Mastermind How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes [Paperback]

TheNew York Timesbestselling guide to thinking like literature's greatest detective. Steven Pinker meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Boston Globe), by the author ofThe Confidence Game. 

No fictional character is more renowned for his powers of thought and observation than Sherlock Holmes. But is his extraordinary intellect merely a gift of fiction, or can we learn to cultivate these abilities ourselves, to improve our lives at work and at home?

We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and inMastermindshe shows us how. Beginning with the “brain attic”—Holmes’s metaphor for how we store information and organize knowledge—Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology,Mastermindexplores Holmes’s unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it shows how each of us, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers. For Holmes aficionados and casual readers alike, Konnikova reveals how the world’s most keen-eyed detective can serve as an unparalleled guide to upgrading the mind.

“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…  practical and enjoyable.”
—Boston Globe

“An entertaining blend of Holmesiana and modern-day neuroscience.”
—New York Times
 
“A clearly written guide to the mysteries of logical deduction.”
—Dallas Morning News
 
“The book is part literary analysis and part self-help guide, teaching rl#q