Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change

Written by Leonard Mlodinow

Narrated by Leonard Mlodinow

From the best-selling author of Subliminal and The Drunkard's Walk, a groundbreaking new look at the neuroscience of change, and at how tapping into elastic thinking will help us thrive in the modern world.

Drawing on cutting-edge research, Leonard Mlodinow takes us on an illuminating journey through the mechanics of our minds as we navigate the rapidly changing landscapes around us. Out of the exploratory instincts that allowed our ancestors to prosper hundreds of thousands of years ago, humans developed a cognitive style that Mlodinow terms elastic thinking, a unique set of talents that include neophilia (an affinity for novelty), schizotypy (a tendency toward unusual perception), imagination and idea generation, and divergent and integrative thinking. These are the qualities that enabled innovators from Mary Shelley to Miles Davis, from the inventor of jumbo-sized popcorn to the creators of Pokémon Go, to effect paradigm shifts in our culture and society. In our age of unprecedented technological innovation and social change, it is more important than ever to encourage these abilities and traits.
 
How can we train our brains to be more comfortable when confronting change and more adept at innovation? How do our brains generate new ideas, and how can we nurture that process? Why can diversity and even discord be beneficial to our thought process? With his keen acumen and quick wit, Leonard Mlodinow gives us the essential tools to harness the power of elastic thinking in an endlessly dynamic world.

Includes a Bonus PDF of Exercises

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9780147521958

Leonard Mlodinow

Leonard Mlodinow es doctor en física por la Universidad de California. Fue miembro del claustro del California Institute of Technology y obtuvo una beca de la fundación Alexander von Humboldt en el Instituto Max Planck de Física y Astrofísica en Múnich. Ha trabajado como guionista de las series de televisión Star Trek: The Next Generation y MacGyver. En Crítica ha publicado El arcoiris de Feynman (2004), El andar del borracho (2008), Subliminal (2013), Las lagartijas no se hacen preguntas (2016), Emocional (2022) y, junto a Stephen Hawking, Brevísima historia del tiempo (2005) y El gran diseño (2012).

Reviews for Elastic

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

unexpectedly turns into a self-help book part way through.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found the book to have useful and interesting information. The author is articulate and well researched. I found the information on the results of studies and cases fascinating. The book has changed my perspective on knowledge and creativity. I highly recommend this book.

[hjvanderklis_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change Leonard Mlodinow takes his audience into a neurology refresher crash course. While for a long time rational, analytical, top-down driven thought ruled, latest insights favor the potential of our elastic thinking. Humans follow scripts, preprogrammed behavior e.g. fight or flight responses or navigating home. The way our brains have to accommodate the changed circumstances, the information overload, and new challenges ahead. Conclusions are reached from the bottom up through the minute interactions of billions of networked neurons in a process too complex to be detailed step by step. Neuroplasticity is no longer a new field such as when the late Oliver Sacks penned down his case studies in popular books. Progression in medical science, development of brain scanning technologies, and a better understanding of the effects of certain drugs, substances, and food. Psychologists and neuroscientists are only now working out the science of elastic thinking, although we humans have turned our powers of elastic thinking toward improving or enhancing our everyday existence.

Part 1 of the book explores the reasons for adapting our thinking to change, and why our brains are good at it. How humans (and other creatures) take in information and process it, so that they can innovate to meet the challenges of novelty and change is addressed in part 2. Part 3 is about how the brain attacks problems and generates new ideas and solutions. Leonard Mlodinow uses many examples from daily life, neurological disorders, and explains how abilities such as neophilia, pattern recognition, idea generation, divergent thinking, imagination, balance, and reconcile work. Research on the brain's role in these traits constitutes one of the hottest new directions in both psychology and neuroscience. I really enjoyed Elastic as a recent update from these fields.