Passages like this make Mastermind sound like a self-help book, but that is an unfair categorization.

Konnikova does an excellent job using Holmes and Watson to show how humans (though fictional) think. That’s where System Holmes comes in.

A strong immune system is important, during a pandemic and otherwise. While the virus seems overwhelming now, every pandemic has the same disorienting effect on the population. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair.

Albert Einstein did not become brilliant in a vacuum. His left arm has been injured.

We can see Watson and Holmes, quite often, as we read Dr. Konnikova’s book, as personifications of different ways of reacting to events: A fast, efficient, possibly easily erroneous approach (the Watson approach), and a more disciplined, possibly quite inefficient, but thoughtful, sometimes counterintuitive approach (the Holmes approach). Consider, for example, how Holmes deduces that Watson has been in Afghanistan: Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Incorporating Doyle’s crime fiction also helps Konnikova avoid writing just-another-psychology-book. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, An Executive Summary of Maria Konnikova's 'Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes', See all details for Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. There’s Wodehouse’s Bertie and Jeeves and Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Sancho.

*A full summary of this book is available here: An Executive Summary of Maria Konnikova's 'Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes' The main argument: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes is as popular today as when he was created back in the late 19th century. But crime fiction has been always considered as "trivial" and so a great deal of it was never translated. The idea that the Mastermind is, to a certain extent, a combination or amalgam, an interaction between Watson and Holmes, and not Holmes, himself, that prepares Holmes to deal with the subtle deceptions and deviousness of the criminal mind, is a powerful picture. The key is how to organize it. Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2020. And it is with this male double-act that Maria Konnikova, Scientific American blogger and former Big Think blogger, sets out to unpack contemporary psychology in her first book, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. By showing this as stereotypes, we see how to think like Watson (our more common mode of thinking) and how to think like Holmes (in a more thoughtful and mindful way). Be the first to ask a question about An Executive Summary of 'Mastermind. I have a collection of books on how to think like Sherlock. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Doyle lived at time when science and reason were making great strides in overcoming superstitious and spurious ways of thinking, and so the Sherlock Holmes works were cutting edge for their time.

He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner.

But what were Einstein's favorite books? A lot of hype surrounds vitamins and minerals for treating or preventing COVID-19, though little evidence exists. This is Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow using Holmes and Watson as simulacra for our different brain processes. This book is amazing at making you understand how your mind works and how knowing some basic psychology can help you better control your mind and improve it! Probably the latter, but therein lies its strength: you walk away with a taste of what made Doyle’s writing memorable as well as a lesson from Psychology 101. Lord of the Flies vs. Charles Darwin, Why the US must break the grip of huge monopolies, Learn the Netflix model of high-performing teams. Some people fall in love. Welcome back. In addition, we see the interactions between Watson and Holmes, and that the success of Holmes often depends to some extent on first making some quick (Watson), incorrect assessments, so that one (the Mastermind) is thrown to focus on certain important observations.

Undoubtedly considered one of the brightest individuals who ever lived, Albert Einstein did not become so accomplished in a vacuum. Perhaps there's no one simple answer to that but we do know which works the creator of the theory of general relativity seemed to come back to over and over.

Here are his 5 favorite books and writers, as we know it.

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Many of the reviewers who lament Konnikova for the derivative nature of this work seem to miss her point. The first thing that strikes you as you read through the book is that it feels like a collection of essays and articles stretched into a book more than a fluid book itself. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. She explains what he does and what the outcome is every time he gets a case, and how you too can learn to control those “reptilian brain” impulses so you can use your logic to make deductions and solve “your cases”. I would have given this book five stars if it had stayed faithful to Sherlock Holmes stories. Embracing System Holmes helps us decide rationally, think scientifically and avoid the deep and systematic cognitive biases that distort the way we think about the world. Even if you are not a Sherlock fan. Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes (A Review) A centerpiece of Mastermind is that the brain operates using two contrasting systems, which Konnikova terms System Holmes and … Overall, it is a good book and I recommend it.

A centerpiece of Mastermind is that the brain operates using two contrasting systems, which Konnikova terms System Holmes and System Watson.