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.