The Secret Life of the Mind: How Your Brain Thinks, Feels, and Decides

This is not the standard walk through the facts of brain science that transits the hierarchy from molecules to brain in logical order. Rather, this book strikes me as an elaborate exercise based on the idea that talking about neuroscience is discussing a system that is trying to understand itself. The brain is the central entity that gives structure to reality, so this is the branch of science that is closest to a first-person perspective. Probably because of that, the topics presented are always punctuated by the author’s own peculiar intellectual itinerary and a disregard for traditional discipline boundaries, to the point that it is hard for moments to disentangle scientific knowledge from the collaborations and circumstances that generate it.In the end, the exposition benefits from the non-linear narrative, which allows the book to discover relationships between some concepts that as are relatively well known and many that don’t belong in more textbook-like readings. All of this comes seasoned with connections to philosophy, History or even chess or cooking, which I felt binds the contents and makes the book entertaining. Because of its peculiar nature, the stories here have something to offer to readers approaching brain science for the first time but also to those who think they have heard it all. Highly recommend!

In matters of psychology and how the brain works, everybody has opinions based on nothing but anecdotes. Sigman is one of the grand practitioners of understanding how the mind actually works from careful and masterfully thought-out experiments. With this tiny book, Sigman demonstrates that he is not just one of the great scientists of the field, but also a lucid expositor who makes the intricacies and pitfalls of the subject. Highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to get past the "psych for the masses" into understanding the real problems and dilemmas.

This is a great beautifully written book that illuminates the latest discoveries of Neuroscience in a very personal and anecdotical way. This thanks to the fact that the author is a well known researcher telling the story of his own discoveries and collaborations. One amazing example explaining the relationship between brain and mind is how very often the brain detects events before the minds is conscious of them. Only modern neuroscience and its technological improvements makes this possible. The book furthermore has a long discussion about learning in infants and bilingualism, which I was particularly fond of given that my toddler is learning 4 languages!

This is a very good book to read and understand the mind

Interesting

Fascinating book about how the brain works!

its just ok

Cannot tell you why you shouldn't read this book.Changed the way I approach a lot of things.Lucky that I found and actually read it.

If you are interested in psychological processes such as decision-making, remembering, learning and teaching, and in their neural underpinnings, then you should find this book both informative and entertaining. It contains some familiar material, but also some fresh findings and ideas that are stimulating and quite revolutionary. Apparently the text has been translated from Spanish to English, and the translator has done a wonderful job. The book is suitable for the interested layman and doesn't have an index, but professional academics are likely to find it useful and there is a comprehensive bibliography to aid further study.

The book is an easy reading experience, Highly recommend!

I really interesting explanation of the brain and the how we can all learn and practice and on the day life. when teaching others we are mastery our knowledge about this subject that is really interesting because there's no passive interaction and between humans beings. We are always teaching and learning when we are interacting with others...

I like this book as it covers an interesting area...between psychology and physical mind functions .It seems to be a good summary of where things are today...objective but also clearly expressed opinion .

Oh my ! A great read !