Customer Reviews

How to Have a Beautiful Mind

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book is about building a beautiful mind to enhance ones' appeal (regardless of IQ, knowledge, or looks).

First 7 chapters deals pretty much with holding a decent conversation. Much of this sounds like common sense, but sometimes 'not so common' to some people. When holding a conversation, agreeing to everything is no good, as the other party might as well be talking to himself. Disagreeing everything is bad as it shows a mind that wants to demonstrate superiority to others (thus is ugly). There are many levels in between total agreement and disagreement. You can agree on certain points and disagree on certain points (agree to disagree). The key is to find out what you agree and disagree based on mutual understand of each others' values, point of view, personal experience, and extrapolation of what happens in the future. Once you understand the other party's 'logic bubble', you would be able to hold a better conversation without misunderstandings and negative emotions. To make the conversation interesting, you should also supplement , speculate, provide what-ifs, be open to alternatives, and explore points of interest. Edward explores the way you can do all these.

Chapter 8 addressed the concept of "6 Thinking Hats" or Parallel thinking (Edward has a whole book on this btw). In a Court of Law, a prosecutor will not mention points which will help a defence case, and vice versa for the defence attorney. Our usual thinking is based on using arguments as a method, as put forward by the Greeks: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. In an argument, each party is usually looking from his own side. Edward gives an alternative method called Parallel thinking where everyone explores the same side, and goes around to all sides until a complete view is understood. This is covered in more details in another book.

The book is easy to understand and digest, and filled with interesting examples of cases where we should look at both sides to understand the whole picture. I also liked the way that some concepts are indexed (see also page so-and-so) which makes it easy to refer. The book has been an interesting read for me.

There is nothing new from de Bono in this book.

I have great respect for Edward de Bono's work and his 6 Thinking Hats concept and I use his ideas frequently in my work but this book does him no credit.

It is difficult to believe that he personally wrote it. It looks like his 'creative' team have pulled this together out of his previous work and wrapped it in a pretty cover. This is just a cheap marketing trap.

I'll be more wary of anything with the Edward de Bono brand in the future.

This is another good piece from DeBono. The popular concept of "six thinking hats" is addressed - just enough to understand and apply. Clearly, the first 2/3 of the book is excellent with simple examples to relate to most we do.

The last 1/3 is a bit of a drag. May be would not have made any difference if the book were thinner ;-)

Over all a good read, May be borrowing will work well than buying.

I read this when I was feeling down and it really helped me lift my mental performance and my spirits.

Few people have not heard of Eward de Bono. He has made thinking acceptable, and I love how he thinks about thinking - metathinking I guess.

This book shows you how to become a more interesting conversationalist. It goes through all the different ways to agree, disagree, listen and add to any conversation or discussion. I particularly liked his thoughts on parallel thinking. Rather than have people take up a stance, an entrenched position, and then corral information facts and opinions to bolster that view, he advocates turning all minds to solving a problem or looking for solutions by working collaboratively. This works because the contest is to see who can come up with the best ideas in parallel with others at the same time, rather than against another's position. Excellent stuff.

The book is very easy to read but is dense with ideas, activities and suggestions. So while you can read it quickly, it is the sort of book that you want to have as a reference so you can dip into it again and again.

Highly recommended for all ages.