Maria Konnikova is the author of Mastermind and The Confidence Game. She is a regular contributing writer for The New Yorker, and has written for the Atlantic, the New York Times, Slate, the New Republic, the Paris Review, the Wall Street Journal, Salon, the Boston Globe, the Scientific American MIND, WIRED, and Smithsonian. Maria graduated from Harvard University and received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University.
"Steven Pinker meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in this entertaining,
insightful look at how the fictional London crime-solver used
sophisticated mental strategies to solve complex problems of logic
and deduction... practical and enjoyable."
--Boston Globe "An entertaining blend of Holmesiana and
modern-day neuroscience."
--New York Times "A clearly written guide to the mysteries of
logical deduction."
--Dallas Morning News "The book is part literary analysis
and part self-help guide, teaching readers how to sharpen the ways
they observe the world, store and retrieve memories, and make
decisions."
--Scientific American "Mastermind: How to Think Like
Sherlock Holmes is fascinating from cover to cover -- highly
recommended."
--Brain Pickings "Your favorite mental short-cuts and slip-ups are
all here. But Ms. Konnikova finds an ingenious delivery system.
Holmes and Watson, she shows, respectively personify our rational
and intuitive modes of thought. In story after story, taking the
time to think carefully allows Holmes to school his slack-jawed
sidekick."
--The Wall Street Journal "The book is part literary
analysis and part self-help guide, teaching readers how to sharpen
the ways they observe the world, store and retrieve memories, and
make decisions."
--Scientific American "The fast-paced, high-tech world we
inhabit may be more complex than Sherlock Holmes's Baker Street,
but we can still leverage the mental strategies of the renowned
reasoner...Forcing the mind to observe, imagine and deduce can make
the brain more precise--important for solving cases or simply
staying sharp as we age."
--Psychology Today "Devotees of Arthur Conan Doyle's
conundrum-cracker will be thrilled by this portmanteau of
strategies for sharpening cognitive ability... A few hours in
Konnikova's company and, along with Holmes, you might intone, 'give
me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and
I am in my own proper atmosphere' (The Sign of Four,
1890)."
--Nature "Have you ever thought about how your mind
organizes information? Have you ever wished you could access that
data more quickly? Could recollect it easier? Or have you simply
wanted to think more clearly at key moments?... This book is an
absolute must if you're in the market for training yourself to
think more like Sherlock Holmes."
--SheKnows.com "A bright and entertaining how-to aimed at helping
readers engage in the awareness described by psychologists from
William James to Ellen Langer."
--Kirkus Reviews "Not for Baker Street Irregulars alone,
this fascinating look at how the mind works--replete with real-life
case studies and engaging thought experiments--will be an
eye-opening education for many." --Publishers Weekly
(Starred Review) "A delightful tour of the science of memory,
creativity, and reasoning, illustrated with the help of history's
most famous reasoner, Sherlock Holmes himself. Maria Konnikova is
an engaging and insightful guide to this fascinating material,
which will help you master your own mind."
--Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard
University, and author of How the Mind Works and The
Stuff of Thought "Far from elementary, Maria Konnikova's new
book is a challenging and insightful study of the human mind,
illustrated with cases from the career of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes
himself would have been proud to author this fine work!"
--Leslie S. Klinger, New York Times-best-selling
author/editor of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes
"Maria Konnikova's bright and brilliant new book is nothing less
than a primer on how be awake, a manual on how to work ourselves
free of our unconscious biases, our habitual distractions, and the
muddle of our everyday minds. Holmes fan or not, the reader will
find Mastermind to be bracing, fascinating, and above all --
and most important -- hopeful."
--Daniel Smith, author of Monkey Mind "Since my earliest
days as a reader I dreamt of being more like Sherlock Holmes and
failed miserably whenever I tried. Needless to say, MASTERMIND is
the book I didn't realize I was waiting for. Maria Konnikova has
crafted a surprising and ingenious book that lets us all come
closer to Holmes's genius, giving a gift to all readers interested
in Conan Doyle, mysteries and scientific thinking as well as those
who simply want to be more self-aware about the inner workings of
our minds."
--Matthew Pearl, New York Times-bestselling author of The
Dante Club "'You know my methods, ' Sherlock Holmes once said
to Dr. Watson. 'Apply them!' Science writer Maria Konnikova has
made those instructions the inspiration for what turns out to be a
delightfully intelligent book. Using Holmes and Watson as both muse
and metaphor, she shows us some of modern psychology's most
important lessons for using our minds well. I probably won't be
able to solve murders after having read Mastermind, but I
will have much to reflect on."
--Carl Zimmer, author of Soul Made Flesh and Parasite
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