Brilliant. Not an entirely new subject for me, but such a fascinating exposition I read it from start to finish in one sitting.

Demeron Skouson. http://dskouson.blogspot.com/ said...

Very interesting - lots of fundamental theory in why we think the way we do. I love the Fluff Buster notion. Right on!

by Amiya Chaudhuri

Invest just half an hour exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the awe-inspiring, experience-trapping, meaning-making mechanisms at the heart of our inherited neural networks, and your perception, of everything, will start to change. You will find yourself thinking "Oh I see" and "Well that's because". The Mind Body problem will evaporate before your eyes. The reasons why humans distort their perception to fit in with group-think norms, and invent exotic remote causes to explain inexplicable local events, will be explained. Your ability to find structure in chaos and clarity in complexity will improve and learning will become a pleasure again.

I was worried that I wouldn`t be able to grasp it all due to my lack of knowledge in that area, but it was accessible, informative and enjoyable in equal measure.
I hope you don`t mind, I put the book into our school library and I see it`s out on loan already. Congratulations.

Kevin Rooney is head of social science at Queens’ School

An excellent "fluffbuster" take on how we perceive the world. March 22, 2008, by Dennis Littrell.

To see the full review find this book's page on www.amazon.com.

The author has clearly thought a great deal about this subject, and there are fresh insights on almost every page. The combination of up-to-date knowledge of computer design and programming with the latest discoveries about the working of the neural networks in our brain, brings a fresh understanding of how we think and how we can avoid the flaws in our thinking processes that have caused so many human enterprises to fail in the past.

The summary of the history of thought in chapter 1 is excellent and the evolutionary history of the brain's development explains many things that puzzle us about ourselves.

The weaknesses of our linear, literary or oral descriptions of things, events and relationships are contrasted with the power of graphical dynamic thinking tools. This comparison could probably only have been noticed by a dyslexic systems designer, but once the differences are brought to our attention the relative strengths and weaknesses of text verses Graphical Thinking become obvious. The need for both is surely shown by the weather maps on TV, where the map conveys more than the oral account can ever do, and tells it more quickly.

With each new topic there are excellent diagrams which illustrate the deeper understanding that can be achieved by the use of Graphical Thinking, and its versatility for describing our understanding of many different sorts of problems, systems or subject knowledge.

As it says on the cover, understanding is still the ultimate study skill, and this book will help the reader to understand and remember more of any topic they study. It will be useful to any students who want to use their minds to make the best of their education, and of life itself.

P.D. Retired Head Master

Just wanted to say that I'm reading "Understanding Thinking" by John Evans, and although only a third of the way through it I have to tell you that this is an amazing book! Evans makes fascinating connections and parallels between thinkers in history, thinking models, and societal belief structures... this is so good I just had to email you to thank you!!! An enlightening and thought-provoking book. (Now I wish I had bought the hard copy instead of the download.)

Best regards
JEAN (EDWARDS)
ThinkShop : brilliant resources for thinking
check out our full range at http://www.thinks.co.nz

At last, a book that bridges academic boundaries and explains the real-life implications of neural network research. It explains the continuous and self-reinforcing mechanisms by which our neural networks trap personal and cultural experinces, give them meaning, and assemble them into working models of reality which shape and filter our subsequent perception and experince of life. This has profound implications for anyone involved in education. If this book had been available 10 years ago, my time at universtity would have been 10 times more productive, more fun and much less stressful.