I promised in one of my earlier posts, So You Think Einstein Was A Genius, that I will be discussing the best "How To" book I have read so far, How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci.
I found that Squidoo is a better platform for a book review. So, please visit my lens on this book, here.
I hope you enjoy reading the book review as much as I enjoyed developing it.
Didn't you always want to become a genius? Without trying, of course! Wouldn't you like to achieve more in less time? Resolve difficult problems at one glance? I always wanted to do this. Imagine walking into a room full of people struggling with a tough issue. You have a glance at the flip charts, shrug, offer a solution and walk out leaving everyone flabbergasted. Now that would be something! Such 'wow' moments have been few and far between. But I never stopped dreaming.
I am not alone in my thinking though - the market is flooded with how-to-think-like-a-genius type self-development books. I have always tried to avoid such books. I have always viewed them with suspicion. If only becoming a genius was that easy ...
But I have two. One is How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb. I have blogged on this before. Here. Not sure whether this helped me or not, but the only reason I am learning German is this book. (You need to read the book to find the connection - though it is very obvious).
Some time ago I succumbed to another book. It was the title that caught my attention. The Mind Gym: Wake Your Mind Up. I must have purchased this book about a year ago and only today managed to force myself to read it. It lay untouched all these months. The book comes with a free membership to the mind gym website.
Will let you know as the days progress if this book helps me use my brain in new ways. You can check it out as well.
Wish me luck!
If you liked this blog, why don't you stay back a bit and read my other blogs discussing books that buy. Here.
My favourite moments in reading a book is when I discover a book inside a book. Say, I am reading a book and then suddenly there is a reference to some other book, the title of which looks very interesting. I would then google or amazon it and find to my surprise an entirely new subject that I would have never come across before or would have heard only very vaguely about.
Of the many such instances, the one that stands out was a couple of years ago when I was reading How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb. The sub-title of this book is Seven Steps To Genius Every Day so obviously I was attracted to it. In any case to study Leonardo is always fascinating.
However this blog is not about this book. It is about another one that is referred in ere. And that is Mind Mapping.
This is what How To Think ... has to say about Mind Mapping.
"While all the principles in this book can help you balance your hemispheres and awaken your latent DA Vincian capabilities, you can concentrate on that balance by using one simple, tremendously powerful method for cultivating a synergy between Arte and Scienza in your everyday thinking, planning, and problem solving. The method is called mind mapping.
Mind mapping is a whole-brain method for generating and organizing ideas, originated by Tony Buzan (yeah the same guy you met here), and largely inspired by Da Vinci's approach to note taking."
The best thing about Mind Mapping is that we actually indulge in it fairly regularly without realizing it - it goes by the name, doodling. Mind mapping is an advanced version of doodling.
Note: The picture used here belongs to Max Brown. To see more of his photographs visit his gallery.
All of us have our favourite genius. Einstein comes to most minds when asked. There is also a tendency to mix up role model and genius.
I found this interesting list from the book How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci. (More about this in a future blog, I promise).
I quote from the book:
In the Book of Genius Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene make the world's first objective attempt to rank the greatest geniuses of history. Rating their subjects in categories including "Originality," "Versatility," "Dominance-in-Field," "Universality-of-Vision," and "Strength and Energy," they offer the following as their "top ten."
10. Albert Einstein
9. Phidias (architect of Athens)
8. Alexander the Great
7. Thomas Jefferson
6. Sir Issac Newton
5. Michelangelo
4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3. The Great Pyramid Builders
2. William Shakespeare
1. Leonardo da Vinci
Lists are meant to be disputed. What is your list?
Note: The picture used belogs to Josep Altarriba. To see more such photogrpahs visit his gallery.
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