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Education Reading

Latest Read: The Drunkard’s Walk

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. Leonard is an American theoretical physicist and mathematician, screenwriter and author.

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow

There is no doubt you can learn many lessons from talented people. Leonard is indeed one of those authors you need to consider. Seriously. This 2008 book became a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times notable book, and Leonard received the Robert P. Balles Prize for Critical Thinking for this book. In 2010 Leonard was named the Liber Press Award for the Popularization of Science.

He holds a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. Actually, his dissertation demonstrated a new type of perturbation theory for nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, based upon solving the problem in infinite dimensions then correcting for the fact that we live in three.

Leonard is definitely an author you want to read. Why? Well he joined the faculty at Caltech in 1981 and was then named an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and worked at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich, Germany. However (as amazing as it seems) in 1986, he left his position as a full-time professor and researcher to begin writing. He indeed wrote episodes for Star Trek: The Next Generation and MacGyver. To further illustrate his talent, he created computer games with Steven Spielberg and Robin Williams. In 2009 he wrote a screenplay for the movie Beyond the Horizon. Above all, Leonard is continuing to working in theoretical physics.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Elastic

Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change by Leonard Mlodinow. Leonard is in fact a theoretical physicist and widely recognized for his discoveries in physics.

Elastic by Leonard Mlodinow

Throughout the book he shares stories about both parents (before meeting) having survived the holocaust. His father was part of the resistance in Poland and was sent to Buchenwald. Moreover, he worked and co-authored a book with Stephen Hawking.

Leonard describes elastic thinking as “what endows us with the ability to solve novel problems and to overcome the neural and psychological barriers that can impede us from looking beyond the existing order.”

This book certainly reveals new discoveries in the neuroscience of change. Above all, our brain works in many ways, right side versus left side, injury outcomes, medication, and absolutely amazing technology advancements in brain research. For example, the introduction story of Pokemon Go is a baseline example for Elastic Thinking.

Dr. Mlodinow unquestionably identifies elastic thinking as a series of multiple sets: neophilia (an affinity for novelty), schizotypy (a tendency toward unusual perception), imagination and idea generation, and finally divergent and integrative thinking.