Most Popular Books by Jonah Lehrer

Weaving together scientific studies from clinical psychologists, longitudinal studies of health and happiness, historical accounts and literary depictions, child-rearing manuals, and the language of online dating sites, Jonah Lehrer''s A Book About Love plumbs the most mysterious, most formative, most important impulse governing our lives. Love confuses and compels us--and it can destroy and define us. It has inspired our greatest poetry, defined our societies and our beliefs, and governs our biology. From the way infants attach to their parents, to the way we fall in love with another person, to the way some find a love for God or their pets, to the way we remember and mourn love after it ends, this book focuses on research that attempts, even in glancing ways, to deal with the long-term and the everyday. The most dangerous myth of love is that it''s easy, that we fall into the feeling and then the feeling takes care of itself. While we can easily measure the dopamine that causes the initial feelings of "falling" in love, the partnerships and devotions that last decades or longer remain a mystery. This book is about that mystery. Love, Lehrer argues, is not built solely on overwhelming passion, but, fascinatingly, on a set of skills to be cultivated over a lifetime.

The first book to use the unexpected discoveries of neuroscience to help us make the best decisions Since Plato, philosophers have described the decision-making process as either rational or emotional: we carefully deliberate, or we "blink" and go with our gut. But as scientists break open the mind''s black box with the latest tools of neuroscience, they''re discovering that this is not how the mind works. Our best decisions are a finely tuned blend of both feeling and reason--and the precise mix depends on the situation. When buying a house, for example, it''s best to let our unconscious mull over the many variables. But when we''re picking a stock, intuition often leads us astray. The trick is to determine when to use the different parts of the brain, and to do this, we need to think harder (and smarter) about how we think. Jonah Lehrer arms us with the tools we need, drawing on cutting-edge research as well as the real-world experiences of a wide range of "deciders"--from airplane pilots and hedge fund investors to serial killers and poker players. Lehrer shows how people are taking advantage of the new science to make better television shows, win more football games, and improve military intelligence. His goal is to answer two questions that are of interest to just about anyone, from CEOs to firefighters: How does the human mind make decisions? And how can we make those decisions better?

The New York Times–bestselling author provides an “entertaining” look at how artists enlighten us about the workings of the brain (New York magazine). In this book, the author of How We Decide and Imagine: How Creativity Works “writes skillfully and coherently about both art and science”—and about the connections between the two (Entertainment Weekly). In this technology-driven age, it’s tempting to believe that science can solve every mystery. After all, it’s cured countless diseases and sent humans into space. But as Jonah Lehrer explains, science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, when it comes to understanding the brain, art got there first. Taking a group of artists—a painter, a poet, a chef, a composer, and a handful of novelists—Lehrer shows how each one discovered an essential truth about the mind that science is only now rediscovering. We learn, for example, how Proust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliot discovered the brain’s malleability; how the French chef Escoffier discovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cézanne worked out the subtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deep structure of language—a full half-century before the work of Noam Chomsky and other linguists. More broadly, Lehrer shows that there’s a cost to reducing everything to atoms and acronyms and genes. Measurement is not the same as understanding, and art knows this better than science does. An ingenious blend of biography, criticism, and first-rate science writing, Proust Was a Neuroscientist urges science and art to listen more closely to each other, for willing minds can combine the best of both to brilliant effect. “His book marks the arrival of an important new thinker . . . Wise and fresh.” —Los Angeles Times

How do you measure the imagination? How do you quantify an epiphany? In Jonah Lehrer''s book, we go in search of the epiphany. Shattering the myth of creative ''types'', Lehrer shows how new research is deepening our understanding of the human imagination.

New York Times bestselling author Jonah Lehrer “unravels the mystery of mysteries” in this “absolute delight” (Malcolm Gladwell) of a book that blends psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology to shine a new light on everything from the formulas of our favorite detective shows to the tricks of successful advertising campaigns and the calculated risks of the stock market. Why is mystery so compelling? What draws us to the unknown? Jonah Lehrer sets out to answer these questions in a vividly entertaining and surprisingly profound journey through the science of suspense. He finds that nothing can capture a person’s attention as strongly as mystery, and that mystery is the key principle in how humans view and understand the world. Whenever patterns are broken, we are hard-wired to find out why. Without our curiosity driving us to pursue new discoveries and solve stubborn problems, we would never have achieved the breakthroughs that have revolutionized human medicine, technology—and culture. From Shakespeare’s plays to the earliest works of the detective genre, our entertainment and media have continually reinvented successful forms of mystery to hook audiences. Here, Lehrer interviews individuals in unconventional fields—from dedicated small-business owners to innovative schoolteachers—who use mystery to challenge themselves and to motivate others to reach to new heights. He also examines the indelible role of mystery in our culture, revealing how the magical world of Harry Potter triggers the magic of dopamine in our brains, why the baseball season is ten times longer than the football season, and when the suspect is introduced in each episode of Law & Order. Fascinating, illuminating, and fun, Mystery explores the many surprising ways in which embracing a sense of awe and curiosity can enrich our lives.

Introduction -- The quarterback in the pocket -- The predictions of dopamine -- Fooled by a feeling -- The uses of reason -- Choking on thought -- The moral mind -- The brain is an argument -- The poker hand -- Coda

El primer libro que emplea los descubrimientos de la neurociencia para ayudarnos a tomar mejores decisiones. Ya desde Platón, los filósofos han descrito la toma de decisiones como un proceso en el que puede primar la razón o las emociones: A veces sopesamos exhaustivamente los pros y los contras, y otras nos lanzamos sin pensar. Sin embargo, las investigaciones llevadas a cabo por los neurocientíficos están abriendo “la caja negra de la mente” y nos indican que el proceso de toma de decisiones no funciona exactamente de esta manera, sino que las mejores decisiones son las que tomamos gracias a una sabia mezcla de sentimiento y razón, y ese equilibrio depende de la situación en la que nos encontremos. Por ejemplo, nos dicen que cuando decidimos comprar una casa es mejor que nos dejemos llevar por nuestra intuición más que por otras variables. Pero que cuando la elección tiene que ver con una acción más inmediata, la intuición a menudo nos conduce al fracaso. La clave reside en saber qué partes del cerebro entran en juego en cada ocasión y, para ello, es necesario estudiar detenidamente cómo pensamos. Jonah Lehrer nos aporta los instrumentos necesarios para mejorar nuestra capacidad de decisión, combinando las últimas investigaciones con situaciones reales. En definitiva, el objetivo de este libro es responder a estas dos preguntas: ¿Cómo toma decisiones la mente humana? Y ¿Qué debemos hacer para tomar mejores decisiones?

El también columnista de Wired estableció una sorprendente conexión mientras leía Por el camino de Swann de Proust: el escritor había intuido en la novela hallazgos científicos que se constatarían casi un siglo después. Siguiendo con la investigación: Walt Whitman, George Eliot, Auguste Escoffier, Marcel Proust, Paul Cézanne, Igor Stravinski, Gertrude Stein y Virginia Woolf, cada uno en su campo, sugirieron aspectos relacionados con el funcionamiento de la mente que la ciencia descubrió mucho más tarde. Según nos muestra Jonah Lehrer en su extraordinario debut, la ciencia no es la única senda que conduce al conocimiento, pues el arte siempre se adelantó a ella en el empeño por comprender el cerebro. A partir de la obra de un grupo de artistas –un pintor, un poeta, un chef, un compositor y diversos novelistas- Lehrer nos muestra que cada uno de ellos descubrió una verdad esencial sobre la mente que la ciencia aún se esfuerza por explicar. Así, por ejemplo, vemos cómo Proust reveló por primera vez la falibilidad de la memoria; cómo George Eliot descubrió la maleabilidad del cerebro; cómo el chef Escoffier encontró el umami (el quinto sabor); la manera en que Cézanne abordó las sutilezas de la visión o el modo en que Gertrude Stein expuso la estructura profunda del lenguaje medio siglo antes de que Noam Chomsky y otros lingüistas lo hicieran. Con una ingeniosa mezcla de biografía, crítica y divulgación científica, Proust y la neurociencia pone de manifiesto la necesidad de poner fin al secular desencuentro entre el arte y la ciencia.

En Sobre el amor, Jonah Lehrer entreteje estudios científicos de psicología, análisis profundos sobre la salud y la felicidad, relatos históricos y personajes literarios, manuales sobre la crianza de los hijos y el lenguaje de las webs de citas para examinar en profundidad el impulso más misterioso e importante que determina y mueve nuestras vidas. El mito más peligroso sobre el amor es que resulta fácil, que nos dejamos llevar por el sentimiento y que a partir de ahí sigue su curso. Es posible medir la dopamina que generan los primeros síntomas de «enamoramiento», pero los vínculos afectivos y la entrega que duran décadas, o incluso más, continúan siendo un misterio. Este libro versa sobre ese misterio. El amor, sostiene Lehrer, no se cimienta únicamente en una pasión arrolladora, sino, y esto es lo más fascinante, en una serie de cualidades que deben cultivarse a lo largo de toda una vida. El amor nos confunde y determina, puede llegar a destruirnos y definirnos. Ha inspirado la poesía más sublime, ha configurado nuestras sociedades y creencias y gobierna nuestra biología. Desde el apego de los hijos a los padres, pasando por la manera en la que nos enamoramos de otra persona y por el amor que algunos profesan a su dios o a sus mascotas, hasta la manera en la que recordamos y lloramos el fin del amor, este libro se centra en un análisis que trata de abordarlo tanto en el largo plazo como en el día a día. ------- Hay dos leyes psicológicas que conforman gran parte de la experiencia humana y que existen por oposición entre sí. La primera ley es la costumbre. Cuando estamos expuestos repetidamente a un estímulo, poco a poco lo ignoramos. Por ejemplo, la ropa interior. ¿La sientes? ¿Eres consciente de que la llevas? La respuesta es no. La misma triste lógica se aplica a casi todos los placeres, desde el sabor del chocolate hasta el último artilugio de moda. El placer siempre desaparece, reemplazado por la indiferencia habitual. Perola costumbre no lo arruina todo. Hay una segunda ley sobre la experiencia humana y se basa en lo que perdura. Entre tanto desvanecimiento hay placeres que persisten. Encontramos alegrías que nunca desaparecen. Conocemos gente que nunca se aburre. ¿Y que decimos acerca de estas cosas? Decimos que las amamos. "Amor" es otra forma de llamar a lo que nunca envejece. -------

Der Autor berichtet über die Zusammenhänge von Gefühl und Verstand, erläutert einschlägige Forschungsergebnisse mit Fallgeschichten und Anwendungsbeispielen und zeigt, wie sich diese Erkenntnisse nutzen lassen, wenn es um die Optimierung privater und beruflicher Entscheidungen geht.

Chúng Ta Quyết Định Như Thế Nào? (How We Decide): Chúng ta luôn phải đưa ra quyết định cho những công việc hằng ngày, từ bình thường nhất cho đến hệ trọng nhất. Vậy, liệu bạn đã biết các quyết định của mình được não bộ định đoạt như thế nào chăng? Thông qua các ví dụ thực tế điển hình trong việc ra những quyết định từ bình thường cho đến quan trọng, cuốn sách Chúng ta quyết định như thế nào? sẽ đem đến cho bạn những hiểu biết sâu sắc và cặn kẽ về các hoạt động tế vi bên trong não bộ khi chúng ta đưa ra một quyết định. Bạn sẽ khám phá ra rằng chính cảm xúc – chứ không phải lý trí – mới là nhân tố giúp chúng ta quyết định một cách sáng suốt. Trích đoạn trong cuốn sách: "Cuốn sách này viết về cách thức chúng ta ra quyết định và về những gì diễn ra trong đầu tôi sau khi động cơ bốc cháy. Nó viết về cách thức mà tâm trí con người - thực thể phức tạp nhất từng được biết đến trong vũ trụ - lựa chọn điều phải làm. Nó kể về những phi công lái máy bay, những chàng tiền vệ bóng bầu dục NFL, các đạo diễn truyền hình, những tay bài poker, những nhà đầu tư chuyên nghiệp cùng hàng loạt các quyết định họ đưa ra mỗi ngày. Xét từ góc độ của một bộ não, giữa một quyết định đúng và một quyết định tồi chỉ tồn tại một ranh giới mong manh. Cuốn sách này sẽ viết về ranh giới đó." Hãy đọc cuốn sách Kỹ năng thú vị này để thấu hiểu tâm trí của chính mình!

THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES OF CREATIVE THOUGHT HAVE LONG INTIMIDATED THE WORLD`S FINEST BRAINS. HOW DO YOU MEASURE THE IMAGINATION? HOW DO YOU QUANTIFY AN EPIPHANY? THESE DAUNTING QUESTIONS LED RESEARCHERS TO NEGLECT THE SUBJECT FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS. IN JONAH LEHRER`S AMBITIOUS AND ENTHRALLING NEW BOOK, WE GO IN SEARCH OF THE EPIPHANY. SHATTERING THE MYTH OF CREATIVE `TYPES`, LEHRER SHOWS HOW NEW RESEARCH IS DEEPENING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN IMAGINATION. CREATIVITY IS NOT A `GIFT` THAT ONLY SOME POSSESS. IT`S A TERM FOR A VARIETY OF DISTINCT THOUGHT PROCESSES THAT WE CAN ALL LEARN TO USE MORE EFFECTIVELY. SOME ACTS OF IMAGINATION ARE BEST DONE SIPPING ESPRESSO IN A CROWDED CAFE, WHILE OTHERS REQUIRE LONG WALKS IN A QUIET PARK. LEHRER HELPS US FIT OUR CREATIVE STRATEGIES TO THE TASK AT HAND. THE JOURNEY BEGINS WITH THE FLUTTERING OF NEURONS IN THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX, BEFORE MOVING OUT TO CONSIDER HOW THIS NEW SCIENCE CAN ALSO MAKE NEIGHBOURHOODS MORE VIBRANT, COMPANIES MORE PRODUCTIVE AND SCHOOLS MORE EFFECTIVE. WE`LL LEARN ABOUT BOB DYLAN`S WRITING HABITS AND THE DRUG ADDICTION OF POETS. WE`LL SEE WHY ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND EXPERIENCED A CREATIVE EXPLOSION, AND HOW PIXAR DESIGNED ITS OFFICE SPACE TO GET THE MOST OUT OF ITS TALENT. COLLAPSING THE LAYERS SEPARATING THE NEURON FROM THE FINISHED SYMPHONY, IMAGINE REVEALS THE DEEP INVENTIVENESS OF THE HUMAN MIND AND ITS ESSENTIAL ROLE IN OUR INCREASINGLY COMPLEX WORLD.

[Vert. van ''How we decide'' door Carla Zijlemaker.].

In ‘Het mysterie van de liefde’ verkent Jonah Lehrer de psychologische, biologische, neurologische en evolutionaire feiten van de liefde. Liefde is de emotie die ons leven regeert, een altijd aanwezige kracht, de basis van al onze bindingen, van romantische tot vriendschappelijke en religieuze. Mensen kunnen niet zonder, ze moeten zich hechten. Tegenover liefde staan uitsluiting, onthechting, haat. Niets roept sterkere emoties op dan het verlies van liefde. Jonah Lehrer, vermaard schrijver die wetenschap toegankelijk maakt, richt zich in dit boek op liefde in al haar vormen, niet alleen de romantische en gepassioneerde, maar ook die tussen ouders en kinderen, vriendschap, de liefde voor God, voor huisdieren en overledenen. Lehrer maakt de lezer deelgenoot van het wetenschappelijk onderzoek op dit gebied. Hij schenkt een wereld aan kennis– maar het mysterie blijft intact.

No momento em que a tecnologia tornou-se tão indispensável à sociedade, é tentador acreditar que a ciência pode resolver todos os mistérios que permeiam nosso universo. Afinal, ela adquiriu papel fundamental na vida dos seres humanos ao proporcionar a cura de doenças ou ao realizar a proeza de enviar pessoas ao espaço. Mas, como argumenta Jonah Lehrer neste livro brilhante, a ciência não é o único caminho para o conhecimento. Na realidade, no que se refere à compreensão do cérebro, a arte chegou primeiro. Reunindo um grupo de artistas – um pintor, um poeta, um chef, um compositor e alguns romancistas – Lehrer mostra como cada um descobriu uma verdade essencial sobre a mente que a ciência só agora está redescobrindo. Aprendemos, por exemplo, como Proust foi o primeiro a revelar a falibilidade da memória; como George Eliot descobriu a maleabilidade do cérebro; como o chef francês Escoffier identificou o umami (o quinto gosto); como Cézanne desenvolveu as sutilezas da visão; e como Gertrude Stein expôs a estrutura profunda da linguagem (meio século antes da obra de Noam Chomsky e outros lingüistas). Uma mistura engenhosa de biografia, crítica e escrita científica, Proust foi um neurocientista instiga a ciência e a arte a se ouvirem mais atentamente, pois mentes motivadas podem combinar o melhor de ambas para um resultado brilhante. “Neste incrível livro, Lehrer relaciona as duas culturas com facilidade e graça. Sua escrita clara e empolgante - incisiva e reflexiva, e ainda, sensível e modesta – é muito prazerosa.”Oliver Sacks "Uma obra visionária e atraente que preenche a histórica lacuna entre as culturas literária e científica... Lehrer é inteligente e divertido."The New York Times “Uma leitura prazerosa e reflexiva”Antonio Damásio

La science a besoin de l''art pour exprimer la dimension du mystère, mais l''art a besoin de la science pour que tout ne demeure pas mystère. "A l''instant même où la gorgée mêlée des miettes du gâteau toucha mon palais, je tressaillis, attentif à ce qui se passait d''extraordinaire en moi. Un plaisir délicieux m''avait envahi, isolé, sans la notion de sa cause. D''où avait pu me venir cette puissante joie ?" En citant ces phrases célèbres de Proust, Jonah Lehrer rend hommage à l''immense intuition dont l''écrivain a fait preuve. Grâce aux miettes prophétiques de sucre, farine et beurre, Proust comprit que notre odorat et notre goût portent ensemble le poids de la mémoire. A l''époque, les physiologistes n''avaient pas la moindre idée du mode de connexion des sens à l''intérieur du cerveau. C''est seulement aujourd''hui que les neurosciences ont confirmé que notre odorat et notre goût sont directement reliés à l''hippocampe, centre de la mémoire à long terme, d''où leur penchant exceptionnellement sentimental. Outre le célèbre écrivain, sept autres artistes précurseurs ont été réunis par Jonah Lehrer dans ce livre. Tous ont découvert, a-t-il constaté, des vérités bien réelles et tangibles sur l''esprit humain que les neurosciences commencent à peine à décrire. Auguste Escoffier sut capter "l''essence du goût", quand Paul Cézanne mit au jour le "processus de la vision". Dans d''autres registres, les amateurs de musique, de littérature et de poésie découvriront les intuitions profondes qu''eurent Igor Stravinsky, Virginia Woolf ou Watt Whitman...

Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output? From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Decide comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative "types," Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It''s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively. Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider''s perspective (travel helps). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. Then he zooms out to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective. You''ll learn about Bob Dylan''s writing habits and the drug addictions of poets. You''ll meet a Manhattan bartender who thinks like a chemist, and an autistic surfer who invented an entirely new surfing move. You''ll see why Elizabethan England experienced a creative explosion, and how Pixar''s office space is designed to spark the next big leap in animation. Collapsing the layers separating the neuron from the finished symphony, Imagine reveals the deep inventiveness of the human mind, and its essential role in our increasingly complex world.

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