Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Thinking about thinking

But first, just a short aside about the rain, which returned with a vengeance after more than two dry weeks. I was actually looking forward to a bit of a sprinkle since it had been so long, but this very wet system we've been experiencing is a bit over the top. We've had more than an inch in the last three days, and it's still raining. I'm ready for a change.

However, the wet weather kept me inside all day Sunday, and I've just finished a very interesting book I checked out from the library. Last month I got interested in some books by Steven Pinker on how the mind works, and I wrote a post about his book back in April, entitled, "How the mind works." I found Pinker's book to be a bit on the dense side, but I read it all the way through and gained quite a bit of insight. My sister Norma Jean got me started down that path, and then a couple of weeks ago I visited the Village Bookstore, one of my favorite places to spend time (and money). I saw that a guy named Jonah Lehrer had a book marked #1 on the bestseller list. And it had such an interesting title: "Imagine." I perused the book with interest, but when I saw the price I put it back on the shelf, not before noticing that the author looks like a teenager! His website is very interesting and provocative, which has all kinds of links. Check it out if you're interested in this guy, who was indeed born in 1981! He IS a kid, almost. But he's also been a Rhodes Scholar and writes his own blog fittingly entitled The Frontal Cortex for Wired Magazine.

Now to the one I just finished. Lehrer wrote another book in 2009 called "How We Decide," which I checked out of the library to tide me over until his new book comes out in paperback. Lehrer is no Pinker: it was hard for me to put down. It depicts scenarios that had me reading stuff out loud to Smart Guy, and I was able to peer into the decision-making processes he illustrates so very well. One that really got me is the story of Al Haynes, the pilot of the United flight in 1989 that lost all three hydraulic lines and basically gave him no control over the DC-10. He tells the harrowing story of how Haynes had to find a way to pilot the plane. He did so, coming up with ideas that had never before been conceived, and although he had no way to slow the plane down as it came in for a landing at the Sioux City airport, most of the passengers and crew survived. The training center commissioned numerous pilots to see if they could land a plane without any hydraulics. Here's an excerpt from p. 132:
The training center used a flight simulator that was programmed with the precise conditions faced by the United crew on that July day.... The pilots training to land the DC-10 in the simulator failed to make the runway on their first fifty-seven attempts.
And they were already familiar with the accident and what the pilot did! Just realizing how Haynes made his decisions not only fascinated me, but made me realize that we can do a whole lot with our minds that we never take advantage of. Suffice it to say, I'm glad I read the book and hope that some of you will read it, too. At the end of the book, Lehrer says (p. 250),
Of course, even the most attentive and self-aware minds will still make mistakes.... But the best decision-makers don't despair. Instead, they become students of error, determined to learn from what went wrong. They think about what they could have done differently so that the next time their neurons will know what to do.This is the most astonishing thing about the human brain: it can always improve itself. Tomorrow, we can make better decisions.
I find all that to be extremely uplifting. And I did find Lehrer's new book at Costco for half price, so I bought it. Onward and upward!
:-)

23 comments:

  1. This time I copied the author name and as soon as I'm finished with my comment I will search the library catalog.
    It's threatening to rain here, but we'd rather not have it until the crops are in.

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  2. The whole word "Imagine", is what prompts us to do what we do, how we challenge ourselves. I have most always found an answer to things, I have always figured out how to build things that others say couldn't be done "by using my brain". I "Imagined" the solution in my mind and others said it couldn't be done. There is no room for "couldn't" in my world. Where would we be without "Imagine"?
    Thanks DJan, this was most interesting - I really enjoyed this post.

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  3. huh alright, going on the reading list...will check out some of these links too...it is totally pouring down here right now...

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  4. The sun came out very briefly a minute ago but it's gone again. Perhaps that's a sign we're near the end of all this rain. Like you, I was hoping for a shower. This was no shower.

    Very interesting post. I'm convinced none of us, including the medical field, can even begin to understand the power of the brain.

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  5. I just ordered "How We Decide" from the library. Thanks!

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  6. This sounds like a book that tom would really like. I would probably like it too once I have cleared my mind of a few things. right now I just need entertainment.

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  7. Dear DJan, I read this book two years ago, and like you, I found it fascinating. The mind/our brain is a strange and wonderful and compelling and intriguing creation.

    Now I need to go to the library website to see if he has a new book. You mentioned one at the end, but I'm not sure if it's the one you reviewed or if it's a new one. I'd forgotten his name and so thank you for giving it to me.

    Peace.

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  8. If I remember right "Wired" came out of the people with the old "Whole Earth", which I miss greatly. I used to have a subscription to "Wired" and your post now has me wanting a new one. I'm not very good at reading at length online. Lehrer has some wonderful links. To say the least! Thanks for this intriguing stuff DJan.

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  9. This sounds like a very interesting book indeed. I have always believed that we learn best from our mistakes. But, really only if we think and analyze about why we did what we did and how it could come out differently. I will look for this book.

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  10. Fascinating. That also applies to life in general -- how we can avoid making the same mistakes. However, we all know women who keep choosing Mr. Bad Guy over and over again. Gluttons for punishment, I say. I, myself, tend to be a slow learner, and can only thank my lucky stars for not being sent to prison or to an early death because of my stupid mistakes.

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  11. As someone who will be able to hide her own easter eggs any day now, the thought of being able to essentially rewire the brain is both full of hope and exciting.
    Thank you for these links. I will go looking.

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  12. Those books sound inspiring. It is true that when the chips are down and we find ourselves in trouble, that is the time when we are at our most resourceful.
    I always feel like I should read these types of books but somehow I never do. I wonder why that is?
    Enjoyed your post D-Jan.

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  13. You really know how to open some interesting discussions. The comments are fun to read too. I haven't read these books, but I will add them to my reserved list at the library.

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  14. [I started composing my comment and had to return to your post to get his name spelled correctly...is that a decision or what? *lol]. Okay, I must check this Lehrer [is is spelled right now?] on the Decision making. That really sounds right up my alley. I've retired from a psychiatric corporation and after working with so many files on how the mind works, this will be quite interesting for me, I'm sure!!!

    And rain....boy howdy, I wish WE had some. I'll take an inch or even 2!!! It's beginning to be a dry, drought-ridden Texas again me thinks!!!

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  16. well other than spelling his NAME correctly, I mis-typed is is...actually it should read is IT?

    By the way, is this a new background on your blog...it's stunning!!

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  17. He is a very technical type writer in addition to being young..I read parts of his blog..I didn't bookmark it. Like he said some will read and some will go off to play Angry Birds..:)

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  18. Morning, DJan. Another book for my list. Sounds fascinating..I always like this kind of stuff.

    We had a momentary blurb of wet and cool, and now it's back to 90 today with threats of 99 degrees for the next 5. Yikes. I may need to build tents over my garden!!

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  19. Sounds like a fantastic book. Onto my ipad it goes!

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  20. I'm actually reading "How We Decide" right now. I was trying to find a book to read off a (very long) military reading list, and this one caught my eye. I'm only 20% through it on my Kindle, and I've already recommended it to a few people. It's very interesting!! How coincidental that you were reading it, too!! :-)

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  21. These sound fascinating! Love books like this. Thanks so much for sharing these. :)

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  22. I thought Jonah Lehrer's name sounded familiar but couldn't place it until you mentioned Wired. That is one of the few magazines I read on a regular basis. I didn't know about his book but will put it on my wish list.

    It's been raining here too but not as much as you are getting.

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  23. I think a lot can be achieved in a panic situation if we DON'T panic, if we somehow manage to calm our reflexes down to functioning. Perhaps a life and death situation is different from being in a simulator.

    Has it stopped raining? we have had three wonderful days of sunshine, finally, and there might be another two days to come. That'll probably be the entire summer for this year.

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