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Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes presents the story of one of the most famous detectives we’ve ever known and his adventures in the world of uncovering mysteries while highlighting the secrets of his powerful mind, psychological tricks, deduction games, and teaching you how to strengthen your cognitive capacity.
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes presents the story of one of the most famous detectives we’ve ever known and his adventures in the world of uncovering mysteries while highlighting the secrets of his powerful mind, psychological tricks, deduction games, and teaching you how to strengthen your cognitive capacity.
As humans, we are wired in curious ways. Take our brain for example. We have a conscious mind that can actively think about problems, ways to fix them, interpret surroundings, and many more. Then, there’s our reflexive system, which takes the first answer as the correct one.
Now, guess which one we’re using more. Hint: It’s the reflexive system! Our brain is self-trained to save energy and interpret surroundings in the most convenient way. However, if you want to make the most out of your thinking processes, you’ll have to learn to use your active cognitive power.
To do so, psychologists call for mindfulness, which is the part art part science of living in the moment, actively acknowledging surroundings and feelings, and overall being aware. This system takes energy and focus, which is why it is not easy for us to engage with it.
However, if you want to think reasonably and logically, you’ll have to keep reminding your brain that it must be proactive, engaged, and aware. You must give yourself a wake up call in the face of challenges and actively think about solutions while questioning assumptions, rather than take the easy way out.
The brain works enough on its own to make you function, but when it comes to proactive thinking, you’ll have to bring consciousness into play. Therefore, in the face of unsolvable mysteries, Holmes was doing just that.
One good way to do so is by training your brain to remember important information and structure it in a user-friendly way. Holmes thinks of his brain as an attic where information gets stored. The attic hosts contents (experiences, memories, information, knowledge) and structures (the way you store the content).
Therefore, you can actively decide where and how to store content and move it around to create blocks of specific information. You can even try it right now, by adding all this information into a mind block called psychological tricks, for example.
Now, Holmes also keeps a main attic folder in his brain, which constantly stores important and urgent information that he needs. This information helps him solve cases. Therefore, to retain such pieces of data, you’ll have to motivate yourself to remember them. Link it to already existing information or make it as tangible as possible.
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Get the complete summary in the appLearn to harness your conscious system and notice the patterns of the reflexive one
To declutter the brain and think better, you’ll have to understand how to store information
Biases, the weather, our faulty assumptions, and many other factors alter our decision-making process
"Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes" is a strong fit if you want practical ideas around creativity, mindfulness, motivation & inspiration—especially themes like learn to harness your conscious system and notice the patterns of the reflexive one; to declutter the brain and think better, you’ll have to understand how to store information. The MinuteRead summary distills these concepts into a focused read, whether you're deciding whether to buy the book or applying its lessons at work.
Maria Konnikova is the author, most recently, of The Biggest Bluff, a New York Times bestseller, one of the Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2020, and a finalist for the Telegraph Best Sports Writing Awards for 2021. Her previous books are the bestsellers The Confidence Game, winner of the 2016 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, an Anthony and Agatha Award finalist. Maria is a regularly contributing writer for The New Yorker whose writing h…
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