|  | Author: John Medina
Publisher: Pear Press
List Price: $15.00
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Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 805
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 301
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0979777747
Dewey Decimal Number: 612.82
EAN: 9780979777745
ASIN: 0979777747
Publication Date: March 10, 2009
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Showing reviews 21-25 of 85
 A forgettable book May 25, 2009
A. Robinson (Phx, AZ USA)
17 out of 31 found this review helpful
In his introduction, John tells us the story of a man who can list all the multiples of 8,388,628 up to 24 in a few seconds, a boy who can tell the exact time of day without ever having to look at a clock, a girl who can tell you the exact dimensions of a object just by looking at it from 20 feet away, and a child who is such a good artist that they have their own section at a gallery on Madison Avenue. What do these people have in common? They all have an IQ of under 50. What else do they have in common? They all haven't read John Medina's book, Brain Rules. John gives such a dramatic introduction to his book, that you might think he is going to go on and tell us about how someone with an IQ under 50 can do all these things, and then afterwords tells us how a normal person with an IQ of 100 can do all these things and more. But you would be wrong. This illustrates what I call Brain Rule number 13: It is human nature to read between the lines and get suckered into buying anything, if I use the right words in my sales pitch.
For example, in Brain Rule number one, John tells us that you can boost brain power with exercise and there is no such thing as too little exercise, so if you are lying on a couch watching TV, and you wiggle your little finger to the musical beat of a commercial, you are "exercising". That advice helps no one, seeing as the vast majority of people lying on couches already do "exercises" like that. So what good is that insight? John thinks it has made them smarter than what they would have been if they hadn't of "exercised". So they are "smarter" than they would be otherwise, but I'm not impressed. John mentions that we can exercise too much, but again he doesn't say how much is too much. So somewhere between no exercise and too much exercise, there logically has to be an optimum amount of exercise, but John never tells us what that is.
Then there is the question of what kind of exercise is best? Strength training, aerobic training, bodybuilding, or a combination of all three? John doesn't unambiguously tell us. He hints that humans used to travel by foot an average of 12 miles a day, so is that what John considers optimal exercise? Well its not going to happen. Humans are no longer capable of traveling by foot an average of 12 miles a day. Like the Gray Wolf, in the last 20,000 years humans have selectively bred themselves into fat little fluff balls. For most of history, if you were fat, you were attractive and sexy, not because fat looks good, but for the majority of past history, only wealthy people were fat -- and being wealthy always looks attractive and sexy compared to being poor. So those wealthy, fat little fluff balls eventually became the dominant breed.
Another example is that of Brain Rule number three: every brain is wired differently. This is just plain wrong. Anyone who has ever looked up the words "brain lateralization" or "Broca" or "Wernicke" or countless other things about brain-specific functions that have the same exact physical locations in all people, knows that to be wrong. Sure everyone has different experiences and different memories, but those things don't change the wiring of the brain, since memories and experiences still get stored in the same exact physical location as everyone else. Sure there are differences between male and female, but those affect functionality, not wiring. That would be like saying that by loading different programs into the memory of your computer, you are "re-wiring" it to be different from every other computer just like yours. That's just nonsense.
As for the so-called Jennifer Aniston neuron, there is something in our evolutionary history suggesting that there is place for her in our brains, and it is called the popular, sexy woman neuron. For women, I'm sure there is a Burt Reynolds neuron in there somewhere, wouldn't you think?
So just because John Medina is a molecular biologist, doesn't mean what he tells us is true or that he always knows what he is talking about. If John is a scientific expert on these matters, why didn't he include any scholarly, peer reviewed references in his book for any of his claims? If we want to know more about anything he tells us, too bad. We just have to take him at his word...unless we are smarter than that.
After looking over all the reviews on this site, I thought this would have been a four or five star book, but it wasn't even close. This book is actually going to change zero lives because it doesn't give us enough information to actually change our lives, therefore this book will make a fine addition to my trashcan, where in a few years from it now it will be forgotten, as I predict it eventually will for everyone who has read this book.
 Absolutely fascinating book May 4, 2009
Reg Nordman (Vancouver, BC Canada)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Absolutely fascinating book. Check him out [...] and [...]. He lists out 12 rules but there could be many more, and if you were like me you would want Medina to just keep going. If you have always wondered why we are the way we are- you will enjoy this book. If you are a parent , you must read this book. If you present information for learning of ny kind and you want to make a difference, you must read this book and put the principles into practise. I loved this book, I devoured it. This author knows how you think and has written a book that you can really learn from. Enough, go out and buy it!
 Brain Rules review May 2, 2009
D. R. Kuipers
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A good book highlighting and illustrating some of the most important aspects of learning combined with a DVD.
Well worth the read. April 29, 2009
C. Huff (Austin, TX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I teach high school Biology. This book worked for me on two levels...sharpened my understanding of brain anatomy and physiology as well as provided insights into how the human brain learns. Easy to read and entertaining to boot.
Interesting. Rich in Material. Must Read April 27, 2009
Kartik Shah (St. Louis, MO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book present good information about how human brain works.
It is properly organized, gives good synopsis our understanding human brains. It also does nice jobs of helping layman understands nitty-gritty of human brains without using overly complex scientific terminology.
Last two chapters also bring unique insights. I really like them most.
Only negatives about the book, it that while it does good enough job of explaining how brain works, it leaves up to the reader how to make best use of the information provided. It does not give us clear action plan or take aways on how to get best of our brain.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 85
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