Not sure why I checked this book out of the library -- I've read the books of 75% of the authors, and was familiar with the material -- I ended up liking it a lot. Because it took the best bits of dozens of books I've read over the past five years and distills the ideas into a single volume. The problem for me, though, was the format. Though some of the material is essays by famous cognitive scientists, a lot of the sections are transcriptions of speeches given at assorted Edge Conferences. Whic...

First, I found this book an interesting one, it includes many topics in one book with some interesting points of views and researches. I enjoyed some of its chapters. However, the main drawback is that this book was written as it is based on conference speeches. So the language used and the way the topics been presented is meant to be for a conference speech not for a book. I found it difficult for me to follow and what it makes it more difficult is the fact that English is my second language.

Brockman compiled an excellent introductory reading for those wishing to understand contemporary theories and trends regarding thinking itself. Though some of the chapters may not be particularly accessible or relevant to everyone (such as those focused on forecasting), every single one accomplishes to be enlightening about the subject at hand--and from the words and works of the best people in their respective fields. Ultimately, this is a work tailored to get one thinking differently about thi...

As a book editor and novelist, I constantly have to remind my clients and myself that wondering is more interesting than knowing. Readers want to know, and writers like to teach, but what would happen to the author-reader interaction if, on the first page, we obligingly told readers whodunit, why, and the meaning of it all? Not knowing is what revs up our cognitive engines and moves us into new territory; knowing gives us a moment or two of satisfaction before shutting the engine back down. Even...

First of all, I really enjoyed the content of this book. It's essentially a collection of essays that appear to be transcriptions from verbal presentations at a conference. With that understanding, a reader can skip around to different chapters without missing anything. Although the pieces are connected through their relationship to thought and decision-making processes, a reader can pick and choose essays without having to read the whole book.While there was a lot of very interesting informatio...

Fascinating and very engaging - like being at a conference listening to these presenters.

An interesting book of essays that by all accounts feature the best responses to Edge.org's annual question. Whilst nearly all of chapters follow this format, one is in the form of minutes from one of Edges conferences.The subject matters focuses primarily on decision making with diverse discussions ranging from predictions, morality to philosophy. Each chapter is written by a distinguished thinker in their field, most of which do a good job of bringing their research down to a level that is rel...

"Thinking" is another collection by Edge.org's John Brockman, who specializes in getting leading edge people from various fields and putting them together - in discussions, in conferences and in books like this one. In this case, the topic is decision-making - how and why we make discussions, and to what end.My favorite section was "The New Science of Morality," a multi-faceted discussion of moral psychology by some of the leading thinkers in that field. The book is worth it for that chapter alo...

One of the Edge series of annual collections. This one is worth getting. I was so impressed by what I learned, and I still have 18 stickies marking the pages. I gave this to my science undergrad. niece when she came for Christmas 2014 and she just sat there reading it, so I'm not the only one who found it a page-turner. It's subtitle (New Science...) is a good summary and it has short essays from many of my favourite authors on this topic. It is unlikely you will read it and not learn something

This is a nice collection of works previously published on edge.org. Some of the pieces are transcripts from videos, so the writing is a bit clunky at times. In particular, I enjoyed reading: Smart Huristics (Gerd Gigerenzer) Essentialism (Bruce Hood) Testosterone On My Mind and In My Brain (Simon Baron-Cohen) Insight (Gary Klein) The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) The New Science of Morality (Jonathan Haidt, Sam

The first question you need to ask yourself is why are you reading this review? Is it because you are reading all reviews to gain a holistic, qualitative view or was my review the most recent posted or did it's title intrigue or all of the above? One of the least fair questions ever posed is, how do you make a decision? The tangled factors that go through our brains when buying a can of beans or deciding to marry or wrestling with a theory are of head scratching complexity.Perhaps I should share...

Enjoyed hearing summaries of papers and books I've read over the years from some of my favorite authors. The research papers, discussions and debates following each of the topics was excellently compiled thus a 4 star. I've added a couple more books to my 'to-read' list after completing this one.

usually I love these Edge collections, but this one was a bit tired: a lot of people just recounting research or things that are already familiar to me, which was fine if you're a fan, not so great if you're not. Still, some good essays in there and stuff I hadn't been familiar with, and some new ideas. Just not as much as I would've hoped.

A collection of informative talks, of a length you'd find at a conference attended by experts. Essentially a transcript of such an event, so the flavor words and the occasional stumble are there, intact. Most of these folks are familiar to each other and there are some references to "Tom's work", for example, so you may find yourself needing Google on occasion to fill in some background. Not necessary, but I found that helpful.Some of it exploratory, some familiar, some controversial - all fasci...

Please Note: This is a review for an advance copy.Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction is the newest Brockman essay collection featuring well-known cognitive scientists, psychologists, and philosophers on cognition, intuition, and moral psychology. While I was already familiar with most of these writers, there was still enough new material so it wasn’t like reading through a bunch of book summaries.Most of the essays were very well done; however, the Edge...

There is so much that could have been done to make this book better. I listened to the audio version of it and every single talk was cut off before it finished. Would have been nice to have the whole thing.Would have been nice to have two narrators. One to read the titles and introduction. The other to read the articles. That way I would know where one left off and the other begins. There was nothing but a brief pause. At least the narrator could have announced when he was reading the author's w...

Two takeaways - "Affective forecasting" Your prediction of how happy something will make you (e.g. vacationing at a certain resort, working at a particular job) is probably less accurate than a random stranger's experience with the same because humans are unable to anticipate all of the factors that determine happiness. "Intuition" Experience >> patterns - decision points and what should happen after a particular decision (i.e. you know what to watch, what to ignore, and what to expect) >> menta...

I love it when authors glean all the latest research and expert thinking for me, and then deliver it in a very readable package--entertaining, even. Watered down? No--I don't have time to find this level of info in every field that interests me. I'd say compact instead.I found some key nuggets. For example, info on prenatal levels of testosterone and the effect on our preference for systems or being empathetic seems to fit with how Jung described the two preferences people have for decision proc...

Lots of interesting observations and commentary from some of the more brilliant cognitive and behavioral psychologists around, ending with Daniel Kahneman. Brockman collected a series of speeches and talks that the various contributors did at conferences and presentations so the language is very casual as though talking directly to the reader which in a sense is what is happening. Lots of good ideas and explanations of why we think the way we do and why we are not as rationale as we think we are...

This is a collection of essays written by academics on the issues related to human thought and sometimes (un)-thought. It would be near-impossible to give a synopsis of the whole book. However, there was a good variety of essays. No two essays seemed the same and I can honestly say there were many gems contained in practically every essay. Also, the essays weren't merely promoting a raw physicalism or materialism, which I had thought would have been the case when I started reading. A great book