Blind Them… with SCIENCE!
How much better would your life be if you had an army of Nobel Laureates, MacArthur ‘geniuses’ and National Medal of Science winners whispering tips in your ear about your body language, or how to resist that impulse purchase you’ll regret tomorrow, or when to sell your car - or even helping you trick your spouse into doing the dishes?
With this mighty little tome, you can have the next best thing - because Brain Trust is packed with bite-sized scientific wisdom on our everyday challenges, hand-delivered to you direct from the galaxy’s biggest brains. Based entirely on interviews with an incredible lineup of luminaries from the fields of neuroscience, economics, anthropology, music, mathematics, and more, Brain Trust is full of cutting-edge science that’ll help you see the real world better - and smarter.
Discover:
…And much, much more.
Download the accompanying reference guide.
©2012 Garth Sundem (P)2012 Random House
"Sort of scattered"
A couple of gems but mostly passing fancies. Unless you have perfect recall you will not find most of the topics useful. However, it is a good exercise in "outside looking at human behavior on the inside."
QUESTION : DOES LISTENING TO AUDIO BOOKS MAKE YOU SMARTER? If so, I'm. Freakin Genius!
"Science, Facts, and Fun, Oh My! A Must Read"
At the top. I don't usually like books when the author is also the narrator, but Garth Sundem does a great job.
He sounds like he is having a blast, and his enthusiasm is contagious.
There is an immense amount of valuable information. That is I found both practical and useful.
This question does not apply to this book.
Did I cry? That would be a big NO. Did I laugh? That would be a big YES!
I would highly recommend this book. It was both entertaining and educational.
"Awful"
It's really, really bad. The author narrates the book himself, and he comes across as a "what's up dude" college freshman more than he does an adult of any kind, much less an author of any reputation.
The content itself should include some kind of critical approach as it is all scientific research that is not necessarily confirmed as accepted fact. Instead he unquestioningly presents a snapshot of all the most popular psychology/science/behavior books popular over the last few years as if all of it is as certain as the sun coming up tomorrow. Add to that his sophomoric manners, and the book is completely unbearable.
This is one of maybe two audio books I've ever purchased that I couldn't bear to finish - it's that bad.
Norwegian, creatomaniac and a lover of fantasy and adventure audiobooks. I usually put one on while I am making whatever takes my fancy.
"92 funny secrets, and one silly one."
I found this interesting and funny. Little wizard ways to improve your life in a myriad ways, and well told.
Find out how to hack your life, but bring a notebook, for here the secrets come fast and hard.
"Fun, interestion, not bad"
I liked it but then I like this kind of book. It's a little Malcolm Gladwell mixed with the science facts you might see on the evening news. About half of it won't apply to most of us but interesting none the less.
"Tedious"
As I believe some other reviewers have mentioned, if you read this sort of book often, you won't find much new material here.
Maybe I'm too close to the industry, but I was struck by two things:
1) I felt like I was reading a book proposal.
2) Authors, DON'T read your own text unless you are acknowledged as an excellent reader of your work. (David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, etc.)
Summation: An aging frat boy's guide to science. At times this book makes People magazine look literary . . . Dude . . .
A waste of time and credits unfortunately.
On a positive note, if you're interested in this sort of book, Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahnemen was BEYOND brilliant. One of the best books I've read in years.
"Sorry this was a boring read for me"
no
no unless the book was given to me
I listened a little longer than I would have if I read the book.
regret that I bought it
I think a person has to be into this type of book to find it interesting. (I was influenced by the raves that audible posted and bought it after hearing a small sample) The writing itself appeared to be well done. The reading was also well done but the subject matter was the problem for me. It may be a fascinating read for someone else but for me it was a snooze.
"PDF?"
This is a fantastic audiobook that gives a ton of great and interesting advice for understanding and conquering the world around you. The only thing holding this book back from a 5-star review is the attached PDF mentioned in the book, which does not appear here. Dang.
"Junior Chit Chat"
Complete rewrite, narration by someone else with much less fake excitement.
Nope.
Extremely amateur, disturbingly college-hype talker. This is not a book; but an exaggerated low quality talk you can listen to at a coffee shop near any college overhearing junior students. Awful. I very rarely write reviews; but this one deserves it. Just listen to the preview and read some other reviews, you will understand very well. I wish I had done that before purchase. Couldn't stand it even though I tried being patient and listen a few times. My worst Audible purchase ever.
Councilor Flynn
"Good if useless trivia is your thing"
The whole book is what do you think about ____________. followed by expert X says that it is exactly what you would expect. This is the first author that did an excellent job reading his own book! I would recommend he spend more time reading books for audio than actually writing them. His ablity to read in an interesting manner, like there was at some point going to be something useful to come is what got me to listen to the entire book.