Rethinking Thought

"In 'Rethinking Thought, ' Laura Otis gives readers a multi-dimensional tour through the minds of thirty creative thinkers to illustrate how the experience of productive thought can vary across the spectrum. Focusing on individual experiences with planning, problem-solving, reflecting, remembering and forging new ideas, Otis approaches the question of what thinking is by analyzing variations in the way thinking feels. Drawing from her own experience as a neurocscientist-turned literary scholar, Otis aptly juxtaposes creative thinkers' insights with recent neuroscientific discoveries centering on visual mental imagery, verbal language, and thought. By offering distinct psychological portraits of famous figures like controversial novelist Salman Rushdie and engineer Temple Grandin, Otis treats scientists and artists with equal respect, and creates a fascinating dialogue in which neuroscientific findings and introspection engage with each other as equal partners. 'Rethinking Thought' encourages readers to resist the temptation of classifying people as 'visual' or 'verbal, ' and to instead consider how thinkers combine both skill-sets and how their abilities can be further developed as a result. By showing how greatly individual experiences of thought can vary, this book aims to help readers in all proessions better understand the diverse pool of people with whom they work and interact with"--Page 4 of cover.

"In 'Rethinking Thought, ' Laura Otis gives readers a multi-dimensional tour through the minds of thirty creative thinkers to illustrate how the experience of productive thought can vary across the spectrum. Focusing on individual experiences with planning, problem-solving, reflecting, remembering and forging new ideas, Otis approaches the question of what thinking is by analyzing variations in the way thinking feels. Drawing from her own experience as a neurocscientist-turned literary scholar, Otis aptly juxtaposes creative thinkers' insights with recent neuroscientific discoveries centering on visual mental imagery, verbal language, and thought. By offering distinct psychological portraits of famous figures like controversial novelist Salman Rushdie and engineer Temple Grandin, Otis treats scientists and artists with equal respect, and creates a fascinating dialogue in which neuroscientific findings and introspection engage with each other as equal partners. 'Rethinking Thought' encourages readers to resist the temptation of classifying people as 'visual' or 'verbal, ' and to instead consider how thinkers combine both skill-sets and how their abilities can be further developed as a result. By showing how greatly individual experiences of thought can vary, this book aims to help readers in all proessions better understand the diverse pool of people with whom they work and interact with"--Page 4 of cover.

Author's note -- Preface -- Dreaming, not doing -- The upside of dreaming -- Fooling our minds -- The wise pursuit of our dreams -- Engaging our nonconscious minds -- The magic of WOOP -- WOOP your life -- Your friend for life -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index

#1 New York Times Bestseller “THIS. This is the right book for right now. Yes, learning requires focus. But, unlearning and relearning requires much more—it requires choosing courage over comfort. In Think Again, Adam Grant weaves together research and storytelling to help us build the intellectual and emotional muscle we need to stay curious enough about the world to actually change it. I’ve never felt so hopeful about what I don’t know.” —Brené Brown, Ph.D., #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dare to Lead The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential, Originals, and Give and Take examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people's minds, which can position you for excellence at work and wisdom in life Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process. The result is that our beliefs get brittle long before our bones. We think too much like preachers defending our sacred beliefs, prosecutors proving the other side wrong, and politicians campaigning for approval--and too little like scientists searching for truth. Intelligence is no cure, and it can even be a curse: being good at thinking can make us worse at rethinking. The brighter we are, the blinder to our own limitations we can become. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds--and our own. As Wharton's top-rated professor and the bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take, he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he's right but listen like he's wrong. With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You'll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. Think Again reveals that we don't have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It's an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom.

Everyone has a worldview. How did we get it? How is it formed? Is it possible by persuasion and logic to change one's worldview? In Rethinking Worldview, writer and worldview teacher J. Mark Bertrand has a threefold aim. First, he seeks to capture a more complex, nuanced appreciation of what worldviews really are. Then he situates worldviews in the larger context of a lived faith. Finally, he explores the organic connections between worldview and wisdom and how they are expressed in witness. Bertrand's work reads like a conversation, peppered with anecdotes and thought-provoking questions that push readers to continue thinking and talking long after they have put the book down. Thoughtful readers interested in theology, philosophy, and culture will be motivated to rethink their own perspectives on the nature of reality, as well as to rethink the concept of worldviews itself.

Challenging all of our old assumptions about the subject, Rethinking Body Language builds on the most recent cutting-edge research to offer a new theoretical perspective on this subject that will transform the way we look at other people. In contrast to the traditional view that body language is primarily concerned with the expression of emotions and the negotiation of social relationships, author Geoff Beattie argues instead that gestures reflect aspects of our thinking but in a different way to verbal language. Critically, the spontaneous hand movements that people make when they talk often communicate a good deal more than they intend. This ground-breaking book takes body language analysis to a whole new level. Engagingly written by one of the leading experts in the field, it shows how we can detect deception in gesture–speech mismatches and how these unconscious movements can give us real insight into people's underlying implicit attitudes.

Learn to take ownership of your success, overcome self-doubt, and banish the thought patterns that undermine your ability to feel—and act—as bright and capable as others already know you are with this award-winning book by Valerie Young. It’s only because they like me. I was in the right place at the right time. I just work harder than the others. I don’t deserve this. It’s just a matter of time before I am found out. Someone must have made a terrible mistake. If you are a working woman, chances are this inter­nal monologue sounds all too familiar. And you’re not alone. From the high-achieving Ph.D. candidate convinced she’s only been admitted to the program because of a clerical error to the senior executive who worries others will find out she’s in way over her head, a shocking number of accomplished women in all ca­reer paths and at every level feel as though they are faking it—impostors in their own lives and careers. While the impostor syndrome is not unique to women, women are more apt to agonize over tiny mistakes, see even constructive criticism as evi­dence of their shortcomings, and chalk up their accomplishments to luck rather than skill. They often unconsciously overcompensate with crippling perfec­tionism, overpreparation, maintaining a lower pro­file, withholding their talents and opinions, or never finishing important projects. When they do succeed, they think, Phew, I fooled ’em again. An internationally known speaker, Valerie Young has devoted her career to understanding women’s most deeply held beliefs about themselves and their success. In her decades of in-the-trenches research, she has uncovered the often surprising reasons why so many accomplished women experience this crushing self-doubt. In The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women, Young gives these women the solution they have been seek­ing. Combining insightful analysis with effective ad­vice and anecdotes, she explains what the impostor syndrome is, why fraud fears are more common in women, and how you can recognize the way it mani­fests in your life.

Discover how creativity depends on inside-the-box thinking-that's right, not outside the box-and a new perspective on creative thinking.