Description

No fictional character is more renowned for his extraordinary powers of mind than Sherlock Holmes. But what exactly is it that sets him apart as a detective of the highest order, and can we harness his genius?

In Mastermind, psychologist Maria Konnikova shows us how we can all channel Holmes’s famous powers of deduction, observation, memory and imagination. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that can help sharpen our perceptions, improve our logic and enhance our creative powers. Mastermind is a remarkable and entertaining guide to upgrading the mind.

Publisher Review

Ms Konnikova has that rare ability to make the complex easily understandable. And enjoyable, too. The reader is enlightened, and also entertained * * Business Times * * The book is part literary analysis and part self-help guide, teaching readers how to sharpen the ways they observe the world, store and retrieve memories, and make decisions * * Scientific American * * Weaving together the fictional detective's cases and modern day neuroscience... important for solving cases or simply staying sharp as we age * * Psychology Today * * A treatise on how the Watsons of the world can smarten up ... culled from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original works and cutting-edge psych research * * New York Post * * With wit and real flair, Konnikova suggests that by properly harnessing the great detective's [Sherlock Holmes] methods we can significantly improve our mental ability ... Konnikova offers a way to turbo-charge our mental faculties, enhancing creative thinking and developing our powers of logic * * Good Book Guide * * Based on modern neuroscience and psychology, the book explores Holmes's aptitude for mindfulness, logical thinking and observation... * * Washington Post * * Steven Pinker meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in this entertaining, insightful look at how the fictional London crime-solver used sophisticated mental strategies to solve complex problems of logic and deduction ... This practical, enjoyable book, packed with modern science and real-life examples, shows you how to get your inner Holmes on and is worth at least a few hours of pipe-smoking reflection in a comfortable leather chair * * Boston Globe * * Ingenious ... thoughtful ... covers a wide variety of material clearly and organizes it well * * Wall Street Journal * * Serves the non-Holmes aficionado as a route into the stories without any spoilers. And for those of us who have enjoyed the intellectual might of the great detective before, it gives us a fresh insight into Conan Doyle's deductive masterpieces * * We Love This Book * * Devotees of Arthur Conan Doyle's conundrum-cracker will be thrilled by this portmanteau of strategies for sharpening cognitive ability * * Nature * * Here is a giant helping of Daniel Kahnemann, a tincture of Atul Gawande, a whiff of Nassim Taleb, a dollop of Jonah Lehrer ... and the whole assemblage served, Heston Blumenthal-style, in a deerstalker hat -- Sam Leith * * Guardian * * An entertaining blend of Holmesiana and modern-day neuroscience * * New York Times * * Fascinating... A delightful tour of the science of memory, creativity and reasoning -- Steven Pinker