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| Brain Rules | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Pear Press
Category: EBooks
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $2.00 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 3679
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
ASIN: B0015ASGQO
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Most of us have no idea what's really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent,and teacher should know, such as the brain's need for physical activity to work at its best. How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget and so important to repeat new knowledge? Is it true that men and women have different brains?
In Brain Rules, molecular biologist Dr. John Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a Brain Rule "what scientists know for sure about how our brains work" and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 Rule #0 Read this Book May 24, 2008
34 out of 42 found this review helpful
The Summary
John Medina has written one of the best brain books I have read. He is a molecular biologist and director of Brain Center for Applied Learning at the Seattle Pacific University. He explains the latest research on the brain, and there have been a lot of advances recently on how the brain works. He boils them down to 12 rules that will help you in all walks of life. If you want an owner's manual for the brain then this is probably the one that should be handed out with every new-born.
The Audience
Everyone and I mean everyone should read this book! As long as they have a homo-sapien brain, if you have one of the older models; homo erectus, neanderthal you should probably wait for evolution! This is truly an owner's manual for the brain! If you are a student or knowledge worker you should run; yes running will actually help you digest the material in the book better (Rule #2 - Exercise - exercise boosts brain power); to buy it and read it! Medina outlines some of his own thoughts on how to leverage the rules in the home, school and work.
The Details
John Medina has written one of the best brain books I have read (Rule #5 Short Term Memory - repeat to remember, Rule #6 Long Term Memory - repeat to remember). There are many books out at the moment that talk about the latest research on brains but John's is undoubtedly the best. Neuroscience has taken some giant leaps in the understanding of how the brain works in the last 20 years. I was researching AI back in the early 90's and since then there has been a lot of new research in this area. For the last year I have been catching up and reading everything I can find on neuroscience and that was how I stumbled across Medina's book. I nearly put it aside since it seemed too basic but boy am I glad I didn't. This book is fun to read and I learned a lot. I love John's approach of only including research that follows certain criteria. For a study to appear in this book it has to pass the Medina Grump Factor (MGF) - (John refers to himself as a grumpy scientist)
1) Research must be published in a peer-reviewed journal
2) The research must be successfully replicated
Even though the material in this book is based on cutting edge research you should not feel intimidated. This book is well written and the material is presented following many of rules that are outlined. The book is actually a pleasure to read!
Following these rules has lead Medina to not only structure the book so it is easy to digest; adding stories, chunking information, providing summaries etc but he has also included a DVD with videos and an accompanying website with more information and references. This is truly a full sensory experience (Rule #4 - Attention - We don't pay attention to boring things!, Rule #9 - Sensory Information - Stimulate more of the senses, Rule #10 Vision - Vision trumps all other senses)
If you want to understand your brain and improve it; and everyone should want to understand their brain and improve it; you should read this book.
The Take-Aways
I can't say enough good things about this book. John Medina has written an excellent book leveraging all the latest research about the brain and turning it into a set of rules to remember. Your brain will never feel the same again! Read and then follow Medina's advice on how your brain remembers new information and how often you should review it (Rule #5 Short Term Memory - repeat to remember, Rule #6 Long Term Memory - repeat to remember).
Kes Sampanthar
Inventor of ThinkCube
Your Brain Is Easily Bored! March 10, 2008
25 out of 32 found this review helpful
This is an astounding book on the brain. Stop asking job applicants if they can multi-task. The brain can't multi-task. It's a myth, says John Medina.
Yikes! In my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit, I talk about four levels of leadership and management knowledge. Level 1 is "I don't know what I don't know." Bingo! You must read (or listen to) this amazing new book.
Did you know that exercise boosts brain power (Rule 1)? So how often do you exercise at work? Eight hours of cubicle confinement (without exercise) makes no business sense. Rule 5 is "Repeat to remember." If you don't repeat something you learned within 30 seconds, you'll forget it within one to two hours. School assignments, hours later at home, don't play to brain rules.
And my favorite: "Sleep well, think well" (Rule 7). Medina recommends mid-afternoon naps to battle the dreaded 3 p.m. "nap zone." (Don't do meetings then.) NASA research showed that the performance of pilots increased 34 percent after a 26-minute afternoon nap.
This book will crush your misconceptions about your sterling presentations (most people lose their audiences after 10 minutes). Rule 4: "We don't pay attention to boring things." You'll learn about the dangers of boss-induced stress and the staying power of pictures (the visual) versus words.
Medina says that 10-20 percent of us are night owls and 10-20 percent of us are early morning people--the rest somewhere in between. It's a brain thing. So...how important is flex time at work? Be honest: what would be your preferred working hours, if other than nine to five?
The book includes an attention-grabbing 45-minute DVD covering all 12 brain rules--and many laugh-out-loud sit-com scenarios to illustrate these survival principles. The DVD also includes three MP3 chapters from the audio book. The DVD alone is worth the book's cover price. You'll get 12 insightful and humorous short videos for your next 12 staff meetings.
The applications for this book are vast. Harvard Business Review's "Breakthrough Ideas for 2008" (February 2008) includes the author's article, "The Board Meeting of the Future," based on his brain rules. So ask your team, "What should the staff meeting of the future look like?"
Learn To Optimally Use Your Brain March 12, 2008
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
I have loved reading the book and viewing the DVD. I have been a huge fan of John's work over the years as he translates the arcane world of genetics and the brain to make them accessible to all. In Brain Rules he does a marvelous job in simplifying the best ways to get the most out of our brains. He is funny, tender, and completely engaging. Everyone should read this book to help get the most our of their brains in the future.
Everyone who works in schools should read this! March 21, 2008
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
With a fabulous DVD (stimulate more of the senses, Rule #9 and the visual trumps all, Rule #10) to kick off the book, this direct, funny, fast romp through about 30 years of brain research makes neurocognitive findings fun! "If you wanted to create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a classroom," says Medina--and we thank him for confirming what a lot of us have sensed for a long time.
Other important Brain Rules: we need to move to learn better, every brain is wired differently (there is no one type of learner and we need to construct environments that celebrate cognitive diversity in schools) and perhaps most important: We are powerful and natural explorers! I sure do wish everyone who designs instruction, works in schools, or (tries to!) learn in schools would read this. We don't pay attention to boring things.
What? Is it time for recess yet?
Stop Battling Your Brain! April 5, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
The genius of this book is that it uses the most recent scientific research, discussed in a very entertaining way, to identify 12 rules for optimizing your most important tool - your BRAIN. Read the chapter on "Attention" and you will never give a presentation in the same way again. Read the chapter on "Sleep" and you will understand why an afternoon nap can be the most productive 20 minutes of your work day. Read the chapter on "Exercise" and you'll finally get why great ideas (ok, and maybe some clunkers but at least you're thinking!)come to you in the middle of your workout. Like the author, you may toss the guest chair and put a treadmill in your office with a bracket for your laptop - this gives new meaning to the concept of management by walking around. The bottom line is that brain science is beginning to produce really useful information about how our brains are wired; this book is a user's manual on how to work with the way we're wired instead of fighting against it. I highly recommend it.
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