I'm not a fan of most books which fall under 'self help' in any way, as they're often not. Or they espouse limited viewpoints or cling to half arsed studies to support a popular viewpoint that doesn't really play out.

I'm a huge fan of this book.

There's a LOT of bullshit out there about how the brain works. This is an area of interest for me, as well as an area of formal study. Unfortunately most of the best books and best research are simply not accessible to most people. It's just not casual reading, and even when it is interesting (such as Steven Pinker's books which I'm a huge fan of)...it's application isn't always clear.

Here's why you should get this book.

It's a basic jist of how the brain works, and hits 12 specific areas by chapter. It also lays out specific things you can do to improve your brain. Literally.

This isn't based on any 'new' study or fad, there's hard science behind it all. And it's EXTREMELY basic shit. Things like: Get enough sleep. Exercise (specifically what kind, and why). How to improve 34% in 26 minutes (...take a nap at 3pm!).

It's designed to be interesting and interactive. Some of the information will be familiar to any layperson regardless of their interests in psychology or neurosciences. Some of it will be new. Some of it will be hard for you to accept (the brain *literally* cannot multitask. It's not possible. Period. This is why driving + cell phone is so lethal). You may think "But I multitask all the time!"...I know I personally do. But when *I* multitask (such as being on the phone with work + playing WoW mining as one example) I'm either on autodrive for one...doing something that requires little to no thinking...and/or I'm halfassing both things. Fortunately halfassing them accomplishes my task so I'm okay and I can cease one (WoW) to focus on the other (work) with no real consequence. But I can't do both 100%.

That's a personal example, there's better ones in the book.

Unfortunately I bought the kindle edition of this book, so I didn't get the cool beans DVD extra. Which means I'll have to purchase this book for a family member or friend and then gank their DVD for my personal use at some point to augment the book.

I strongly recommend checking it out though.

Here's the guy's website which he touts in the book.

http://brainrules.net/

I haven't really gone over the website yet. Maybe the stuff on the DVD will be accessible there for kindle users which will be nice.

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Cool. I'm quite interested in neuroscience, but haven't been able to find time to squeeze anything beyond the very basic physiological psychology courses into my schedule. And as a scientist, I'm always sort of hesitant to pick up "pop sci" stuff designed for the lay person, because I always get annoyed at the lack of quantitative analysis.

Sounds like this book is both rigorous and distilled down to a pretty simple state (and applications are always handy). I'll check it out, thanks.

I also emailed the publisher and bitched about the lack of DVD for kindle users, and got a quick reply from the author. Might be automated but I'm still impressed by the promptness.

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I'm gonna pick it up at the library today.

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I went out and bought it yesterday (I had a barnes and noble gift card sitting around and I wasnt sure what to get). I'm really liking this guy so far, he knows how to utilize one of his own rules to keep my attention, i'll give him that

I haven't watch the DVD stuff yet, but I know I will soon. Thanks for the heads up on this one Tarot!

It's a good read. Chapter 3 (wiring) bout put me to sleep, but other than that...

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