Brain Rules

12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

By: John J. Medina

Narrated by: John J. Medina

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Most of us have no idea what's really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know - such as the brain's need for physical activity to work at its best. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget - and so important to repeat - new information? Is it true that men and women have different brains?

In Brain Rules, molecular biologist Dr. John Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule - what scientists know for sure about how our brains work - and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives.

Medina's fascinating stories and sense of humor breathe life into brain science. You'll learn why Michael Jordan was no good at baseball. You'll peer over a surgeon's shoulder as he finds, to his surprise, that we have a "Jennifer Aniston neuron". You'll meet a boy who has an amazing memory for music but can't tie his own shoes.

Visit brainrules.net/dvd to view videos mentioned in the book.

©2008 John J. Medina (P)2008 Pear Press

Enjoyed the narration and points

Maybe taste in narrators is similar to the way some people say cilantro tastes like soap. I thoroughly enjoyed the “squeaky” narration and the stories. It would be a pleasure to take classes from this prof.

Great Book!

A very brainy book by an entertaining scientist. Throughly enjoyed listening to it and I have recommended it to at least 5 other friends.

Because of this book I am now walking 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes per day. When you listen to this book and understand how 30 minutes a day of walking can make a difference it makes an impression. It is amazing how more motivating it is to walk for your brain vs. your figure.

Bottom line - download Brain Rules and go for a walk, you will thank Dr. Medina in the morning.

Excellent book, bad narration.

The text, gets 5 stars. The narration gets -1. This person may have the worst narrating voice I have heard here. While he sounds good in the sample, at times it sounds so high pitched, and scratchy that it gives me goosebumps just to remember it. The production and edition are also really bad. Truly awful.

Engaging

What made the experience of listening to Brain Rules the most enjoyable?

Learning about how the brain functions was interesting.

What about John J. Medina’s performance did you like?

Medina's voice was pleasant and the stories he shared were helpful examples so one can better understand each chapter of the book.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this book! I loved it!

Great book, interesting way of thinking

The book challenges you to think differently. There is scientific proof of what he recommends in the book to help improve your "brain/mind". There are times the he gets to far into the intricate details which loses the average lay person. But he practices what he believes works throughout the book.
If you are trying to improve your mind/thinking and that of your child's, I would recommend this book.
This book makes a good audible book due to the author's personality that comes across when he reads.

If you can get over the narrator... the book rocks

WHAT IS THIS BOOK'S FOCUS?
Neuroscience, biology, mental processes, memory, learning

DID THIS BOOK CHANGE HOW I VIEW THE WORLD?
Yes, though more in a "reminder" sort-of way than revolutionary changes. That said, there are some great resources available that this book helps make more accessible.

Brain Rules was really interesting. The value is extended beyond the actual time reading, since all the actually interesting information is available for free on the Brain Rules website. I took a number of key bits out and am trying to make use of several aspects to both improve my own mental functioning and improve the training given at work.

Medina, a molecular biologist, breaks out the book into twelve chapters, each of which is captured in a simple “brain rule”, the context for which is summarized at the end of each chapter. This format makes it easy to read (or listen to) each chapter at a time or go back and review certain aspects without much trouble. From a design perspective, this is a huge plus. The fact that there’s an accompanying website and that there is no necessarily linear design (though traveling through the rules in order helps) makes for an easy entrance into the “world of the mind”.

That said, there weren’t any particularly revolutionary ideas. Almost everything stated was familiar, but the reason behind these rules were well worth reading (minus a couple of chapters that focused more on purported pre-history savannah habits than anything applicable today). That exercise improves mental capacity is both relatively well-known and, if you understand what cardio-vascular exercise does, intuitive. That we don’t pay attention to “boring things” seems hardly even worth noting (but the counter-arguments were very applicable to education or presentations).

To be fair, this book is very easy to digest and, even if a reader/listener has never learned the basics of biology or the mind, accessible. Given the complexity of certain sections, this is a major coup. Medina makes it very clear at the start that his intent in writing the book is to drive further study of the brain and each of the rules in education, hospitals, the workplace: basically, everywhere. It seems his interest in spreading this research is driven by the implications of these rules, but he is very careful to say that they are more descriptive than prescriptive - they describe various aspects of the brain seen in studies, but are not yet well-studied enough to prescribe a given set of actions in response to a problem (at least, not with any way of evaluating the chances of success).

I’m biased towards a few of these rules - conveniently, someone else already decided to put a SlideShare presentation together called “Brain Rules for Presenters” - it goes through Rule 1, Rule 4 and Rule 10. In this presentation (again, I do recommend reading the book, but this presentation is a great, tongue-in-cheek tool) three items are discussed: the importance of exercise, the issues we have in paying attention, and the importance of vision in maintaining that attention/retention.

I believe most of us are sensitive to the fact that audio learning is not easy. In fact, my retention in listening to the audio book was pretty poor (it didn’t help that the narrator’s voice squeaked when he got excited - puberty strikes back?). That said, we also limit ourselves to providing audio or text only for numerous interactions each day: phone calls, emails and presentations can be overwhelming and difficult to recall. To-do lists? I’ve been trying to teach myself SketchNotes for just that purpose! (I ended up just buying the book… review to follow).

So, with that obvious little gem out of the way, and the fact that pictures make a big difference (right around an additional 50%), I figured you all may want to check the book out. As I’ve been evaluating the ways to encourage innovation and creativity in my organization, I’ve realized just how “rote” and painful learning has become to most people. HOW DEPRESSING! That’s not how it’s supposed to be.

I highly recommend checking out the Brain Rules site for videos and some audio. The book version that I listened to I would not recommend, if only because it was so irritating, but hopefully other elements of the site have a different narrator and are engaging. I haven’t spent a lot of time on it yet, but hope to incorporate elements of it into my work training, both to help people learn, inspire them to try new things and improve our presentations (for which we have a lot!).

Real eye opener

If you could sum up Brain Rules in three words, what would they be?

Who'd of thunk!

What other book might you compare Brain Rules to and why?

This is unique for me. I don't normally read books like this, but it was on the cheap through Audible so I thought I would give it a shot. So glad I did. the Author is a great orator and was very easy to listen to. The books went fast and was super informational. I walked a way packed with knowledge about the brain.

Which character – as performed by John J. Medina – was your favorite?

There was no characters. This was a informative book regarding the brain.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The adventure with brains.

Any additional comments?

Great narrator and author. Felt almost like I was in my favorite professors lecture. The author/narrator was super engaging.

Fascinating journey inside the brain

If you could sum up Brain Rules in three words, what would they be?

John Medina does a WONDERFUL job of taking the detailed and complex subject of brain science and makes it readily accessible.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Brain Rules?

The discussion of gender differences

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Why it's a beautiful mind

ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING BOOK

This is an extremely well written book that kept my attention the entire time, which is hard to do with non-fiction. The way he teaches scientific findings makes it so easy to remember them and absorb permanently. I found myself tracking people down to share things I learned. This is not for only brainy people, this was written for the average person who wants to learn brainy things and remember them. He is my hero. I do have one gripe though. The book starts out with the author reading in an extremely annoying way. His voice kept cracking like he was going through puberty. I almost returned the book because I just couldn't absorb the contents being so annoyed. But then, like magic, he fixed his voice and actually has a very pleasant reading style. Full of energy and enthusiasm. Just hang tough, get through that part and you will be so happy you did!

Outstanding in very way!

What made the experience of listening to Brain Rules the most enjoyable?

The authenticity of author narration

Have you listened to any of John J. Medina’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Nope, but I will

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, I did ... It made me take notes, do additional research, and blog!