Gare

My library includes some 700 books, many about similar topics. This book is near the top. The central message of this book is that you must control your internal monologue to be effective in interpersonal interactions. The book had just the right amount of scientific data to keep a scientist interested, and just enough animated discussion to make it a delightful page turner.

I have been working on my internal monologue for many years, so this book came a bit late for me. But for those who suffer from brain ANTS (automatic negative thoughts), I recommend first that you read Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway, then this book and you will be much more effective in your daily life.

This book was both true to its title, and extremely eye opening. Dig deep, Dr. Brown uses stories effectively to show us the shell of conformity that constrains both our joy and our happiness. Love is not a feeling its a behavior. I strongly recommend it.

Gare Henderson

A very adult look at what I have been doing wrong in my life. A lot of new information, and some very fresh perspectives. It's funny, I'm not a typical nice guy. I'm strong, successful and have had a life of successful relationships. But, I still find that the women in my life are not carrying their weight especially in the bedroom. This book helped me to realize that many of my methods are flawed with unhelpful pride and crushing shame.

I would hope that there is a similar book written for women. But this book is an often uncomfortable but important read.

Gare Henderson

More that a bit self-satisfied, and glib with facts and statistics, this book opened my eyes to some amazing new technologies. The new information alone makes this book worth a listen. However, the authors missed the mark set by the title by a wide margin. Will technology really be able to save us, if we just wait long enough, and spend enough money? Only time will tell, although many of the innovations that these authors are so confident in will surely change the world...yet I fear that the changes will continue at a evolutionary as opposed to a revolutionary pace.

A good book that delivers a lot, albeit staged on a shaky premise.

Gare Henderson

This eye movement methodology of managing and intergrating memory is going to be huge. It opens the door to a wide array of both human and automated techniques for managing the mind and memory in particular. I found the presentation to be a bit whinney and the narrator seemed more emotional than a therapist perhaps ought to be, but the information is quite solid. I have already begun using the techniques on my friends who have recently undergone some emotional trauma.

Some will enjoy it much more than others, but most will benefit from reading it.

Gare Henderson

While many of the ideas have been covered in other books, this author handles the topics with a fresh sense of urgency, and a lot of good illustration. The message is an overlay of the old joke "how do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!", with the idea of learning to put your passion first.

There is no magic here, but an excellent personal trainer. Its worth a listen.

Gare Henderson

Thought is evolving both culturally, environmentally, and philosophically. So many of our current views, such as the appeal of spy movies as opposed to westerns, is a function of the philosophical evolution of thought. This book introduces you to many of the important thinkers that have at least documented this evolution, and in some cases led it. I enjoyed the book, but I was left with the documentation/creation dichotomy which I'm sure is both irreducible and dependent upon the limitation of my knowledge and my ability to understand in the context of my natural and cultural limitations.

However, that's the point of postmodernism, which can be described as a chipping away at certainty, and an increase in humility. There is no actual black/white but only those shades of grey that are senses and our minds can apprehend or comprehend.

A good read, and Nadia May always gives real authority to a work..

Gare Henderson

I would describe this book as analogous to a community brown bag feast. There were quite a few good bits, but equal amounts of dense tough inedible bits of uncertain origin. I think the author tried and failed to cover much to wide of a field, and in the end left me with more questions than answers. I did gain a better understanding of the nature and role of geometry in modern science. But the author's tendency to digress into quick recitation of abstract and abstruse formulas was extremely frustrating. I recommend this book to those who want to understand the history of science, although there are quite a few better texts available from Audible. I don't recommend this book to anyone who is looking to learn more about either Euclid or Geometry.

G.A.Henderson

The book starts slow and peaks in the middle, while the last few chapters were nearly worthless. There is a lot of good scientific overview in this book, yet the cultural bias of Pinker comes through so strongly that I often questioned the use of my time to finish the book. I have read many of the popular, and some unpopular, works on the same topic but this is one of the most hubris-tic of the lot. For me there was little new actual information, but lots of intellectual hubris and unsupported certainty. Additionally, this book fails to embrace much of the current thought on topics such as epi-genetics and the conscious/unconscious dichotomy as expressed in books like the happiness hypothesis.

If you are interested in this topic I do recommend that you read this book. However, you may want to prepare your self for Pinker's hubris by reading sex at dawn first.

I was particularly troubled by his attacks on other scientists, and the time he spends dragging their names through his mud. While after investing 20+ hours in this text I feel that I have been left with little of actual value, and even less that was memorable.

G.A,Henderson

The controversy in the reviews of this book speaks to its importance. As a committed Darwinian, who has been having a tryst with Lamarck-ism since the advent of epi-genetics, this book was a delight. It takes apart the accepted dogma on a variety of post Darwin science by examining the religious and cultural bias that is built into many of these theories.

I have read all of Dawkin's & E.O. Wilson's books, the modern scholar series on evolutionary psychology, and about 10 other popular texts from this emerging field.

This book stands out, not because of the excellence of its scholarship, but because of the depth of its skepticism and the author's willingness to challenge existing dogma.

At regular intervals, despite my habitual eschewing of scientific mirth, this book had me in aesthetic. I highly recommend this book, and I offer my personal thanks to the authors and the narrator.

Gare Henderson

This author is intelligent and mission oriented. He has taken the liberal line and found many cogent attacks on its margins and fissures. His tone is condsending, and he can be quite harsh. However, if you are a liberal I recommend this book to understand the conservative line. If you are a conservative this book will fit very well into your worldview.

He makes so good point about how the liberal model, that we can do better, is often at variance with actual experience. Yet, a good innoculation to his retoric would be the books; The working poor, and The new Jim Crow. These books counter all of the arguments that are passionately offered in this work.

However, all in all, I found this book to be informative and interesting.