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Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently | 
 enlarge | Author: Gregory Berns
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 2201
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1422115011
Dewey Decimal Number: 612.8
EAN: 9781422115015
ASIN: 1422115011
Publication Date: September 29, 2008
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Product Description
No organization can survive without iconoclasts -- innovators who single-handedly upturn conventional wisdom and manage to achieve what so many others deem impossible.
Though indispensable, true iconoclasts are few and far between. In Iconoclast, neuroscientist Gregory Berns explains why. He explores the constraints the human brain places on innovative thinking, including fear of failure, the urge to conform, and the tendency to interpret sensory information in familiar ways.
Through vivid accounts of successful innovators ranging from glass artist Dale Chihuly to physicist Richard Feynman to country/rock trio the Dixie Chicks, Berns reveals the inner workings of the iconoclast's mind with remarkable clarity. Each engaging chapter goes on to describe practical actions we can each take to understand and unleash our own potential to think differently -- such as seeking out new environments, novel experiences, and first-time acquaintances.
Packed with engaging stories, science-based insights, potent practices, and examples from a startling array of disciplines, this engaging book will help you understand how iconoclasts think and equip you to begin thinking more like an iconoclast yourself.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Misnomer of a title November 22, 2008
This is overall a decent read but not all that the cover and jacket purport it to be.
First, the use of the term "iconoclast" is inaccurate. The author focuses on innovators. To be an "iconoclast" is not synonymous with being an innovator. An iconoclast need only tear down the existing order, "smash the icons", if you will, and does not need to meet the author's definition of successfully creating a new order.
The writing is generally at an approximately high-school-reader level, which makes it accessible to the general public. The description of neurologic pathways could be made easier for the uninitiated by means of more illustrations, perhaps. My background as a physician allowed me to understand all of the techno-babble but I realized that would certainly not be true for the average, albeit intelligent, reader.
Finally, the major flaw in the thesis is the absence of any data linking the anecdotes describing iconoclasts to the scientific descriptions of neurologic pathways, evolutionary history, and experiments establishing the inhibitory effects of our brains on our perception and thinking. The most preganant sentence in the entire book appears on page 119, "...no experiment has directly examined the question of what is inside an iconoclast's brain,..." Hence, all of the discussion of iconoclasts is entirely speculative. Granted the true iconoclasts are unlikely to volunteer their time for Prof Berns' experiments, but certainly investigators in this field could at the very least stratify individuals along scales of risk tolerance and/or nonconformity and conudct the relevant PET experiments to see if these individuals are "wired" differently or have developed methods for overcoming the normal inhibitory mechanisms of the brain.
Overall, a good first effort, but it clearly does not live up to the silly statements on the jacket (for which I primarily blame the publisher)that the reader will "See reality differentlyt, set aside your fear, and expand your social intelligence."
Interesting and readable-good cocktail party fodder November 21, 2008
Although the author's criteria for iconoclasm is ironically rigid, this book does pop science right. Using a combination of colorful vignettes and artful explanations of scientific principles, Burns demonstrates the costs and benefits of iconoclasm. Make it through a slightly labored beginning and the reader is rewarded with a quite fascinating exegesis on iconoclastic behavior. Recommended.
Very Good Book but not Necessarily a Self-Help Manual November 20, 2008
Gregory Berns' "Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently" is a bit of a misnomer. For one, his definition of what an Iconoclast is appears to to be fluid. There are times in his work where he refers to someone as "not being an iconoclast" (but nonetheless talented) without any showing that the person in question is actually not an iconoclast. Second, "How to Think Differently" appears to be a combination of things you can control (nerves, perspective, etc) and things you cannot necessarily control (brain chemistry). I say "necessarily" because at the end of the book is a "how-to phamacopia" to alter brain chemistry which struck me as being akin to the anarchist's cookbook.
Berns also reasons that the ability to think "differently" declines with age, a thesis elegantly stated in Howard Gardner's work Creating Minds: An Anatomy Of Creativity As Seen Through The Lives Of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, And Gandhi. Berns discussed Steve Jobs and Danny Branson as iconoclasts who have broken through to the mainstream and the struggle to remain on the cutting edge. There is something to be said about this as the lesson of Thomas Edison and the standards war between alternating current and direct current show us, it doesn't pay to back the wrong horse because you are so wedded to an idea. For more information on the AC/DC standards war, see AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War by Tom McNichol.
According to Berns, one of the ways to think like an iconoclast is to have interactions with diverse people. Being exposed to different people leads to a muliplication of both challenges and opportunities - an issue in human history which is developed nicely by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.
In the end, Berns' book is nice... showing the reader that it is possible to think "differently" even if the book is not a "self-help" manual to actually think differently.
Interesting November 19, 2008
I thought the book's premise regarding examining the thinking styles of "innovators" was a great idea. I did think there was an odd difference between what the author identified as "iconoclasts" and what I think of. Beyond vision, Berns throws in another attribute that I think does not fit with an iconoclast. He considers "selling" your idea as just as important an attribute as creativity to an iconoclast. I am not sure I agree with him. There are many examples of famous people who are great because they are great salesmen of someone else's ideas. That seems different to me. Which is the iconoclast: the one who gets rich by selling snake oil to millions or the one who really makes a new breakthrough in medicine (even if it isn't recognized)? It also seems that a person who doesn't think like most people would indeed not be good at knowing how to sell something to those people (because most iconoclasts wouldn't relate to what motivates the masses.) I also thought that there were iconoclasts not only with concrete products, but also in areas such as languages, literature, poetry, music, etc. which weren't really discussed (in favor of the more business/science fields...talk about left brain! ha ha) I do have more of an interest in Wernike's-/Broca's type brain behavior (I like Pinker's and Chomsky's books on neural language) so I have a different type of take on it, I know.
Overall, I did like the book. It was an interesting perspective on success (which may or may not be important to everyone..especially an iconoclast.) I am glad that the book tried (and usually did) stay away from becoming a "business model" (like the "Who Moved My Cheese" "Seven Habits..." etc.) book.
Perception Is Reality -- Really November 17, 2008
Many of us have heard or have used the expression that "Perception Is Reality". Well with the work Greg Berns and others, it truly appears that perception is indeed the real and true reality. Another item that most of us know from experience, and especially if you have kids, is that the brain is lazy. Lazy in the sense that the brain is attempting to conserve as much energy as possible constantly and always.
Therefore, though we as a race are a curious animal, learning is hard and is a constant struggle. As the neurosciences and the literature continues to grow, we learn more about how the brain works (and doesn't) and this is another fine addition to that growing collection.
As this is of the introductory genre, the topics are somewhat limited in scope to:
1) Perception,
2) Fear Response, and
3) Social Intelligence
However, do not let the small scope deceive you as there is much inside to learn and worthy read. As the author indicates, if you want to learn or see things diffently, "the most effective solution is to bombard the brain with things never encountered before." As such, Enjoy.
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