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Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind
Harness your mind’s innate tendency to wander, stall, rest, and unfocus and become more productive—in the boardroom, living room, or classroom.
Named one of Coastal Living ’s Best Books for the Beach This Summer
To finish tasks and achieve goals, most people believe that more focus is the solution. We rely on to-do lists, calendar reminders, noise-blocking headphones, and sometimes medication to help us concentrate—even though these tactics often fail to substantially improve productivity. Drawing on the latest brain research, compelling stories from his psychological practice, and colorful examples of counterintuitive success from sports, business, education, and the arts, neuroscientist Srini Pillay, M.D., challenges traditional ideas about productivity, revealing the lasting, positive benefits of adding deliberate and regular unfocus to your repertoire . A fascinating tour through brain wavelengths and rhythm, mindsets, and mental relaxation, Tinker Dabble Doodle Try demonstrates how specific kinds of planned unfocus stimulate cognitive calmness, jumpstart productivity, enhance innovation, inspire creativity, improve long-term memory, and, of course, help you stay on target.
Tinkering with ideas and with things releases your mind to wander from a state of stuckness into a possibility frame of mind, triggering neural connections and new insights.
Dabbling in a new endeavor—whether a hobby or fantasy—disrupts your habitual and reactive thinking, helping you find new solutions to old problems.
Doodling can help you tap into another brain frequency to remove obstacles and create opportunities and inspiration.
With techniques for training the brain to unfocus, concepts for scheduling busy lives, and ideas for controlling this new cognitive-toggling capability, Tinker Dabble Doodle Try will change how you think about daydreaming, relaxing, leaving work unfinished, and even multitasking. What you’ll discover is a greater freedom, a deeper intelligence, and a more profound joy in your life.
Praise for Tinker Dabble Doodle Try
“Pillay’s effortless writing style, combined with an excellent balance of popular psychology and self-help, makes this a helpful read for those who enjoy a light dive into psychology with practical applications.” — Library Journal
“Pillay cites an intriguing range of brain studies to support his argument, and his case studies of individuals with whom he has worked provide useful insights.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Dr. Srini Pillay offers a brilliant, deeply researched, and even more deeply imagined blueprint for using one’s full mental armamentarium, conscious, unconscious, and all the undiscovered rest! A fantastic book!” —Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., co-author of Delivered from Distraction
“Dr. Pillay’s new book will help you create a new, fun, more playful destiny and unlock your brain’s inner potential.” —Daniel G. Amen, M.D., co-author of The Brain Warrior’s Way
“This book not only gives you license to step off the hamster wheel of focus, focus, focus, but it will show you how to strategically and productively do so.” —JJ Virgin, author of JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet
“This brilliant book shows how to manipulate your brain to alternate between intense concentration and deliberate mind-wandering.” —Mark Robert Waldman, co-author of How God Changes Your Brain
Named one of Coastal Living ’s Best Books for the Beach This Summer
To finish tasks and achieve goals, most people believe that more focus is the solution. We rely on to-do lists, calendar reminders, noise-blocking headphones, and sometimes medication to help us concentrate—even though these tactics often fail to substantially improve productivity. Drawing on the latest brain research, compelling stories from his psychological practice, and colorful examples of counterintuitive success from sports, business, education, and the arts, neuroscientist Srini Pillay, M.D., challenges traditional ideas about productivity, revealing the lasting, positive benefits of adding deliberate and regular unfocus to your repertoire . A fascinating tour through brain wavelengths and rhythm, mindsets, and mental relaxation, Tinker Dabble Doodle Try demonstrates how specific kinds of planned unfocus stimulate cognitive calmness, jumpstart productivity, enhance innovation, inspire creativity, improve long-term memory, and, of course, help you stay on target.
Tinkering with ideas and with things releases your mind to wander from a state of stuckness into a possibility frame of mind, triggering neural connections and new insights.
Dabbling in a new endeavor—whether a hobby or fantasy—disrupts your habitual and reactive thinking, helping you find new solutions to old problems.
Doodling can help you tap into another brain frequency to remove obstacles and create opportunities and inspiration.
With techniques for training the brain to unfocus, concepts for scheduling busy lives, and ideas for controlling this new cognitive-toggling capability, Tinker Dabble Doodle Try will change how you think about daydreaming, relaxing, leaving work unfinished, and even multitasking. What you’ll discover is a greater freedom, a deeper intelligence, and a more profound joy in your life.
Praise for Tinker Dabble Doodle Try
“Pillay’s effortless writing style, combined with an excellent balance of popular psychology and self-help, makes this a helpful read for those who enjoy a light dive into psychology with practical applications.” — Library Journal
“Pillay cites an intriguing range of brain studies to support his argument, and his case studies of individuals with whom he has worked provide useful insights.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Dr. Srini Pillay offers a brilliant, deeply researched, and even more deeply imagined blueprint for using one’s full mental armamentarium, conscious, unconscious, and all the undiscovered rest! A fantastic book!” —Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., co-author of Delivered from Distraction
“Dr. Pillay’s new book will help you create a new, fun, more playful destiny and unlock your brain’s inner potential.” —Daniel G. Amen, M.D., co-author of The Brain Warrior’s Way
“This book not only gives you license to step off the hamster wheel of focus, focus, focus, but it will show you how to strategically and productively do so.” —JJ Virgin, author of JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet
“This brilliant book shows how to manipulate your brain to alternate between intense concentration and deliberate mind-wandering.” —Mark Robert Waldman, co-author of How God Changes Your Brain
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
167 people are currently reading
1813 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
August 9, 2018
Il tuo lavoro dev'essere la tua passione. E l'unico modo di essere soddisfatti è fare un buon lavoro è di amare ciò che fai
Scorrendo tra gli scaffali di una libreria ho notato questo libro dal titolo direi "curioso". Non ho potuto evitare di pensare che fosse l'ennesimo libro ironico/stupido di cui non si sentiva la mancanza. Ma guardandolo meglio mi sono però accorto che gli intenti del libro siano in realtà ben più logici e razionali di quanto non sembri a prima vista.
Cerco di semplificare al massimo i concetti contenuti nel saggio (che è tutt'altro che breve e conciso, lo ammetto). Ci sono due modi di fare le cose: uno attento, concentrato e focalizzato all'obiettivo. Nessuno spazio per la divagazione, solo massimo impegno fino al raggiungimento di ciò che ci si propone. L'approccio opposto, ovviamente preferito dall'autore del libro, è quello dell'impegno bilanciato da momenti di riduzione dell'attenzione e della concentrazione
"Imparare ad alternare concentrazione e cazzeggio vi renderà rapidi, efficienti e produttivi nel pensare e nel risolvere i problemi. Trovare una routine che contenga entrambi gli aspetti è la chiave per migliorare il rendimento, esaltare la creatività e in generale raggiungere la felicità che tutti cerchiamo. Anzi, per quanto possa sembrare ironico, uno degli effetti collaterali del cazzeggio è che quando ne avrete bisogno farete meno fatica a concentrarvi. Per questo trovo che siano due facce della stessa medaglia"
Come ben dimostrano ormai vari studi, l'efficacia intellettuale e lavorativa non è affatto garantita dalla densità dei ritmi lavorativi. Per essere più produttivi, incredibilmente, bisogna lavorare meno e cazzeggiare di più; ossia fare spesso pisolini rigenerativi (il sonno libera l'inventiva), camminare o fare sport (muoversi scatena la creatività), pensare di essere qualcun altro (serve a pensare fuori dagli schemi), fantasticare (favorisce la curiosità), parlare da soli (riduce lo stress).
Ma non è tutto, ovviamente. L'efficacia passa anche per il saper riconoscere i propri errori senza traumi e imparare a superarli, saper guardare con attenzione in modo estensivo oltre che intensivo, saper prendere le necessarie pause di riflessione e, soprattutto, inseguire le proprie passioni.
Ed effettivamente ci sono esempi illustri di società che, facendo tesoro di queste poche regole, stanno facendo la differenza in termini di innovazione e sviluppo (cito a caso: Google, Amazon, Apple etc.) rendendo i propri uffici dei luoghi dove l'alternanza tra lavoro e svago è una regola.
Sicuramente facile da raccontare, ma non immediato da realizzare, visto che il cambio culturale necessario è tutt'altro che banale. C'è differenza tra cazzeggiare per essere più efficienti in ciò che si fa con passione e il cazzeggiare per evitare di fare ciò che si fa con disgusto.
May 6, 2017
TINKER DABBLE DOODLE TRY by Srini Pillay, M.D., left me a bit puzzled. This book was intended for a target audience that obviously does not include me. I am so unfocused I find it difficult to write a review of this, or any other book. Yet I manage to do so on a regular basis. How you might wonder? Simple. I mastered the art of letting my mind drift off from the problem at hand, roam about my mental pastures, forests and rivers, and allow nature to take it's course. When I come back to the problem or situation, there is usually a solution waiting for me, gift wrapped and ready to be opened.
And more often than not, even I am surprised by what I find.
With the modern world insisting we become spectators every waking moment, I understand how you can be so caught up in your electronics that you are rude to your friends, dining companions, co-workers, or strangers you should be interacting with, but fail to recognize as being important.
I think the central concept here is many people have given up their right to self-control and fallen into the trap of being connected all the time. The joke is, being connected virtually means disconnecting in actuality.
In the military we learned about seeing in the dark. With a very limited light source as your point of reference, it is difficult to see the thing you are looking for if you stare right at it. However, by looking gently away from the object your are trying to see, by looking just to the left or right, you allow your peripheral vision to take over and you can make out the thing to a greater degree.
Same principle here. Stop focusing so hard on what you are trying to achieve and perhaps you might find the correct path to your destination.
And more often than not, even I am surprised by what I find.
With the modern world insisting we become spectators every waking moment, I understand how you can be so caught up in your electronics that you are rude to your friends, dining companions, co-workers, or strangers you should be interacting with, but fail to recognize as being important.
I think the central concept here is many people have given up their right to self-control and fallen into the trap of being connected all the time. The joke is, being connected virtually means disconnecting in actuality.
In the military we learned about seeing in the dark. With a very limited light source as your point of reference, it is difficult to see the thing you are looking for if you stare right at it. However, by looking gently away from the object your are trying to see, by looking just to the left or right, you allow your peripheral vision to take over and you can make out the thing to a greater degree.
Same principle here. Stop focusing so hard on what you are trying to achieve and perhaps you might find the correct path to your destination.
June 8, 2017
(I received this book as Goodreads give away.)
“Tinker Dabble Doodle Try” was a disaster. I feel as if Pillay could have written a useful book, or even a useful number of books, but instead he tries to cram too many disparate ideas into a single text. The result is something very disjointed and shallow. The book is part affirmational self help, part office-productivity self help, part overview of contemporary psychology, part introduction to cognition, part New Age squishiness, and part biographic case study collection. I feel as if Pillay could have dealt with nay one of these topics and written something useful, but the end result is a mess.
I don’t know what the book was about. Or rather I know the book is about “unfocus” and the “power of the unfocused mind”. The problem is “unfocus” becomes shorthand for anything other than intense concentration. Sometimes it is expressed in half-useful metaphors, like how we need to use our brain less like a fork, and more like a spoon. Sometimes it takes the form of practical information such as the suggestion to take breaks every few hours in order to maintain productivity. Sometimes it takes the form of bizarre suggestions such as resolving “horizontal conflicts” between our current selves and our future selves (P. 166).
Some part of the book are useful, especially the purely practical suggestions such as the need to take power breaks or how doing new activities (even as small as driving home an alternate route) is mentally healthy. Unfortunately these useful bits are buried beneath so much irrelevant and vague garbage that finding them is not worth the effort. And, anyone remotely interested in stress, psychology, or efficiency will probably have heard these suggestions before. I know I have.
Another useful feature of this book are some of the studies mentioned. Nearly every psychological claim is backed by a paper cited in notes. Unfortunately, engaging these is also not worth the effort. Here too Pillay is all over the map, to the point where sorting out the useful from the fluff is too much work to be justified. His references range from the famous double slit test (in physics) to a ridiculous claim that all our brains are connected as part of a “unified consciousness” via electricity (P. 202). It almost feels as if Pillay aggregated all the findings of the psychological community in the past ten years, and decided he wanted to mash them into a single book.
Ultimately “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try” tries to accomplish a half dozen tasks, and as such falls flat on all of them. If you are interested in increasing your productivity, lessening stress, learning about new psychological developments, reading about entrepreneurs and artists, or anything else, please pick up a book on those subjects. I read this book here and came away with a half dozen anecdotes. It is not worth your time.
“Tinker Dabble Doodle Try” was a disaster. I feel as if Pillay could have written a useful book, or even a useful number of books, but instead he tries to cram too many disparate ideas into a single text. The result is something very disjointed and shallow. The book is part affirmational self help, part office-productivity self help, part overview of contemporary psychology, part introduction to cognition, part New Age squishiness, and part biographic case study collection. I feel as if Pillay could have dealt with nay one of these topics and written something useful, but the end result is a mess.
I don’t know what the book was about. Or rather I know the book is about “unfocus” and the “power of the unfocused mind”. The problem is “unfocus” becomes shorthand for anything other than intense concentration. Sometimes it is expressed in half-useful metaphors, like how we need to use our brain less like a fork, and more like a spoon. Sometimes it takes the form of practical information such as the suggestion to take breaks every few hours in order to maintain productivity. Sometimes it takes the form of bizarre suggestions such as resolving “horizontal conflicts” between our current selves and our future selves (P. 166).
Some part of the book are useful, especially the purely practical suggestions such as the need to take power breaks or how doing new activities (even as small as driving home an alternate route) is mentally healthy. Unfortunately these useful bits are buried beneath so much irrelevant and vague garbage that finding them is not worth the effort. And, anyone remotely interested in stress, psychology, or efficiency will probably have heard these suggestions before. I know I have.
Another useful feature of this book are some of the studies mentioned. Nearly every psychological claim is backed by a paper cited in notes. Unfortunately, engaging these is also not worth the effort. Here too Pillay is all over the map, to the point where sorting out the useful from the fluff is too much work to be justified. His references range from the famous double slit test (in physics) to a ridiculous claim that all our brains are connected as part of a “unified consciousness” via electricity (P. 202). It almost feels as if Pillay aggregated all the findings of the psychological community in the past ten years, and decided he wanted to mash them into a single book.
Ultimately “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try” tries to accomplish a half dozen tasks, and as such falls flat on all of them. If you are interested in increasing your productivity, lessening stress, learning about new psychological developments, reading about entrepreneurs and artists, or anything else, please pick up a book on those subjects. I read this book here and came away with a half dozen anecdotes. It is not worth your time.
April 3, 2017
This was quite the book! Loved it on many levels starting with the fact, that I always don't have to be focused, and "on-task". This book shows you why it's absolutely fine to be in "productive" unfocused states. If you feel like you are getting no-where, one step forward and ten back towards your goals, and where you thought you'd be at in your life right now. This book sums it all up; extremely well written and easy to understand, even with some scientific jargon in there! Dr. Pillay definitely wrote a winner with this book! My favorite part was the conclusion, which is making me so look forward to changing things up in my life. Part of one sentence stuck out at me like it was *highlighted* on the page just for me. It says: [Suppressing or repressing self-doubt is far inferior to replacing it with] *acceptance of mystery, possibility thinking, intuition, spontaneity, and operating from your psychology COG! Yes! I am ready to do all those things! Thank you for allowing me to be a Goodreads winner, I enjoyed this book thoroughly!
June 2, 2017
I started out on this book thinking it was about tinkering, as in building stuff. I quickly figured out that wasn't the case, but became interested. The author is a neurobiologist and was backing up a lot of his ideas with science from his experience and research. There were even a few pretty interesting ideas. But by the middle of the book it was pretty much the same as The Power of Positive Thinking, and at times almost like The Secret. It slid from a rather lofty and interesting scientific point of view to what seemed to me to be generic self help fluff. The science wasn't even interesting or convincing any more. I got the feeling that he very much confuses correlation and causation. Maybe that is misunderstanding on my part, but it still erroded my confidence.
So I quit.
So I quit.
March 23, 2017
I got an advance copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I absolutely loved it.
Dr. Pillay's writing style is extremely approachable and the science is presented in easily understandable terms. Unlike some books on the subject, your eyes won't glaze over as you trudge through pages of data. The recommendations are easy to follow and very effective.
I HIGHLY recommend this book. Especially so if you've been struggling with focus and productivity.
Dr. Pillay's writing style is extremely approachable and the science is presented in easily understandable terms. Unlike some books on the subject, your eyes won't glaze over as you trudge through pages of data. The recommendations are easy to follow and very effective.
I HIGHLY recommend this book. Especially so if you've been struggling with focus and productivity.
April 30, 2020
Ooo. Ok so the ending was very strange. He started off seeming scientific but by the end I was convinced he was a nutter. We move faster than evolution. What? I'm so confused that's like against the whole point. And also I got kinda bored towards the middle. But it had some interesting ideas and was really affirming to read. I mean who doesn't want to hear it's okay to be lazy you are just harnessing your unfocused mind.
March 29, 2017
Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind is a perfect book for me to improve my unfocused mind. I feel like I'm always struggling with productivity. I don't get the things done that I need to finish. This book open my mind on how to improve my focus and productivity.
I highly recommend.
Thank you to Net Galley for an ARC of this title.
I highly recommend.
Thank you to Net Galley for an ARC of this title.
May 2, 2017
If you have even a passing interest in how the human mind works, this is an interesting book. If you are an adult with a job, a family, and an amorphous feeling of overwhelm or disconnect from your true creative self, it's an invaluable handbook. Dr Pillay offers strategies that are beneficial to everyone. I plan to get copies for both my grown children. Highly recommend!
October 5, 2019
I hate to say I couldn’t finish the book. To be fair, if the info provided was the first time I had heard about it, I may have rated the book higher. With that said, if you want to unlock/restart/revamp your creativity, I recommend The Artist’s Way. Morning Pages will exercise HARD your unfocused mind... in a good way.
October 14, 2017
This is an interesting synthesis of focus, flow, and attention research that morphs into some handy tricks, but there's nothing really new.
December 14, 2017
This book about the benefits of unfocus needed more focus! It seemed to be all over the place and tried to cover too much. I was looking for fewer scientific studies and more practical tips.
March 13, 2022
Opening promised to teach unfocus and delivered in spades; last chapter changed the book into a discussion of the philosophy of greatness.
The first two thirds of the book were superb. I understand the desire to go on with a different subject, and.. it wasn't the subject of this book.
So, suggest stopping before the last chapter. Sorry to the author, the last chapter is well written in shorter less connected segments and it feels like a different book.
But the first five chapters are good to remarkable.
Chapters 1 and 2 discuss cutting edge neuroscience in immediately practical ways. Brilliant!
Chapter three on dynamic learning and resilience is fascinating .. a never before seen x-ray of the modern brain.
4 on multitasking versus supertasking is new material to most everyone and fascinating.
5 on possibility thinking is less rigorously structured and more philosophical, with a looser feel. The intriguing idea of motivation as an accumulation of brain circuits is new too, and fascinating.
I could have skipped the final chapter 6.
Overall the metaphor of neuroscience and materialism is revealing and insightful to play with regardless of your views on the nature of consciousness. He does mentioned a magnetic theory of consciousness in chapter six but doesn't really go anywhere with it.
It's a very good book. It should get four stars.
But it seems to have another book's chapter on the end, regrettably.
I highly recommend the first four of six chapters.
EDIT: Increased from three to four stars because the theory of motivation as marshalling brain circuits together labelled as "I" in chapter five is truly origjnal, remarkable and operationally valid.
The first two thirds of the book were superb. I understand the desire to go on with a different subject, and.. it wasn't the subject of this book.
So, suggest stopping before the last chapter. Sorry to the author, the last chapter is well written in shorter less connected segments and it feels like a different book.
But the first five chapters are good to remarkable.
Chapters 1 and 2 discuss cutting edge neuroscience in immediately practical ways. Brilliant!
Chapter three on dynamic learning and resilience is fascinating .. a never before seen x-ray of the modern brain.
4 on multitasking versus supertasking is new material to most everyone and fascinating.
5 on possibility thinking is less rigorously structured and more philosophical, with a looser feel. The intriguing idea of motivation as an accumulation of brain circuits is new too, and fascinating.
I could have skipped the final chapter 6.
Overall the metaphor of neuroscience and materialism is revealing and insightful to play with regardless of your views on the nature of consciousness. He does mentioned a magnetic theory of consciousness in chapter six but doesn't really go anywhere with it.
It's a very good book. It should get four stars.
But it seems to have another book's chapter on the end, regrettably.
I highly recommend the first four of six chapters.
EDIT: Increased from three to four stars because the theory of motivation as marshalling brain circuits together labelled as "I" in chapter five is truly origjnal, remarkable and operationally valid.
August 6, 2018
My primary take-away line is that "Suppressing or repressing self-doubt is far inferior to replacing it with acceptance of mystery, possibility thinking, intuition, spontaneity, and operating from your psychological [center or balance point]." (p.201)
Echoing the review Debbie wrote: I too was looking for more explicit practical tips. The absence of deliberate shallow sleep by way of a nap surprised me; elsewhere I read about, Einstein I think, napping while holding an object so that the object fell and woke him when he drifted too far unfocused into sleep.
Unfortunately, while there are tips present, what appear to be chapter summary sections headed 'Putting it all together for [some purpose never previously named]' often start including all-new content in addition to sorting (through another filter) recent material.
Or my mind is so (un)focused that I failed to follow this book?
Echoing the review Debbie wrote: I too was looking for more explicit practical tips. The absence of deliberate shallow sleep by way of a nap surprised me; elsewhere I read about, Einstein I think, napping while holding an object so that the object fell and woke him when he drifted too far unfocused into sleep.
Unfortunately, while there are tips present, what appear to be chapter summary sections headed 'Putting it all together for [some purpose never previously named]' often start including all-new content in addition to sorting (through another filter) recent material.
Or my mind is so (un)focused that I failed to follow this book?
July 11, 2018
Read by the author, who has a pleasing voice and British accent, but the natural rise and fall of his voice is not suitable for narrating audiobooks as many of his sentence endings dropped below a mid-level volume. Very hard to listen to with ambient noise in the room.
The book itself is quite interesting. Pillay provides some food for thought and re-frames the mental visualization bandwagon for the modern tinkerer.
Favourite quotes:
"Taking breaks to allow thoughts to congeal is one of the most important aspects of a true education."
Focus Tinker Focus Rest Focus Dabble Focus Try = use unfocusing moments to reenergize your brain
"Each mistake is a clue to the next step, no matter how rugged the terrain of your learning journey."
"Be stubborn and flexible... You don't have to be one thing only."
The book itself is quite interesting. Pillay provides some food for thought and re-frames the mental visualization bandwagon for the modern tinkerer.
Favourite quotes:
"Taking breaks to allow thoughts to congeal is one of the most important aspects of a true education."
Focus Tinker Focus Rest Focus Dabble Focus Try = use unfocusing moments to reenergize your brain
"Each mistake is a clue to the next step, no matter how rugged the terrain of your learning journey."
"Be stubborn and flexible... You don't have to be one thing only."
February 16, 2021
In the rush to be productive, modern life has taught people that they need to be more focused. To double down with to-do lists, streamlining schedules and "hustle." Neuroscientist Srini Pillay, M.D., argues that deliberate and regular unfocus play can stimulate cognitive calmness, jumpstart productivity, enhance innovation, inspire creativity, improve long-term memory, and, of course, help you stay on target.
Why I started this book: Fun title. Plus I have been reading books about rest, burnout and boredom for the past year, searching for answers and explanations.
Why I finished it: Quick book, and while the research was interesting, I won't be returning to this title... even if I give myself more permission to daydream and walk without purpose.
Why I started this book: Fun title. Plus I have been reading books about rest, burnout and boredom for the past year, searching for answers and explanations.
Why I finished it: Quick book, and while the research was interesting, I won't be returning to this title... even if I give myself more permission to daydream and walk without purpose.
July 12, 2022
I got this book after I saw @drsrinipillay speak at the @goop summit in LA last year. Dr. Pillay delivers an interesting message about summoning creativity by playing, resting, and free-thinking. We often find new connections and insights when we allow ourselves to try new things, practice hobbies, and get out of the norm. Memories are solidified and learning is strengthened because we subconsciously associate new knowledge with new experiences. So flow and grow! I loved the book mostly because it aligns so well with my research on Flux Agents. Highly recommend!
#books #reading #tinker #dabble #doodle #try #creativity #learning #growthmindset #fluxagents #psychology
#books #reading #tinker #dabble #doodle #try #creativity #learning #growthmindset #fluxagents #psychology
November 11, 2017
Some really solid advice in this book, which I will apply to my own journey as a creative person who often gets stuck. I'd recommend it for sure with one caveat - a lot of scientific data and findings from studies, which I found a bit heavy. I tend to process info better from anecdotes, so I enjoyed the parts where the author told stories to emphasize his points rather than citing studies. That said, overall a good book. I listened on Audible.
January 3, 2018
This is a fantastic book for anyone looking to be more productive at learning and creativity. It debunks the whole idea of left brain / right brain thinking, and shows whole new research that proves anyone and everyone is creative. It gives you permission to play (dabble) and take breaks when studying because there is evidence you perform better doing those things. It is a fun read that informs and enlightens.
October 26, 2017
A very readable and enjoyable introduction to the power of unfocus. This is a great introduction to the science and techniques of being more creative. There were many "aha!" moments for me as I read this. It helped me understand why I do some of the things I already do and how to get better. Practical and fun!
December 10, 2017
DNF I was trying to listen to the audiobook which is read by the author. He made the mistake many authors do — thinking anyone can perform a book. His reading voice is so bland and monotonous that I can’t focus on it without falling asleep. Moreover, it sounded as if he was offering old news on this subject, as other reviewers have noted.
May try to read print version.
May try to read print version.
May 16, 2020
Прочитав эту книгу, я увидела, что большинство оценивают ее в три звезды, как и я. Обычно я довольно щедра в своих оценках, но здесь книга показалась мне средненькой. С вкраплениями интересных примеров. Мне понравился пример про невидимую гориллу. И про шеф-повара. Но на протяжении всей книги автор эксплуатирует одну идею расфокуса сознания, повторяя ее и так, и эдак. Хочется больше разнообразия.
December 19, 2020
I guess a book on unfocus cannot have a focused structure. But can you listen to a book in an unfocused way? I found it mostly hard to concentrate on listening and at times couldn't follow the authors reasoning. I still took away some valuable insights like "multitasking happens through unfocus not focus".
March 7, 2021
I read this on suggestion from someone in a discussion group that I am in. A really good book to reflect on why we push ourselves to focus and productivity, and how actually some of the best ideas come from when we are not trying to look so much. I strongly suggest this for anyone really struggling with conceptualizations of productivity in the pandemic.
September 20, 2019
Dont understand the weird reviews of this book. This is the best book!! Creative fun with good explanations of why to try these strategies. I figured out years ago that a few minutes with video games made it easier to focus when I return to tasking. Loved it..
January 23, 2024
I think the most interesting thing about this book is that it meanders and wanders like his prescribed nature walks to disorder and re-order the mind. The problem is, I'm not sure if they meant it cleverly or if the subtlety was an accidental byproduct of the chaos of unsolidified ideas.
August 28, 2017
This is an interesting read full of anecdotal examples. But on the whole, I'm not convinced that what he proposes is all that useful.
September 29, 2017
Written for highly-focused, non-creative-leaning people who need to learn, through logic, rhythms of contract/expand (he calls it focus/unfocus).
November 6, 2017
This was a great book. I picked it up from the new release section at the library on a whim so I had no idea what to expect. I really enjoyed it
March 4, 2018
Buen libro
Buena mezcla de investigación y consejos prácticos que cualquiera puede usar en su vida diaria para mejorar.
Uno de mis favoritos!
Buena mezcla de investigación y consejos prácticos que cualquiera puede usar en su vida diaria para mejorar.
Uno de mis favoritos!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews