The Einstein Factor: A Proven New Method for Increasing Your Intelligence. By Win Wenger Ph.D., Richard Poe

If you are going to read this book, you may have to have your mind a bit wider thatn usual. If you are the narrow-minded type, walk away. The book challenges some "traditional" learning/teaching methods and there is substance to the arguments.

Does it increase your intelligence ?... you need to have a clear and precise definition of what "intelligence means" before you can answer this question.

Not so light reading but will give you interested concepts if seek to enrich your knowledge about alternative learning methodologies."

The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. By Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz

Basic principles to avoid distraction and to promote full engagement. Interesting concept of time vs. energy as available to your work, personal life and other fronts.

The book is nicely organized and contains a "homework" at the end of each chapter to enable you to address specific points as presented in the book.

Do not expect to resolve too many issues with the book unless you are prepared to fully engage.

The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind. By Elkhonon Goldberg

This book is not as colloquial as I thought it was. It requires concentration and the desire to learn about how your brain works.

If you are willing to cihp in, the author will welcome you with a fascinating introduction about his personal situation while still in his country and the huge bet that we had to place on the table moving into his future.

Then a journey starts taking you around various brain-related issues; emphasis is placed in the Frontal Lobes (known as the CEO of your brain).

On Intelligence. By Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee

This is good reading if you want to understand why our brain learning CANNOT be simulated by traditional computer's behavior. Also presents interesting concepts to understand intelligence.

Not so light reading but extremely interesting approaches by the creator of Graffiti (Palm).

I am amazed by the knowledge-sharing generosity of Jeff. Open description of his findings; look at this webpage to (Numenta.com) to learn about his Artificial Intellingence software-generation efforts too.

The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative . By Stephen Denning

An alternative approach for leadership-related practices. I recommend the book only if you are seeking alternative management practices.

Main principle floats around creating a desire for change and sustain this change with reasons - as oppossed to identifying a problem and imposing a solution. Also, makes a heavy recommendation towards storytelling as the most efficient way to communicate with your various Teams.

My personal opinion. The principle is attractive; problem solving (change) relies on a broader base of people rather than on a reduced set of individuals.

Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership through Storytelling. By Stephen Denning

Light reading in fable format - and therefore playful and fun. The title describes the content to a great extent.

The book constitutes a vehicle to learn about the power of storytelling. However, being in a fable-context, some important details may be overlooked.

I would recommend the book if you want to dive into storytelling from scratch - zero previous experience.

If you consider that you already have some command of this communication technique, then I would rather recommend The Secret Language of Leadership by the same author; then the concept is presented in a formal and realistic context -not a fable.

Idea Mapping: How to Access Your Hidden Brain Power, Learn Faster, Remember More, and Achieve Success in Business. By Jamie Nast

What is good is the concept of Mind Mapping (original concept); renamed in this book as Idea Mapping.

I strongly recommend the practice of Mind/Ideas Mapping in many respects. This book is good to way learn it; nicely laid out and with examples at the end of each chapter will simplify this learning process.

I could not tell whether or not this is the best book to learn. But I would dare to say that it can guide you even if you are a beginner (just as I was when read the book).

Once you learn the concept, there is at least one piece of freeware that will enable you to jump start the practice of Mind Mapping.

Also, there is commercial software for the same purpose; as there is free-share software.

Secrets of Great Rainmakers: The Keys to Success and Wealth. By Jeffrey J. Fox

Light read; with good pieces of advice for those that are finding their way in a Corporate Sales world. I would say that the content adds little value for sales to "small enterprises" (where service is not so important) where retail activity dominates.

I would give it as recommended reading to a new Sales person moving into this career from a different arena. It does not really add great value to a seasoned Sales person; yet, it could provide a valuable check-list to have by your elbow if you have to manage an unexperienced sales force."

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. By Dan Ariely

Great fun to read and to learn how our brain plays certain "tricks" on us to indulge some of our otherwise unacceptable activities. Hats off to Dan Ariely and an amazing personal history.

You would never steal a One Dollar bill; but you do not hesitate to take a Coke can from the fridge; while the value is about the same.

Many examples that prepare you to understand many irrational responses in human behavior; irrational, but very predictably."

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. By John Medina

A good book to read if you are too far away from brain-related literature; after you have read a few books on who to do good to your brain, this becomes yet another reading.

I am no expert in brain-related issues (by far !!); but the advice in this book has come across my way several times in various forms.

Yet, I you have read nothing on the subject, this might just as well be a good way to start

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. By Dan Roam

Great fun to read. I did not benefit too much from the book as I am an avid "chart-guy" from my academic formation (deformation?).

There is one appendix though that has a light description of how our brain processes visual information; and makes a remarkable comment about how to feed that information so that it can get better captured.

Visual Intelligence is a discipline that should be cultivated in greater depth.

I think that the book would be an excellent stepping stone for those that are not picture-friendly in their narrative/presentation/analysis, etc.

I strongly endorse the "one picture worth more than a thousand words". This book can set you off in that direction if you are not there already.

Simpleology: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want . By Mark Joyner

Simple concepts and ideas; yet a light-bulb may go off. Light reading; recommended for a relaxing vacation by the pool-side.

How We Decide. By Jonah Lehrer

Excellent reading. A colloquial description of the intrinsec brain-related aspects behind human behavior. You can gain significant knowledge as to why certain decisions are made by others and YOU.

 

Managing people has a lot to do with how people (and you) react to various stimuli; not only by education but also by "automatic-pilot" driven reactions.

I would not be surprised if you find more than one instance in which you, a relative or a close friend is portraited in the book. Definetively a must-read for you and perhaps some family members or Colleagues

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. By Jill Bolte Taylor

It is said (rightfully so) that every story has different meaning depending on who tells the story. Well, this book is yet another proof of the veracity of such an statement.

You may know that you live your life in an integrated left-brain+right-brain manner. If you are a normal human being as I am (daringly assuming I am still one), then you cannot divorce these two interacting sides of your brain; you live your life as one. Have you ever imagined what would happen if you were to lose one half of your brain?... the left side?... or the right side?... what your perception of the world would be ? One could say that this is impossible to know... unless....

 This book is written by a brian-stroke survivor; significant damage took place during the stroke such that the entire left-hemisphere stopped working; so life had to be experienced by having the right-hemisphere active only. The author not only did not die; but came back to a full-recovery to narrate what the experience was like. She recovered 100% of her left-hemisphere and managed to integrate it back into her perception of life.

The fact that the author is a Neurologist and a PhD adds deep knowledge and formality in presenting a detailed description of her journey; back and forth. If you want to experience an unusual trip around the mistic nature of your brain, you will enjoy this book to a great extent. I did.

Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Unleashing Your Brain's Potential. By Richard Restak

This is a book written back in 2001; so it is not what I would call state-of-the-art. Nonetheless, it contains twenty-eight recommendations to better capitalize on your brain cognitive performance; and these are recommendations that remain valid and therefore useful. It is also a good general review about how the brain works and related functionality.
It is written in such a way (one chapter per recommendation) that reading is light and enjoyable. Each recommendation conveys sound and well-founded advice. Some are more credible than others; but hey, at one point, you need to shut down your left brain and let the right brain manifest itself.
If you are in your first approaches to study more on how our brains work, this is a good place to start.
In particular, I would recommend this book to engineers and executives (left-brain thinkers) that are curious about how to get their brains to work better.

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. By Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams

I decided to re-read this book again. Actually not so much of a full-read but rather reviewing my notes inside the pages. It was a worth exercise to go back and check how the predictions made by Don in 2007 are coming about in 2009 (ie, almost three years later). Certain things are right on the money; others are taking longer than expected. Nonetheless, the change is here; if not necessarily as predicted in this book, there is a massive change indeed.

I will recommend the book again. Just be aware that you will be reading "a film" the end of which you already know. The thrill of reading it back in 2007 is not replicable. However, it is worthwhile noting (I had forgotten) that the book is written in self-contained chapters; so you may select the chapters you are interested rather freely.

The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory. By Torkel Klingberg

Have you ever heard of the Flynn Effect? A description of how IQ (Intelligence Quotient) of people around the world is increasing at an approximate rate of 3% per decade (or 20 points in 60 years). How does this happen? Allegedly, because of the increased demands our environment places on our capacity to concentrate and control our attention to deal with such demands; the interaction between these two skills is related to a concept known as working-memory capacity. So if this change in our working memory capacity is induced by a non-controllable source of stimuli, does this mean that it can be trained? If so is the case, how?
I suspect that although there is a significant amount of fog around the issue from the scientific perspective, the answer is a hopeful YES hosted in the fascinating concept of brain plasticity.
I recommend the reading of this book to learn how you cope (or not) with the information overload that hits your brain every day; while you will not be able to magically step out of the distraction-attacks, you will gain consciousness as to what elements of your working memory capacity play a role. Being conscious about the relevant mechanisms may provide you with a better sense of control.
I enjoyed the reading of this book. It uses understandable colloquial language with a moderate scientific flavor to enhance credibility and formality of the concepts presented.

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. By Daniel H. Pink

The author makes some reflections as to the way in which we have been living our lives over the last few decades; he also discusses the talents that are recognized as competitive-distinctive. The left-brain nature of these talents is reinforced to set the stage for the main subject of the book.

Then, the driving-forces that are moving us from the so-called Information Era on to the Conceptual Era are identified. As it happens, these are forces that are already acting all over the place. Just look around you and you will see what the author means. Abundance, Asia and Automation; what a triad !!
So this means that it is time to reevaluate the talents that will ''separate the kids from the big boys and girls'' in the forthcoming (rapidly approaching) future. This goes beyond a mild transformation; it means truly thinking about the person that you want to be to face this future.
The author proposes six new senses that could assist you in shaping your new personality and talents; these are six senses that are heavily right-brain hosted. It touches some sensitive subjects (spirituality, happiness, etc.); but nothing too heavy nor too radical.It is NOT proposed that the right-brain talents will override the left-brain abilities; quite the contrary. The author refers to the complement of these two into the so-called Whole New Mind.This is a very nicely-written book. It is easy to follow and with an extremely colloquial language. It provides good notes and references to elicit further reading too.

Quote. About Power and Will

Strength does not come from physical capacity; it comes from indomitable will. Mahatma Ghandi.