Thinking

The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction

By: John Brockman

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Edited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, Thinking presents original ideas by today's leading psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers who are radically expanding our understanding of human thought.

Daniel Kahneman on the power (and pitfalls) of human intuition and "unconscious" thinking.
Daniel Gilbert on desire, prediction, and why getting what we want doesn't always make us happy.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the limitations of statistics in guiding decision making.
Vilayanur Ramachandran on the scientific underpinnings of human nature.
Simon Baron-Cohen on the startling effects of testosterone on the brain.
Daniel C. Dennett on decoding the architecture of the "normal" human mind.
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on mental disorders and the crucial developmental phase of adolescence.
Jonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, and Roy Baumeister on the science of morality, ethics, and the emerging synthesis of evolutionary and biological thinking.
Gerd Gigerenzer on rationality and what informs our choices.

©2013 Edge Foundation, Inc. (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[T]his book offers nourishing food for thought." ( Kirkus)

need more...

What did you like best about Thinking? What did you like least?

Heavy on generalities about the contributing fields and the resumes of those leading them, light on "take homes" from the various literatures. A few kernels, that's about it.

evolution is the bias

lots of reasonably known info.

the premise that evolution is a fact is disturbing and has not been proven this making the writer bias if not hypocritical.
Still, a lot of this has been studied and those parts appear to be consistent. Interesting at least

Great Subject Matter

Extraordinary conversations captured and worthy of further consideration. I found the work extremely valuable and my thanks to Mr Brockman for capturing these thoughts.

Disappointing

He has some interesting ideas, but at the expense of sitting through a gratuitous rant about religion, some self aggrandizement about his PhDs, and some basic grammatical errors (singular/plural). I was hoping for more substance on the topic of Thinking.

Delightful

This audiobook is quiet entertaining and enlightening. There is a ton of information regarding the workings of the mind as related to intuition, philosophy, morality, and evolution. Tom Perkins reads effortlessly. As I listened, my mind was packed with new concepts and thoughts that I have never considered.
I would highly recommend this audiobook to anyone interested in the science of the mind.