the next official nonfiction selection for discussion?
-Geo
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DWill

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Re: This Will Make You Smarter

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geo wrote:Sounds interesting, DWill. I wonder if this could be the next official nonfiction selection for discussion?
Well, it could be a good choice for those of us whose attention spans are sometimes wanting and like to read pithy two-pagers. Lots of different perspectives, which makes the book potentially mind-expanding. I like for example Gerald Smallberg's piece, "Bias Is the Nose for the Story," in which he identifies the necessity of bias as "an intuition--a sensitivity, a receptiveness--that acts as a lens or filter on all our perceptions...Without our biases to focus our attention, we would be lost in [an] endless and limitless expanse."
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