Lối tư duy của người thông minh

by Art Markman

Tại sao Jame Dyson có thể tạo ra được một thiết kế mang tính cách mạng cho chiếc máy hút bụi? Làm thế nào Fiona Fairhurst có thể chế tạo ra loại đồ bơi làm đảo lộn hoàn toàn những kỷ lục bơi lội trên thế giới? Liệu những ví dụ về tư duy thông minh này có thể được giải thích bằng cái chúng ta vẫn gọi là trí thông minh bẩm sinh hay không? Tất cả câu trả lời sẽ nằm trong cuốn sách sẽ được Alpha Books xuất bản trong tháng 6/2013: Lối tư duy của người thông minh.

Không ít người có chỉ số IQ cao nhưng không đạt được những thành tựu tương xứng với tiềm năng sẵn có của mình. Thực tế những bài kiểm tra IQ chỉ là một chuỗi những câu hỏi và tình huống không giống với những gì bạn thực hiện ngoài đời. Chỉ số IQ cũng chỉ là những con số mà thôi. Nó không cho thấy người đó có thể tư duy thông minh hay không. Quan trọng là bạn phải sử dụng trí thông minh bẩm sinh của mình để giải quyết những vấn đề mới.

Tư duy một cách thông minh liên quan tới những kiến thức mà bạn sở hữu và cách thức sử dụng chúng. Tư duy thông minh cũng giống như đánh cờ, đó là một dạng kỹ năng chứ không phải là tài năng. Bạn hoàn toàn có thể học nó! Một kỳ thủ giỏi đã phải dành nhiều thời gian để tìm hiểu về mở cờ, kết cờ, thế cờ và những nước đi cụ thể. Tương tự như thế, người tư duy thông minh cũng phải hiểu được cách thức vận hành của bộ não, những thủ thuật và công thức của tư duy thông minh để sử dụng trong từng tình huống trong cuộc sống.

Lối tư duy của người thông minh chính là cuốn cẩm nang cho bạn những hướng dẫn nền tảng để có một tư duy nhạy bén và sáng tạo. Với những hiểu biết trong ngành khoa học nhận thức, Art Markman đã đúc kết nên những nguyên tắc thiết yếu của tư duy thông minh. Nguyên tắc: Thay thế thói quen giới hạn hiện tại bằng thói quen thông minh để tiếp nhận tri thức chất lượng cao và áp dụng những kiến thức đó khi bạn cần xử lý thông tin và giải quyết vấn đề trong cuộc sống tưởng như rất đơn giản nhưng không phải ai cũng hiện thực hóa được. Cuốn sách sẽ giúp bạn đạt được điều đó.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Self Help, Business, Productivity, Personal Development, Science

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Art Markman is a professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and is one of the premier cognitive scientists in the field. He served as director of the program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. Now, Art is Executive Director of the IC2 Institute. Art's research explores a variety of topics in thinking including how people use analogies, make decisions, communicate, and get motivated. He also consults to companies teaching their employees to think more effectively. That work is central to his books Smart Thinking, Smart Change, Brain Briefs, and Habits of Leadership. His newest book is Bring Your Brain to Work. When Art is not working or spending time with his family, he is playing the saxophone in a band.

Reviews

[Sue Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Welllllll. I can pretty much sum up this book in a few points - using the rule of '3' as this oh-so-helpful book suggests. Let's see ...

Reason's for Wanting to Read this Book.
1. Looking for clever ways to help yourself become a better _______ (fill in whatever here - astronaut, scientist, zombie).
2. Looking for smart ways to get past annoying,self depreciating behaviors (in 3 easy steps).
3. Looking for clear and concise ways of defining said problems, and solving them in an intelligent fashion.

What You Will Find in this Book.
1. Lots of fancy lingo
2. Lots of examples of other really smart people and their smart thinking
3. One chapter - that equates to 23 pages - with any added value. And that's pushing it.

What I Got Out of this Book.
1. Very little - other than a sense of wonder that Art Markman, Phd has made money on this.
2. The sad feeling that I was duped. It doesn't feel smart. Although I'm wonderously thankful that I borrowed this from the library.
3. I am much smarter than this book makes me feel.

What I Can Give to You as Smart Advice
1. Don't read this book.
2. Don't let anyone else read this book.
3. Use this book as a paperweight. On all your smart stuff.

[Doc Opp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because this book is marketed as a self help book, potential readers might overlook the fact that this is an excellent treatise on cognitive psychology. In fact, Markman is one of the best in the business at synthesizing and communicating what cognitive psychologists have learned about how the mind works, and that's on display here.

While there was little 'new' content-wise for me here, as I teach cognitive psychology for a living, I nonetheless appreciated just how cleverly and clearly Markman explains and applies various concepts. I found myself thinking that many of his examples, and the logic with which he lays out various principles were better ways of doing it than I've done in some of my lectures, and as such expect that having read the book will make me more effective at teaching Cognition. For folks who aren't as versed in the Cognitive Science literature, this will be a groundbreaking read, and folks like me who are already expert will still find much of value.

I was particularly enamored by his point that the nation's high school science curriculum (biology, chemistry, and physics) was set before Cognitive Science even existed. Because of inertia in curriculum, those same basic sciences continue to be taught, and cognitive science has never been added to the canon despite being really important for educated adults to know. This book makes nice strides towards filling that gap, and is an all around engaging and informative read.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book while driving to a business meeting (that never happened) and then back home. There's some very useful stuff in here, it's just that, unfortunately, this book doesn't really lend itself well to audio format. I say that not because the reader was bad (he wasn't), but more because this book is one that requires you to participate, and audio is a passive medium.

There are a lot of little activities and quizzes in this book, meant to gauge how you think about problems, that are next to impossible to do if you're listening to this, unless you have a lightning fast pause finger. Which I don't. My process: Wake up phone, unlock, access app, press pause... press pause again when the stupid touchscreen doesn't react -- GRRRR! This takes anywhere between 5-20 seconds depending on how sullen my phone is being at any given time. Not exactly conducive to participating in activities the book tells me to do. My phone is a jerk that doesn't want me to learn!

Anyway... There is a lot of good stuff in here, regarding tips for being more focused on learning new things, recapping them to yourself, taking overview notes, teaching yourself what you're learning, and learning to think abstractly and analogously about problems, all of which I found useful and will work into my life in varying degrees based on how relevant they are to me.

On the other hand, much of the 'causal knowledge' stuff doesn't really seem practical in everyday life.

Now, I'm all for learning and having a broad knowledge-base, but my brain doesn't always cooperate with me, and most of the time it feels like new info coming in pushes other info out. Do I need to know how a toilet works? I'm sure it's useful if I need to fix one, but in my day-job, it's not going to help me. I don't frequently (or… ever, to my knowledge) run into problems that would be solved by knowing how a toilet works. Or a lightbulb. Or a grain mill. And there's the crux of the major issue that I had with this book. It doesn't really advocate learning relevant or comparative info or skills based on what you're trying to do. In fact, this book clearly goes to lengths to show how someone trying to solve problem A is going to be much better able to do so by having specific knowledge of completely unrelated item/process/workings of thing B, and the ability to see the connection and relationship between the two.

For example, one of the quizzes given in the back half of the book describes a problem (paraphrasing here): A man has a tumor which is most likely malignant, but due to the location of the tumor in his stomach, surgery is impossible. The only option is radiation therapy to kill the tumor, but the same radiation will kill healthy cells around it. How you do treat the man?

The answer is to use a low level radiation beam specifically aimed at the tumor, which is apparently the same kind of solution used to fix light bulb filaments. The book then gloats that only 1 out of 10 people would get this solution on their own, but that most people would get it if the lightbulb filamet fix situation was fresh in someone's mind - in this case the tumor test was in chapter 8 (I think) while the filament thing was in chapter 4.

If you're wondering, I actually did think of aiming radiation treatments specifically at the tumor, but NOT because of the filament thing, but because that seems like the most common sense thing to do.

So, what this book seems to be getting at is: You never know what you may need to know in the future to form a mental analogy between completely unrelated problems. So know all the things.


That's not gonna happen. Not for me, anyway. I have enough trouble remembering the 8 million different tools, systems, processes, and concepts I may need in the course of my workday without trying to tack on how jet engines work in case I need to redesign a bidet in 10 years.

Still there are some good takeaways, and some things I already (sorta) do without realizing it, so for that, 3 stars. I think I probably would recommend this (if the reader doesn't mind a bit of repetitiveness), but I'd suggest the print version over the audio.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this tome in the bookstore, and I truly believe that I was led to this book the same way I have been led to other books that I have needed. I was looking for some help in devising an integrated system so that I can get more out of what I read. Reading is great, and if you are reading this you likely agree. I don't know many people with a Goodreads account who don't like to read.

But I wanted to get more out of what I read, and I have for years. The system I developed had worked sufficiently, but I wondered if I could make it more effective or even efficient. To do that I would need to learn more about learning and how the mind works.

That's where this book comes in, and it didn't disappoint. Dr. Markman is clearly an expert in his field, but he doesn't flash a bunch of data in a way that leaves the reader befuddled and confused. He writes in a way that seemingly complex concepts are easy to understand. And the ideas he presents explain pretty clearly how the mind works.

What I love is the way he boils it all down into about 3 ideas in each chapter. He does this because his own research shows that this practice aids learning retention. How much better would our own presentations be if we all followed Markman's Rule of 3? The whole book is just like that, filled with practical ideas that we can all use and tat are based on sound scientific research.

This book was an absolute joy to read, and I am so fascinated with it that I will be combing over it again in greater detail to learn more about the way my mind works and to incorporate as many of the ideas presented into my own system for getting more out of what I read. If you are looking to understand more about the way the mind works, you can't go wrong with this tome. I highly recommend it.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something between self-improvement and a primer on cognitive psychology. I liked it and will listen again and read a paper version.

There was an interval in the audio book when the narrator/reader mispronounced causal as casual, which should have been caught by a proof listener and corrected before release.

I recommend this book as informational reading for educators and engineers. Those who have read more than a few books on cognitive psychology are not likely to find anything new, but may appreciate the author's approach.

[Max Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

“A snoozer of a composition”

“Smart Thinking” was composed by Art Markman, PHD and claims to reach into the underlying ability to think, reason, make decisions, communicate, and take action all based in leading-edge science with news you can use. The composition never rises to the occasion. It rehashes innate intuitive human ability in a recipe type of layout as though the things that make people different are simply a matter of learning a new skill. Markman implies that with a bit of training anyone can invent a ‘Dyson Vacuum”; hardly! It is after all, a plainly decisive matter that some people are “thinkers” and others are not. If it weren’t so, the world would be overburdened with vacuum cleaners, or swim suits or other ingenious devices. The problem lies in the fact that, whether you are capable of learning thinking traits, putting them to use requires something altogether different. I have known many a superior thinker, who quite capably explained the blueprints of a spectacular idea, only to acknowledge he had no further idea of what to do with it. Reverse engineering the success of someone like James Dyson generally yields a plethora of would be traits that subtly suggest that such success can be learned; and it may well be, but learned by someone without the imagination to create something it will fall helplessly on a dunce.

In short, I found nothing profound about Markman’s work; no light bulb flashed on and I took away nothing from the recitation of traits that were intuitively clear to begin with. I thought that possibly, the book would have been better had it tried to discern what made Dyson different; not how to emulate what Markman thinks motivated Dyson in the first place for that belongs solely to Dyson.

In the end, I didn’t find anything remarkable about the information that Markman tries to instill in his narrative. It was after all, well, boring and in my opinion, useless; as it failed to even recognize that imagination, the motor of intelligence, is derived from substance that is rarely duplicated by training.

All and all I didn’t think that the composition was useful and was probably not going to be of value to anyone in changing anything that defines their motivation or imagination; certainly not their success.
I highly recommend that you spend your money elsewhere as this work will be a disappointment.

[Burke Ruder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would not recommend this book. Main ideas are made and then you are dragged on for another 25 pages. Read the chapter titles and main tips directly under the chapter title and send Markman 3 bucks. Save 12.

[Frank Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm impressed. There are many hints for becoming a better thinker, which can be used. Some areas covered are writing summaries after reading or being in a meeting, using the role of 3 (derive the 3 main points from anything), how to make connections and see similarities, improving your memory, using habits effectively, using your feelings or intuition when making decisions, and helping those around you to be better thinkers. Using proverbs is mentioned, as is knowing whether you decide too quickly or slowly. I listened to this one on Audible, and was able to get quite a lot out of it.

[DJ Nicke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written by a PhD who has spent more than 20 years studying cognitive science. He isn't telling us what to think, but rather HOW to think, and think smarter!

Good health requires learning about the body, eating right, and exercising. Mental health requires learning about the mind, feeding your mind with quality knowledge, and forming smart habits that make you more effective.
Reading this book will set you on the path to Smart Thinking!

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for Psych Central -- it's a great book! here's the review.

[Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came up on my Amazon account as a book that I would potentially like. I must compliment Amazon's algorithm as it turned out to be a great read and good match for me. Overall, it's a crisp and clear book that gives actionable recommendations (behaviors and thinking habits) to achieve a high standard of problem solving ability.

[Omar · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is horrible. It just gives you examples of other smart people and pointless tips that the majority of people already know like sleeping better but who doesn't know that? Long, boring and useless. The title should be renamed to "Examples of people who think smartly".

[Angela]

No new or exciting or actionable ideas... Going to be in the did not finish category

[Igor Putina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff, easy to put into good use.

[Russell Romney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Seemed floofy, redundant, and not really based in believable research. Floofy.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book easy to digest and written interesting enough to keep turning the pages. The book also follows it's own rules mentioned in the words itself, making the whole seem like one rehearsed lecture or presentation. Which isn't bad. Most key points mentioned is repeated in slightly different ways, following the 'three times to remember things' concept.
It is an enjoyable and informative book, however, I feel as a whole it is long-winded suggestion to write notes and concise everything to memorable chunks, literally something I learned in AP English class in High School, it's not groundbreaking. But might help someone else.

[Olivier G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. It’s been 4 years since I ordered and devoured the book. I now have the audiobook, the kindle book and the print edition. I find myself still going back to it, even though it’s extremely well organized and contains very few key ideas. But those few ideas are profound and very well explained. This book is a gem. One of the best book I’ve read on the topic of thinking, together with, maybe, David Rock’s Your Brain At Work and Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson. Thank you, Dr Markman!

[Michelle Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read the first chapter of this one for a class. I ended up finishing it because I thought it was so interesting! A lot of really good nuggets in this one, I need to get my hands on a physical copy!!

[Omar Said · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books i've ever read. Give me a good glimps about how our mind and memory works

[Achmad Wasil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book of problem solving 101

[Mahmoud Ghoz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is very week and almost didn't provide new information. The title and the book brief highly raise my expectations but nothing new

[Yangdexin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sự chấp niệm khiến mình cố gắng đọc hết cuốn sách này. Thực sự thấy giống đang đọc luận văn về khoa học tri nhận hoặc tâm lý học hơn là đọc sách ^^ Mình vẫn luôn tin cuốn sách nào cũng sẽ mang lại 1 giá trị nào đó, nên từ khi còn học Đại học, sau khi đọc xong mấy chục trang cuốn sách đã thay đổi 1 vài thói quen trong cuộc sống của mình, bây giờ sau khi học thạc sĩ đọc lại (thấy siêu khó đọc, vì lời văn rất khô khan và hàn lâm, nhiều thuật ngữ) nhưng cũng có kha khá giá trị, về giá trị của 3, cả một số tips áp dụng vào quá trình giảng dạy của mình nữa ^^ Phùu, cuối cùng cũng đọc xong cuốn này rồi

[Susan Visser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I seem to be on a trend of reading books about how the mind works! This one was the lightest weight of the books I've read, but it gave many very practical ways to simplify life by understanding how the brain works and to work with it, rather than against.

The brain has evolved to off-load as much work as possible from the conscious part to the amygdala. Think of the amygdala as the part of the brain that automates much of what you do everyday: breathe, blink, even drive to work. To simpilify your life, you should follow routines and smart habits to free up the higher functioning part of the brain.

An example that was covered in the book explains it well: most mornings you get up and follow routines to wash up, get dressed, and get to work. You may even forget the details, but it all gets done, easily. Contrast this to the times you are traveling and staying in a hotel. You can no longer go into automatic mode when you get up in the morning... you need to find what you need to wash up, look for light switches, and drive a car that is unfamilar to you to a location that is not part of your normal routine. Your brain will need to work much harder to deal with all these decisions that must be made and you may become mentally exhausted by the effort.

Make life easier for yourself and incorporate as many routines and smart habits into your life as possible. Keep your brain power for more important decisions.

Your brain has also evolved to group things into categories and to create assumptions about the characteristics of the things that belong in the group. This makes sense if you consider our ancestors had many dangers in their world and they needed to make instant decisions in order to survive. So, if they encountered a bear or other similar large animal, they'd know how to deal with it instantly. Such categories are useful but they can lead to discrimination and stereotyping in our current world. Use this knowledge of how your brain works to challenge your beliefs when making a decision to ensure that you are not letting confirmation biases cloud your judgement.

These are just some of the examples of what you'll learn in the book. It is one that I'll listen to again to make sure I pick up all the great tips offered in the book.

[Sal Coraccio · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the big bang for the buck for this book will be through the print version, and following along and performing the exercises as they appear - it makes a good showing though the audio version.

If you chose the latter vehicle, it is best to limit distractions and mentally, at least, stop and perform the exercises as they come up. It is about a 7 hour listen.

One of the early points in this book is that raw intelligence is merely an indicator of potential. Truly smart people can access that intelligence more readily and - the critical difference - act on it. The author uses plenty of examples for this, and other points similarly throughout.

It is a how-to book and covers the creation of smart habits; leveraging studies on how the mind is actually designed and how, for example, that bad habits can only be replaced with other, hopefully, "good" habits. It shows the value of consistent mapping and repetition. The machinery in our mind has evolutionary limitations and it is helpful to know them. One take-away here is that memory isn't designed for recall or recitation - its purpose is protection; to help keep us from making the same mistake twice. Our ability to recall events is hugely inaccurate and is influenced by many things. Even our ability to judge the effectiveness of our event recall is flawed - turn to science for the evidence of this.

The book covers, at length, advantages of, and techniques of how to, make self-explanations; to verify knowledge retention (writing reviews like this, btw, is one technique).

There is much made of making comparisons; reusing past experiences, and making analogies to interpret and package new experiences.

Lots of good here, and it would be really helpful to society in general if more people understood these basic principles of how the mind works. For starters, that memory doesn't do what one think it does- and that cognitive biases run havoc with our decision making processes.

Lastly, the book covers how to do exactly that; to help introduce a "culture of smart" within an organization.

Quite a worthwhile trade of about seven hours.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to fight my way through this one. While there were some interesting nuggets of information I didn’t find the content engaging enough to be memorable. Glad I’m finished and now moving on

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

To replace bad habits with good habits you have to have a replacement behavior; keep a habit diary to see what triggers your habit you want to change; just list the info then at the end of the week look for patterns; Rule of 3-we can only hold on to 3 items; Use advance organizers to activate background knowledge; always end with a summary; Acquiring knowledge requires WORK-there is no such thing as the Mozart Effect; To really learn we need DESIRABLE DIFFICULTIES; Develop a diagram for a problem you are trying to solve; Keep a notebook and write a summary of 3 things after each experience, meeting, article you read, etc.; Write out a statement of the problem to be solved; Be specific; What is your IMPLEMENTATION INTENTION?

[Courtney Lynn Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explains a great deal about your mind and how it operates. Did you know that you are draining your energy on things that should be small and insignificant aspects of your life? Me neither! It also explains the formation of habits, and outlines how to break from the negative ones. It all sounds like common sense but there is a great deal to be gained from reading it, trust me!

[Nadinastiti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will help you reduce unnecessary load from your life by making Smart Habits, maximizing your intelligence by acquiring High-Quality Knowledge, and help you Apply Your Knowledge by making comparisons from your own experience.

P. S. The words with capital letters are the key words of this book.
P. P. S. This book discourages multitasking.

[Anant Kanndpal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Repetitive - waste of time and money. The author stresses the importance of stories / examples for "smart thinking" yet he uses only a few himself which are repeated throughout the book. The book is filled with vague allusions & one wouldn't get nothing concrete out of it. Neither an interesting read nor a useful book.

[Ramesh Naidu · Rating 4 out of 5]

1 )Write down 3 ideas from the book in one sentence each and also write down how they connect to other examples / situations
2)Create smart habits using repetition and consistent mapping between environment/ time and desired action
3) there is a direct relationship between quality learning and understanding how things work so stoke your curiosity