This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking (Edge Question Series #11) [9780062109392]

Overview

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.

Contributors include:

• Daniel Kahneman on the “focusing
  illusion”
• Jonah Lehrer on controlling
  attention
• Richard Dawkins on
  experimentation
• Aubrey De Grey on conquering our
  fear of the unknown
• Martin Seligman on the
  ingredients of well-being
• Nicholas Carr on managing
  “cognitive load”
• Steven Pinker on win-win
  negotiating
• Daniel Goleman on understanding
  our connection to the natural world
• Matt Ridley on tapping collective
  intelligence
• Lisa Randall on effective theorizing
  
• Brian Eno on “ecological vision”
• J. Craig Venter on the multiple
  possible origins of life  
• Helen Fisher on temperament
• Sam Harris on the flow of thought
  
• Lawrence Krauss on living with
  uncertainty