An outstanding mind to think like Sherlock Holmes completely. Weekend reading "Outstanding Mind" by Maria Konnikova. Scientific Method of Thinking

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Abstract

Is it possible to learn to think as clearly and rationally as Sherlock Holmes, or is his impeccable logic and crystal clear mind just an invention of the writer?

Yes, Maria Konnikova, a well-known American psychologist and journalist, is convinced. Viewing episodes from Conan Doyle's books in the light of modern neuroscience and psychology, she uncovers step by step, effortlessly and fascinatingly, mental strategies that lead to clear thinking and a deep understanding of phenomena and facts. The book describes how, following the example of the great detective, with the desire and some training, we can sharpen our perception, develop logic and creativity.

Translation: Ulyana Saptsina

Maria Konnikova

Introduction

Maria Konnikova

Extraordinary Mind: Thinking Like Sherlock Holmes

...

It's funny, but Maria Konnikova's book, fascinating and sometimes provocative, really makes you think about how we think.

Book Review

...

This is an extremely useful book, based on the achievements of modern psychology and full of examples from modern life. She will help you find mutual language with your inner Holmes and spend more than one hour with him in a cozy armchair by the fireplace, observing and drawing conclusions.

Boston Globe

...

Maria Konnikova's new book is by no means "elementary": it is an up-to-date and thoughtful study of the human mind, complemented by examples from life and professional activity Sherlock Holmes. Holmes himself could be proud if he became the author of such a wonderful work!

Publishers Weekly

...

bright, talented A new book Maria Konnikova is nothing more than a textbook on the awakening of consciousness, a guide to getting rid of subconscious prejudices, from the habit of being distracted, from the confusion of our everyday thoughts. Even those readers who do not consider Holmes their idol will find that the book is stimulating, captivating and, most importantly, beneficial.

The Independent

Dedicated to Jeff

The choice of objects of attention - the ability to pay attention to some and neglect others - occupies the same place in the internal manifestations of life as the choice of actions - in the external. In both cases, a person is responsible for his choice and is forced to put up with its consequences. As Ortega y Gasset said, "Tell me what you pay attention to, and I'll tell you who you are."

W. H. Auden

Introduction

When I was little, my dad used to read us stories about Sherlock Holmes before going to bed. My brother, taking the opportunity, immediately fell asleep in his corner of the sofa, but all of us, the rest, hung on every word. I remember the big leather armchair in which my father sat, holding a book in front of him with one hand, I remember how the flames dancing in the fireplace were reflected in the glasses of his black-rimmed glasses. I remember how he raised and lowered his voice, building up tension before each plot twist, and finally - the long-awaited solution, when everything suddenly made sense, and I shook my head, just like Dr. Watson, and thought: “Well, of course! How simple it is now that he has explained everything!” I remember the smell of the pipe my father used to smoke so often, like the sweet smoke of a coarse tobacco mixture settling in the folds of the leather armchair, I remember the night shapes behind the curtains and the glass door. Papa's pipe was, of course, slightly bent - just like Holmes's. I also remember the final sound of the book being slammed shut, when the pages were again joined under the crimson covers of the binding, and dad announced: "That's all for today." And we dispersed: it was useless to ask, beg and build plaintive grimaces - upstairs and into bed.

And one more detail stuck in my memory then - so deeply that it sat in it, haunting me, even many years later, when the rest of the stories faded, merged into a blurred background and the adventures of Holmes and his devoted biographer were forgotten to the last. This detail is the steps.

The steps of 221B Baker Street. How many were there? Holmes asked Watson about this in A Scandal in Bohemia, and this question of his forever stuck in my head. Holmes and Watson are next to each other in armchairs, the detective explains to the doctor how the ability to simply look differs from the ability to notice. Watson is puzzled. And then all of a sudden it becomes completely clear.

...

“When I listen to your reasoning,” Watson remarked, “everything seems ridiculously simple to me - so much so that I myself would guess without difficulty, but in each individual case I am at a loss until you explain the course of your thoughts. Nevertheless, I am convinced that my eye is as vigilant as yours.

“Exactly,” Holmes replied, lighting a cigarette and leaning back in his chair. You see, but you don't notice. The difference is obvious. For example, you often see stairs leading from the hallway to this room.

- Often.

- How many times have you seen them?

- Several hundred.

And how many steps are there?

- Steps? .. I don’t know.

- Exactly! You didn't notice. Although they saw them. That's what it's about. And I know that there are seventeen steps, because I saw them and noticed them.

I was shocked by this dialogue, heard one evening by the light of the fireplace, when pipe smoke hung in the air. I frantically tried to remember how many steps in our house (I had no idea), how many of them lead to our front door(again no answer), but how many - down to the basement floor (ten? Twenty? I could not even give an approximate figure). For a long time afterwards, I tried to count the steps on all the stairs that I came across, and remember the results - in case someone asked me for an account. Holmes would be proud of me.

Of course, I almost immediately forgot every number that I tried so diligently to remember - only much later did I realize that by completely concentrating on memorizing, I was losing sight of the true essence of the problem. My efforts from the very beginning were in vain.

At the time, I did not realize that Holmes had a significant advantage over me. For most of his life, he perfected his method of thoughtful interaction with the outside world. And the steps in the house on Baker Street are just a way to demonstrate a skill that he used to use naturally, without thinking. One of the manifestations of the process, habitually and almost unconsciously flowing in his ever-active mind. If you like, a trick that has no practical purpose - and yet performed deepest meaning, one has only to think about what made it possible. A trick that inspired me to write a whole book about him.

The idea of mindfulness is by no means new. Also in late XIX v. the father of modern psychology, William James, wrote that “the ability to consciously focus the scattered attention, doing it again and again, is the fundamental basis of judgment, character and will ... The best education- one that develops this ability. By itself, the mentioned ability is the quintessence of thoughtfulness. And the education offered by James is training in a thoughtful approach to life and thinking.

In the 70s. 20th century Ellen Langer has demonstrated that mindfulness can do more than change "judgment, character, and will" for the better. By practicing mindfulness, older people even feel younger and act accordingly, this approach improves their vital signs such as arterial pressure as well as cognitive function. Research recent years showed that meditation meditations (exercises for the complete control of attention, which is the basis of thoughtfulness), when performed for only fifteen minutes a day, change the indicators of activity of the frontal lobes of the brain in a direction more characteristic of a positive emotional state and result orientation, in other words, even a short contemplation of nature can make us more insightful, creative and productive. In addition, we can now say with great certainty that our brains are not designed for multitasking, which completely excludes thoughtfulness. When we are forced to do many things at the same time, we not only cope worse with all these things, our memory worsens, our general well-being suffers significantly.

But for Sherlock Holmes, thoughtful presence is just the first step. It suggests a far more significant, utilitarian, and rewarding purpose. Holmes recommends the same thing that William James prescribed: learning to develop our capacity for thoughtful thinking and apply it in practice to achieve more, think better, make better decisions more often. In other words, it is about improving our ability to make decisions and build inferences, starting from its foundation, from the building blocks that make up our mind.

Contrasting the ability to see with the ability to notice, Holmes actually explains to Watson that in no case should one mistake thoughtlessness for thoughtfulness, confuse a passive approach with active involvement. Our vision works automatically: this flow of sensory information requires no effort on our part, we just have to keep our eyes open. And we see, without hesitation, we absorb countless elements of the world around us, not honoring what we see with the necessary processing by the brain. Sometimes we are not even aware of what is right in front of our eyes. In order to notice something, you need to focus your attention. To do this, you need to move from passive absorption of information to its active perception. That is, consciously engage in it. This applies not only to sight, but to all feelings, to all incoming information and to every thought.

Too often we treat our own minds with surprising thoughtlessness. We go with the flow, not suspecting how much we are missing in our own thought process, and we don’t even know how much we would win if we took some time to understand and comprehend it. Like Watson, we walk along the same stairs dozens, hundreds, thousands of times, several times a day, but we do not try to remember even the simplest features of this staircase (I would not be surprised if Holmes asked not about the number of steps, but about their color and discover that even this detail was left unnoticed by Watson).

It's not that we're incapable of remembering, it's just that we ourselves choose not to. Remember your childhood. If I asked you to tell me about the street you grew up on, you would most likely remember a lot of details: the color of the houses, the quirks of the neighbors. Smells in different time of the year. What the street looked like at different times of the day. Places where you played and where you went. And where they were afraid to go. I bet the story would drag on for hours.

As children, we are extremely receptive. We absorb and process information at a speed that we cannot even dream of in the future. New sights, new sounds and smells, new people, emotions, impressions: we get to know our world and its possibilities. Everything around is new, everything is interesting, everything excites curiosity. It is precisely because of this novelty of everything that surrounds us that we are sensitive and alert, we are concentrated and do not miss anything. Moreover, thanks to motivation and involvement (two qualities that we will return to more than once), we not only perceive the world more fully than we will later do, but also store information for future use. Who knows what might come in handy and when?

As we grow older, our satiety grows exponentially. We've already been there, we've already been through it, there's no need to pay attention to it, and will I ever need it? Without having time to come to our senses, we lose our natural attentiveness, enthusiasm and curiosity and submit to the habit of passivity and thoughtlessness. And even when we want to get carried away with something, it turns out that this luxury, so accessible in childhood, has already been denied to us. Gone are the days when our main job was to learn, absorb, interact; now we have other, more urgent (as it seems to us) responsibilities, our mind must serve other needs. And as the demand for our attention grows—which is unsettling in the digital age, when the brain is required to perform many parallel tasks twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week—our attention is actually declining. As we do so, we gradually lose the ability to think about our own thinking habits or notice them at all, and increasingly allow our minds to dictate our judgments and decisions instead of doing the exact opposite. There is nothing wrong with this phenomenon itself - we will mention more than once the need to automate some of the initially difficult and cognitively expensive processes - but it dangerously brings us closer to thoughtlessness. The line between dexterity and thoughtless mechanicalness is thin, and here one must be extremely careful not to cross it inadvertently.

You must have had situations when you need to abandon the movement on the knurled track, and suddenly it turns out that you have forgotten how to do it. Let's say you need to stop by the pharmacy on your way home. You have been thinking about this upcoming business all day. You rehearsed mentally, imagining where you need to turn again in order to drive up to where you need to, only slightly deviating from the usual path. And then you find yourself standing outside the house, not even remembering that you were going to go somewhere else. You forgot to make an additional turn, drove by, and not the slightest thought about it flashed through your head. Habitual thoughtlessness intervened, routine overpowering the part of your brain that knew you had one more thing to do.

This happens all the time. We get into a rut so much that we spend half a day in a mindless stupor. (Are you still thinking about work? Worried about email? Do you plan dinner in advance? Forget it!) This automatic forgetfulness, this power of routine, this ease with which we are ready to be distracted, is still a trifle, although noticeable (because we are given to realize that we forgot to do something), this trifle is only a small part of much more large scale phenomenon. The above happens more often than we think: we rarely realize our own thoughtlessness. How many thoughts arise and dissipate before we can catch them? How many ideas and insights elude us because we forget to pay attention to them? How many decisions do we make without realizing how and why we made them, driven by some internal "default" settings - settings that we either vaguely guess about or don't suspect at all? How often do we have days when we suddenly catch ourselves and wonder what we have done and how we got to such a life?

The purpose of this book is to help you. Using the principles of Holmes as an example, it understands and explains the steps that you need to take in order to develop the habit of thoughtful contact with yourself and the world around you. So that you, too, can casually mention the exact number of steps on the stairs, to the amazement of the less attentive interlocutor. So, kindle the fire, sit comfortably on the sofa and get ready to once again take part in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. hidden corners of the human mind.

Part 1 UNDERSTAND YOURSELF

Chapter 1 THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF THINKING

Something terrible was happening to the cattle on the farms in Great Wyerley. Sheep, cows, horses, one after another, fell dead in the middle of the night. Each time, the cause of death was a long shallow wound on the belly, from which the animal slowly and painfully bled. Who could have thought of inflicting such pain on defenseless beings?

The police decided they knew the answer: George Edalji, the son of the local vicar, a half-breed Indian. In 1903, twenty-seven-year-old Edalji was sentenced to seven years' hard labor for one of sixteen mutilations caused by a pony whose corpse was found in a quarry near the vicar's house. The vicar's oath that his son was asleep at the time of the crime did not affect the verdict. As well as the fact that the killings continued after George was taken into custody. And that the evidence was based largely on anonymous letters attributed to George—letters pointing to him as the killer. The police, led by Staffordshire County Police Chief, Senior Constable Captain George Anson, were convinced that the perpetrator had been found.

Edalji was released three years later. Two petitions were sent to the British Home Office declaring Edalji's innocence: one signed by ten thousand people, the second by three hundred lawyers, and the authors of both letters referred to the lack of evidence in this case. However, the story didn't end there. Edalji was released, but his name was still tarnished. Prior to his arrest, he was a barrister. He had no right to resume legal practice after his release.

In 1906, Edalji was lucky: Arthur Conan Doyle became interested in his case. That winter, Conan Doyle arranged to meet Edalji at the Grand Hotel, Charing Cross. If Conan Doyle had any doubts about Edalji's innocence, they were dispelled in the hotel lobby. As Conan Doyle later wrote,

...

“... he came to the hotel, as agreed, and I was late, and he whiled away the time reading the newspaper. Recognizing him from a distance by his swarthy face, I stopped and watched him for a while. He held the newspaper too close to his eyes, and at an angle, which indicated not only severe myopia, but pronounced astigmatism. The very idea of such a man prowling the fields at night and attacking livestock, trying not to get caught by the police, looked ridiculous ... Thus, already in this single physical defect lay the moral certainty of his innocence.

But, despite his own conviction, Conan Doyle knew that this was not enough and that it would be much more difficult to bring this case to the attention of the Home Office. And he went to Great Wyerley to collect relevant evidence. He questioned local residents, examined crime scenes, studied evidence and circumstances. He faced the growing hostility of Captain Anson. I visited the school where George studied. Raised old information about anonymous letters and pranks, the object of which was the same family. He sought out a handwriting expert, who had earlier announced that Edalji's handwriting was the same as that used to write the anonymous messages. Finally, he presented the collected materials to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Bloodied blades? They are really old and rusty—at least they can't inflict the kind of wounds that animals have suffered. Clay on Edalji's clothes? The composition is different than in the field where the pony was found. Graph expert? He had already come to the wrong conclusions, as a result, guilty verdicts were handed down to the innocent. And of course, the problem with vision: how could a person suffering from severe astigmatism and, in addition, myopia, navigate at night in the fields where animals were killed?

In the spring of 1907 Edalji was finally acquitted of the charges of cruelly killing animals. Conan Doyle never achieved the complete victory he had hoped for—George was not compensated in any way for his time under arrest and in prison—but it was a success nonetheless. Edalji resumed the practice of law. As Conan Doyle summed up, the commission of inquiry found that "the police again began an investigation and conducted it with the aim of finding not the culprit, but evidence against Edalji, of whose guilt they were convinced from the very beginning." In August of the same year, the first court of appeal appeared in England, whose task was to control in case of violations in the administration of justice. The Edalji case is considered to be one of the main reasons for the creation of such courts.

The incident made an indelible impression on Conan Doyle's friends, but the writer George Meredith expressed his impressions best of all. “I won’t mention the name, which you must be fed up with,” Meredith told Conan Doyle, “but the creator of the image of a brilliant private investigator personally proved that he himself is capable of something.” Although Sherlock Holmes is a figment of the imagination, his pedantic approach to thinking is completely real. With proper application, his method can leave the pages of the book and give tangible positive results, and not only in the investigation of crimes.

It is enough to pronounce the name of Sherlock Holmes, as a lot of pictures pop up in your memory. A tube. Hunting cap with earmuffs. Cloak. Violin. Hawk profile. Perhaps the face of William Gillett, Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett or other celebrities who have ever embodied the image of Holmes, such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr. Whatever pictures appear before your mind's eye, I will assume that they have nothing to do with the word "psychologist". Nevertheless, it's time to pronounce it.

Holmes was a consummate detective, that's for sure. But his understanding of the features human thinking surpasses his most significant exploits in the field of the guardian of the law. Sherlock Holmes offers more than just a way to solve crimes. His approach is applicable not only on the streets of foggy London. It transcends both science and investigative actions and can serve as a model for thinking and even for existence, as effective today as it was in the days of Conan Doyle. I'm willing to bet that this is the secret of Holmes' relentless, striking, and ubiquitous appeal.

When creating him, Conan Doyle had a low opinion of his character. It is unlikely that he was guided by the intention to present a model of thinking, decision-making, the art of formulating and solving problems. However, this is exactly the pattern he got. In fact, Conan Doyle created the ideal spokesman for the revolutionary ideas in science and the way of thinking - a revolution that had unfolded in the previous decades and continued into the dawn of the new century. In 1887, Holmes appeared - a new type of detective, a never-before-seen thinker, an example of an unprecedented application of the power of reason. Today, Holmes serves as a standard for thinking more effectively than we take for granted.

Sherlock Holmes was in many ways a visionary. His explanations, methodology, whole approach to the process of thinking anticipated the development of psychology and neuroscience a hundred years ahead and have been relevant for more than eighty years after the death of its creator. But for some reason, Holmes' way of thinking unwillingly looks like a pure product of his time and place in history. If the scientific method has demonstrated its merits in all sorts of scientific and other activities - from the theory of evolution to radiography, from general relativity to the discovery of pathogens and anesthesia, from behaviorism to psychoanalysis - then why should it not manifest itself in the principles of thinking itself?

According to Arthur Conan Doyle himself, Sherlock Holmes was originally destined to become the personification of the scientific approach, the ideal to which one should strive, even if it can never be reproduced exactly (after all, what else are ideals for, if not in order to remain out of reach?). The very name of Holmes immediately indicates that the author's intentions were not to create an unpretentious image of a detective in the spirit of bygone times: most likely, Conan Doyle chose his hero's name with intent, as a tribute to one of the idols of his childhood, the doctor and philosopher Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., known both for his work and practical achievements. The prototype of the personality of the famous detective was another mentor of Conan Doyle, Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon who became famous for his powers of observation. It was said that Dr. Bell only needed one look to determine that the patient was a recently discharged sergeant from the Highland Regiment who had just served in Barbados, and that Dr. Bell regularly tested the insight of his students, using methods that included experimenting on himself with various toxic substances. , - things familiar to everyone who carefully read the stories about Holmes. As Conan Doyle wrote to Dr. Bell, “Around the core of deduction, inference, and observation, which I hear you practice, I have tried to create an image of a man who has gone as far as possible in these, and sometimes even more. further...” It is this deduction, logic and observation that brings us to the very essence of the Holmes character, to how he differs from all other detectives who appeared before and, for that matter, after him: this detective raised the art of investigation to level of exact science.

With the quintessence of the approach inherent in Sherlock Holmes, we meet in the story "A Study in Scarlet", in which the detective first appears before the reader. It soon becomes clear that for Holmes, each case is not just a case, as it appears to the Scotland Yard police (a crime, a series of facts, several defendants, a generalization of information - all this in order to bring the criminal to justice), but something at the same time and more. , and less. More - because in this case the matter acquires a wider and general meaning, as a subject of large-scale studies and reflections, becoming, if you like, a scientific problem. Its outlines are inevitably visible in previous tasks and will undoubtedly be repeated in future ones. general principles apply to other seemingly unrelated issues as well. Less - because the case is deprived of the accompanying emotional and hypothetical components - elements that cloud the clarity of thought - and becomes as objective as reality outside of science can be. Result: the crime is the subject of strictly scientific research, which should be approached, guided by scientific methodological principles. And the human mind is their servant. What is the "scientific method of thinking"?

When it comes to the scientific method, we usually think of an experimental scientist in a lab—perhaps with a test tube and a white coat—going along something like this: make some observations related to some phenomenon; put forward a hypothesis explaining these observations; develop an experiment to test this hypothesis; to make an experiment; see if the results meet expectations; if necessary, refine the hypothesis; wash, rinse and repeat. It seems to be quite simple. But how to do something more difficult? Can the mind be trained to automatically act in this way every time?

Holmes recommends that we start with the basics. As he says on our first meeting with him, “before turning to the moral and intellectual aspects of the matter, which present the greatest difficulties, let the researcher begin with the simpler problems.” scientific method is based on the most prosaic of actions - observation. Even before asking questions that determine the course of an investigation or scientific experiment, or to make a seemingly simple decision - to invite one of your friends to dinner or not - you need to prepare the foundation, conduct preliminary work. No wonder Holmes calls the foundations of his research "elementary". For they really are, these are the basics of the device and the principles of the work of everything in the world.

Not every scientist realizes what these basics are - they are so firmly rooted in his way of thinking. When a physicist thinks up a new experiment, or a chemist decides to investigate the properties of a newly obtained compound, he does not always realize that his particular question, his approach, his hypothesis, his very ideas of what he is doing, would not be possible without the existing at his disposal elementary knowledge, accumulated over the years. Moreover, it will be difficult for this scientist to explain to you exactly where he got the very idea of \u200b\u200bresearch and why he decided that they made sense in the first place.

After World War II, physicist Richard Feynman was invited to serve on the state curriculum commission to select science textbooks for California high school students. To Feynman's dismay, the texts presented were likely to confuse students rather than enlighten them. Each subsequent textbook turned out to be worse than the previous one. Eventually he came across a promising start: a series of illustrations depicting a wind-up toy, a car, and a boy on a bicycle. And under each signature: "What set this object in motion?" Finally, Feynman thought, he had an explanation of the basics of science, starting with the basics of mechanics (a toy), chemistry (a car), and biology (a boy). Alas, his joy was short-lived. Where he hoped to finally find explanation and true understanding, he saw the words: "This object is set in motion by energy." But what is it? Why does energy move objects? How does she do it? These questions not only did not receive an answer, but were not posed either. As Feynman put it, "it doesn't mean anything... it's just a word!" And he continued to reason: “What should be done is to look at a clockwork toy, see what is inside the spring, learn about springs and wheels, and forget about energy and forget about it. And only later, when the children understand how the toy actually works, can we discuss more general principles of energy with them.”

Feynman is one of the few people who did not take their basic knowledge for granted, but always kept in mind the "bricks" - the elements that underlie each task and each principle. This is precisely what Holmes means when he explains to us that we must begin with the basics, with such ordinary questions that we do not honor them with attention. How can you put forward hypotheses and develop testable theories if you do not know in advance what and how to observe, if you do not understand the fundamental nature of the problem, which in question, do not lay it out into its main components? (Simplicity is deceptive, as we shall see in the next two chapters.)

The scientific method begins with a vast knowledge base, with an understanding of the facts and the general outline of the problem to be solved. In A Study in Scarlet, such a task for Holmes becomes a murder mystery in an abandoned house in Lauriston Gardens. In your case, it may be a decision - to change your profession or not to do it. Whatever the specifics of the problem, it is necessary to define it, mentally formulate it as specifically as possible, and then fill in the gaps in it through the experience of the past and the observations made in the present. (As Holmes reminds Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson, who did not notice the similarity of the murder being investigated with the previous one: "Nothing is new under the sun. Everything has happened before.") Only then can one proceed to the stage of developing a hypothesis. At this point, the detective calls on his imagination to help and outlines possible lines of investigation depending on the course of events, without clinging to the most obvious explanations (for example, in "A Study in Scarlet" the inscription "Rache" on the wall does not necessarily mean the unfinished name "Rachel ”—it could very well be the German word for “revenge”)—and you are trying to anticipate the likely scenarios due to your job change. At the same time, in both cases, hypotheses are not put forward at random: all scenarios and explanations are based on basic knowledge and observations.

Abstract

Is it possible to learn to think as clearly and rationally as Sherlock Holmes, or is his impeccable logic and crystal clear mind just an invention of the writer?

Translation: Ulyana Saptsina

Maria Konnikova

Introduction

Maria Konnikova

Extraordinary Mind: Thinking Like Sherlock Holmes

...

It's funny, but Maria Konnikova's book, fascinating and sometimes provocative, really makes you think about how we think.

Book Review

...

This is an extremely useful book, based on the achievements of modern psychology and full of examples from modern life. It will help you find a common language with your inner Holmes and spend more than one hour with him in a cozy armchair by the fireplace, observing and drawing conclusions.

Boston Globe

...

The new book by Maria Konnikova is by no means "elementary": it is a topical and thoughtful study of the human mind, complemented by examples from the life and professional work of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes himself could be proud if he became the author of such a wonderful work!

Publishers Weekly

...

The bright, talented new book by Maria Konnikova is nothing more than a textbook on the awakening of consciousness, a guide to getting rid of subconscious prejudices, from the habit of being distracted, from the confusion of our everyday thoughts. Even those readers who do not consider Holmes their idol will find that the book is stimulating, captivating and, most importantly, beneficial.

The Independent

Dedicated to Jeff

W. H. Auden

Introduction

...

- Often.

- How many times have you seen them?

- Several hundred.

And how many steps are there?

- Steps? .. I don’t know.

- Exactly! You didn't notice. Although they saw them. That's what it's about. And I know that there are seventeen steps, because I saw them and noticed them.

I was shocked by this dialogue, heard one evening by the light of the fireplace, when pipe smoke hung in the air. I frantically tried to remember how many steps there were in our house (I had no idea), how many led up to our front door (again no answer), and how many went down to the basement (ten? Twenty? I couldn't even give a ballpark figure. ). For a long time afterwards, I tried to count the steps on all the stairs that I came across, and remember the results - in case someone asked me for an account. Holmes would be proud of me.

At the time, I did not realize that Holmes had a significant advantage over me. For most of his life, he perfected his method of thoughtful interaction with the outside world. And the steps in the house on Baker Street are just a way to demonstrate a skill that he used to use naturally, without thinking. One of the manifestations of the process, habitually and almost unconsciously flowing in his ever-active mind. If you like, a trick that has no practical purpose - and at the same time full of the deepest meaning, one has only to think about what made it possible. A trick that inspired me to write a whole book about him.

The idea of mindfulness is by no means new. Even at the end of the XIX century. the father of modern psychology, William James, wrote that “the ability to consciously focus scattered attention, doing it again and again, is the fundamental basis of judgment, character and will ... The best education is one that develops this ability.” By itself, the mentioned ability is the quintessence of thoughtfulness. And the education offered by James is training in a thoughtful approach to life and thinking.

In the 70s. 20th century Ellen Langer has demonstrated that mindfulness can do more than change "judgment, character, and will" for the better. By practicing mindfulness, older adults even feel younger and act accordingly, this approach improves their vital signs such as blood pressure, as well as cognitive function. Recent studies have shown that reflection-meditation (exercises for the complete control of attention, which is the basis of thoughtfulness), when performed for only fifteen minutes a day, change the indicators of activity of the frontal lobes of the brain in the direction more characteristic of a positive emotional state and an attitude to the result, in other ways. In other words, even a short contemplation of nature can make us more insightful, creative, and productive. In addition, we can now say with great certainty that our brains are not designed for multitasking, which completely excludes thoughtfulness. When we are forced to do many things at the same time, we not only cope worse with all these things, our memory worsens, our general well-being suffers significantly.

May 16, 2017

Outstanding mind. Think like Sherlock Holmes Maria Konnikova

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Title: Outstanding Mind. Think like Sherlock Holmes
Author: Maria Konnikova
Year: 2003
Genre: Foreign applied and popular science literature, Foreign psychology, General psychology, Self-improvement

About the book "Outstanding Mind. Think like Sherlock Holmes" Maria Konnikova

Maria Konnikova is a fairly well-known American psychologist and writer. Her works are very popular both in the professional environment and among ordinary readers. Maria's family was forced to emigrate to the United States when the girl was only four years old. She was always very diligent and responsible - it was these qualities that helped her successfully graduate from Harvard University. She spent a lot of time studying psychology and creative writing. A few years later, she was able to get her PhD from Columbia University.

Maria Konnikova writes journalistic and popular science articles for many American periodicals that specialize in the study of the brain. Her book "Outstanding Mind. Think Like Sherlock Holmes is an international bestseller. The work was translated into many languages and published in large editions in different countries. It is worth reading, first of all, for those who want to learn a lot useful information about the characteristics of the human brain.

Speech in this work of the writer is about the complex specifics of rational thinking. She is trying to find out whether an ordinary person can learn to think in the same way as the famous detective from the works of the classic of English literature did. Maria Konnikova examines various episodes from Conan Doyle's book, analyzing them from the point of view of modern neuroscience. She studies in detail all the reasons that can contribute to a better development of mental activity.

The writer expresses her most original thoughts in an accessible form. She manages to find confirmation of her own theory about the uniqueness of the human brain. In her work, she reveals numerous psychological strategies that lead to a better understanding of certain phenomena and events by a person.

The book "Outstanding Mind. Thinking Like Sherlock Holmes” is a unique work that allows a person to better understand the hidden reserves of his body and his psyche. The writer insists that, if desired, and performing a certain set of exercises, almost every person can expand the scope of their perception, develop logical thinking and increase creativity.

This work, despite the scientific nature and the author's use of the results of many studies, is written in a very easy and understandable language. It is a must read for those who always strive for the best and are ready to make the necessary efforts to achieve a positive result in a long process of self-improvement.

On our site about books, you can download the site for free without registration or read online book"Outstanding mind. Think like Sherlock Holmes” by Maria Konnikova in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and a real pleasure to read. Buy full version you can have our partner. Also, here you will find last news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginner writers, there is a separate section with useful tips and tricks, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at literary skills.

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Skills good detective, such as the ability to quickly "read" the situation and lift the veil of secrets to the smallest detail, recreating pictures of what happened and psychological portraits of people, of course, are useful for everyone. It is not so difficult to acquire and hone them. After studying various methods, we have chosen several useful tips that will help you get a little closer to Sherlock Holmes.

How to develop deductive method of thinking- How it works?

Attention to detail

As you observe people and everyday situations, notice the smallest cues in conversations so you can be more responsive to events. These skills have become trademarks of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the heroes of the TV series True Detective or The Mentalist. The New Yorker columnist and psychologist Maria Konnikova, author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, says that Holmes' method of thinking is based on two simple things: observation and deduction. Most of us do not pay attention to the details around, and meanwhile, outstanding (fictional and real) detectives have a habit of noticing everything to the smallest detail. How to train yourself to be more attentive and focused?

First, stop multitasking and focus on one thing at a time.

The more things you do at the same time, the more likely you are to make mistakes and miss important information. It is also less likely that this information will be stored in your memory.

Secondly, it is necessary to achieve the correct emotional state.

Worry, sadness, anger, and other negative emotions that are processed in the amygdala disrupt the brain's ability to solve problems or absorb information. Positive emotions, on the contrary, improve this brain function and even help you think more creatively and strategically.

Develop memory

Having tuned in the right way, you should strain your memory to start putting everything observed there. Methods for her workout There are many. Basically, it all comes down to learning to give importance to individual details, for example, the brands of cars parked near the house and their numbers. At first you have to force yourself to memorize them, but over time it will become a habit and you will memorize cars automatically. The main thing when forming a new habit is to work on yourself every day.

Memory competition champion and author of Einstein Walks on the Moon, a book on how memory works, Joshua Foer explains that anyone with an average memory ability can greatly expand their abilities. Like Sherlock Holmes, Foer is able to memorize hundreds of phone numbers at once by encoding knowledge into visual pictures.

Keeping field notes

As you begin your transformation into Sherlock, start keeping a diary of notes.

As the Times columnist writes, scientists train their attention in exactly this way - by writing down explanations and fixing sketches of what they observe. Michael Canfield, a Harvard University entomologist and author of Field Notes on Science and Nature, says this habit "will force you to make the right decisions about what's really important and what isn't."

Keeping field notes, whether during the next working meeting or a walk in the city park, will develop the right approach to the study of the environment. Over time, you begin to pay attention to the little details in any situation, and the more you do it on paper, the faster you will develop the habit of analyzing things on the go.

Concentrate through meditation

Many studies confirm that meditation improves concentration and attention.

It is worth starting to practice with a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes before bed. According to John Assaraf, lecturer and renowned business consultant, “Meditation is what gives you control over your brain waves. Meditation trains the brain so you can focus on your goals."

Meditation can make a person better equipped to receive answers to questions of interest. All this is achieved by developing the ability to modulate and regulate various brain wave frequencies, which Assaraf compares to the four speeds in a car gearbox: "beta" - from the first, "alpha" - from the second, "theta" - from third and "delta waves" - from the fourth. Most of us function during the day in the beta range, and this is not to say that this is so terribly bad. But what is first gear? The wheels spin slowly, and engine wear is quite large. Also, people burn out faster and experience more stress and illness. Therefore, it is worth learning how to switch to other gears in order to reduce wear and the amount of “fuel” spent.

Find a quiet place where nothing will distract you. Be fully aware of what is happening and follow the thoughts that arise in your head, concentrate on your breathing. Take slow deep breaths, feeling the air flow from the nostrils to the lungs.

Meditation and creativity. Illumination. .
How to meditate simply and briefly. Video .
integral meditation. 15 minutes for health. .

Think critically and ask questions

ONCE YOU LEARN TO PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS, START CONVERTING YOUR OBSERVATIONS INTO THEORIES OR IDEAS. If you have two or three puzzle pieces, try to figure out how they fit together. The more pieces of the puzzle you have, the easier it will be to draw conclusions and see the whole picture. Try to deduce particular provisions from general ones in a logical way. This is called deduction. Remember to apply critical thinking to everything you see. Via critical thinking analyze what you are closely following, and use deduction to build a big picture based on these facts.

Describe in a few sentences how to develop the ability to critical thinking, not so easy. The first step to this skill is to return to childhood curiosity and the desire to ask as many questions as possible. Konnikova says the following about this:

“It is important to learn to think critically. Yes, when purchasing new information or knowledge about something new, you will not just memorize and memorize something, but learn to analyze it. Ask yourself: "Why is this so important?"; “How do I combine this with the things I already know?” or "Why do I want to remember this?" Questions like these train your brain and organize information into a knowledge network.”

Give free rein to the imagination

Critical thinking is of no use if you do not learn how to make connections between separate pieces of information.

Of course, fictional detectives like Holmes have a superpower to see connections that ordinary people are simply ignored. But one of the key foundations of this exemplary deduction is non-linear thinking. Sometimes it’s worth letting your imagination run wild in order to replay the most fantastic scenarios in your head and sort through all the possible connections.

Sherlock Holmes often sought solitude to reflect and freely explore an issue from all angles. Like Albert Einstein, Holmes played the violin to help him relax. While his hands were busy with the game, his mind was immersed in the scrupulous search for new ideas and problem solving. Holmes once even mentions that imagination is the mother of truth. Having renounced reality, he could completely take a fresh look at your ideas.

Expand your horizons

It's obvious that important advantage Sherlock Holmes - in his broad outlook and erudition. If you also understand with equal ease the work of Renaissance artists, the latest trends in the cryptocurrency market and discoveries in the most progressive theories quantum physics, your deductive thinking methods are much more likely to succeed. Do not place yourself in the framework of any narrow specialization. Reach for knowledge and nurture a sense of curiosity in a variety of things and areas.

Scientific Method of Thinking

The police decided they knew the answer: George Edalji, the son of the local vicar, a half-breed Indian. In 1903, twenty-seven-year-old Edalji was sentenced to seven years' hard labor for one of sixteen mutilations caused by a pony whose corpse was found in a quarry near the vicar's house. The vicar's oath that his son was asleep at the time of the crime did not affect the verdict. As well as the fact that the killings continued after George was taken into custody. And that the evidence was based largely on anonymous letters attributed to George, letters pointing to him as the killer. The police, led by Staffordshire County Police Chief, Senior Constable Captain George Anson, were convinced that the perpetrator had been found.

Bloodied blades? Really old and rusty - at any rate, they can't inflict the kind of wounds that animals have suffered from. Clay on Edalji's clothes? The composition is different than in the field where the pony was found. Graph expert? He had already come to the wrong conclusions, as a result, guilty verdicts were handed down to the innocent. And of course, the problem with vision: how could a person suffering from severe astigmatism and, in addition, myopia, navigate at night in the fields where animals were killed?

In the spring of 1907 Edalji was finally acquitted of the charges of cruelly killing animals. Conan Doyle never achieved the complete victory he had hoped for - George was not compensated in any way for the time spent under arrest and in prison - nevertheless it was a success. Edalji resumed the practice of law. As Conan Doyle summed up, the commission of inquiry found that "the police again began an investigation and conducted it with the aim of finding not the culprit, but evidence against Edalji, of whose guilt they were convinced from the very beginning." In August of the same year, the first court of appeal appeared in England, whose task was to control in case of violations in the administration of justice. The Edalji case is considered to be one of the main reasons for the creation of such courts.

Illustration: Evgenia Barinova

The incident made an indelible impression on Conan Doyle's friends, but the writer George Meredith expressed his impressions best of all. “I won’t mention the name, which you must have been fed up with,” Meredith told Conan Doyle, “but the creator of the image of a brilliant private investigator personally proved that he himself is capable of something.” Although Sherlock Holmes is a figment of the imagination, his pedantic approach to thinking is completely real. With proper application, his method can leave the pages of the book and give tangible positive results, and not only in the investigation of crimes.

Holmes was an unsurpassed detective - that's for sure. But his understanding of the peculiarities of human thinking surpasses his most significant feats in the field of the guardian of the law. Sherlock Holmes offers more than just a way to solve crimes. His approach is applicable not only on the streets of foggy London. It transcends both science and investigative actions and can serve as a model for thinking and even for existence, as effective today as it was in the days of Conan Doyle. I'm willing to bet that this is the secret of Holmes' relentless, striking, and ubiquitous appeal.

When creating him, Conan Doyle had a low opinion of his character. It is unlikely that he was guided by the intention to present a model of thinking, decision-making, the art of formulating and solving problems. However, this is exactly the pattern he got. In fact, Conan Doyle created the ideal spokesman for the revolutionary ideas in science and the way of thinking - a revolution that unfolded in the previous decades and continued into the dawn of the new century. In 1887, Holmes appeared - a detective of a new type, a thinker never seen before, an example of an unprecedented application of the power of reason. Today, Holmes serves as a standard for thinking more effectively than we take for granted.

Sherlock Holmes was in many ways a visionary. His explanations, methodology, whole approach to the process of thinking anticipated the development of psychology and neuroscience a hundred years ahead and have been relevant for more than eighty years after the death of its creator. But for some reason, Holmes' way of thinking unwillingly looks like a pure product of his time and place in history. If the scientific method has demonstrated its merit in all kinds of scientific and other activities - from the theory of evolution to radiography, from general relativity to the discovery of pathogens and anesthesia, from behaviorism to psychoanalysis - then why should it not manifest itself in the principles of thinking itself?

According to Arthur Conan Doyle himself, Sherlock Holmes was originally destined to become the personification of the scientific approach, the ideal to which one should strive, even if it can never be reproduced exactly (after all, what else are ideals for, if not in order to remain out of reach?). The very name of Holmes immediately indicates that the author's intentions were not to create an unpretentious image of a detective in the spirit of bygone times: most likely, Conan Doyle chose his hero's name with intent, as a tribute to one of the idols of his childhood, the doctor and philosopher Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., known both for his work and practical achievements. The prototype of the personality of the famous detective was another mentor of Conan Doyle, Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon who became famous for his powers of observation. It was said that Dr. Bell only needed one look to determine that the patient was a recently discharged sergeant from the Highland Regiment fresh out of Barbados, and that Dr. Bell regularly tested his students' insights using methods that included self-experimentation with various toxic substances. , - things familiar to everyone who carefully read the stories about Holmes. As Conan Doyle wrote to Dr. Bell, “Around the core of deduction, inference, and observation, which I hear you practice, I have tried to create an image of a man who has gone as far as possible in these, and sometimes even more. further ... "It is this - deduction, logic and observation - that brings us to the very essence of the image of Holmes, to how he differs from all other detectives who appeared before and, for that matter, after him: this detective raised the art of investigation to level of exact science.

The quintessence of the approach inherent in Sherlock Holmes, we meet in the story "A Study in Scarlet", in which the detective first appears before the reader. It soon becomes clear that for Holmes, each case is not just a case, as it is presented by the Scotland Yard policeman (a crime, a number of facts, several defendants, a generalization of information - all this in order to bring the criminal to justice), but something at the same time and more. , and less. More - because in this case the matter acquires a broader and more general meaning, as a subject of large-scale studies and reflections, becoming, if you like, a scientific task. Its outlines are inevitably visible in previous tasks and will undoubtedly be repeated in future ones, the general principles are applicable to other, at first glance, in no way connected moments. Less - because the case is deprived of the accompanying emotional and hypothetical components - elements that cloud the clarity of thought - and becomes as objective as reality outside of science can be. Result: the crime is the subject of strictly scientific research, which should be approached, guided by scientific methodological principles. And the human mind is their servant.