Review: Proust Was a Neuroscientist

May 8, 2012 • Blog, Books, Education, Life • by
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I have been wanting to read this book for awhile, and it was definitely worth the wait. While it was not a page-turner in the sense that I couldn’t put it down, the book for the most part, provides the framework for neuroscience research past, current and future and how art often times, when given the opportunity, can work hand in hand with science.

In Proust Was a Neuroscientist, by rising star author Jonah Lehrer, we see first-hand the connection between the arts and the sciences.

The first chapter of the book takes a loot at Walk Whitman and the quote to begin the chapter sets the stage, “The poet writes the history of his own body,” said Henry David Thoreau. And isn’t that the truth with all artists? With every book I write, every blog post, every video, every speech, every photo and every painting, I am telling a tiny portion of my own story. Whitman obviously agreed saying, “The body and the mind are inseparable. To whip a man’s body was to whip a man’s soul.” And it is this idea that begins to show how we as human beings truly feel everything in our lives, whether we know it or not. Everything we do, everything we experience is interconnected, thus, the substance of feeling is born.

Something I take great pride and passion in is learning. It is paramount to my life not only as a write and speaker, but as a person. I value growth. And George Eliot in the chapter, “The Biology of Freedom,” showcases how man’s mind is not set in stone. In fact, she argued that the mind was “not cut in marble.” Lehrer writes with incredible prose:

“Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending,” Eliot confesses in Middlemarch. Our situation provides the raw material our of which we make our way, and while it is important “never to beat and bruise one’s wings against the inevitable,” it is always possible “to throw the whole force of one’s soul towards the achievement of some possible better.” You can always change your life.

We can always change our life. It is about believing that you have the power to do so; to make the changed needed.

If science teaches us anything it is that we don’t know much. But if life teaches us anything is is that we are always learning, always challenging and that eventually, science can (and often does), provide the how and the why something is happening.

Overall, this book deserves a read. The last few chapters seemed to lack the punch of the first half of the book, but nevertheless, the fact still remains, art and science are linked. Very linked. You just have to want to listen.

Review: Paid to Speak

April 30, 2012 • Blog, Books, Business • by
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On the advice of my friend Sam Davidson, I recently picked up Paid To Speak, a book compiled by the National Speakers Association. It was a pretty decent read and for anyone looking to perfect their business and their story-telling abilities, I do recommend this book.


For me, the best part of the book was the detail behind what is called, The Hero’s Journey. What is it? We’ve all heard of it and Joseph Campbell made the concept famous but it is quite simple: The Hero’s Journey is something we can all connect with and believe in. The story itself requires a want, a goal or a desire. Then there must be an obstacle with a resolution. Finally, the journey ends with a piece of wisdom.

A lot of the lessons in this book I have already learned by my time on the road.

  • “Use your first two minutes wisely: your first words, your first story, your first slide should serve only one purpose: to help the audience confirm you are worth listening to. Throw something substantial to the audience for them to chow on rather than the mundane details of your flight, the city, a joke, or a thanking of this or that person.”
  • “When you finish a story, always extract the key point (the hook), and turn it back to your audience (the hinge) by asking a variation of a “you” question such as, “where have you encountered this?”

For me, therein lies the two most important pieces that I learned from the book.

Sure, there were tips of growing your network, elevator speeches, and the like. But to be a great speaker, you have to do those two things really well (in my opinion).

And so, my journey continues …

Want to be a better speaker? Ask your questions below!

Book Review: Brain Rules

April 9, 2012 • Books, Education, Life • by
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If you want to learn how to be a smarter, healthier person, I recommend you start with Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina. Hands down one of the most enlightening books about how we function at our core I have ever read. The great thing about Medina’s writing is that it is super-easy to digest and think about. And Medina is a developmental molecular biologist. I don’t even know what that means, but chances are, it means the dude is wicked smart. And it comes through in his 12 principles.


I’m not going to go through all his principles because I believe you should read the book, but I want to share two of my biggest takeaways.

The details matter, but not as much as the meaning. Our brains are constantly working overtime and in order for us to learn anything, we need to be giving the high-level first. The core concepts. Then and only then should we be given details. Perhaps that is why reporters and public relations students are always taught that the first few paragraphs need to be able to stand on their own with the most important core details.

I’m reminded of a line in one of my favorite movies, Thirteen Days, when President Kennedy says, “We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do before we worry about how we do it.” You have to know at the core what you want before you can develop the plan to get it and the same goes for learning. Know what you want to learn, then go and learn it.

The second key takeaway from this book is that we need sleep. Of course, this comes as no surprise whatsoever, but here is a direct research recap from the book. Be prepared, you may need to read it twice:

Students were given a series of math problems and prepped with a method to solve them. The students weren’t told there was also a shortcut way to solve the problems, potentially discoverable while doing the exercise. The question was: Is there any way to jumpstart, even speed up, their thoughts? Can you get them to put this other method on their radar screens? The answer was yes, if you allow them to sleep on it. If you let 12 hours pass after the initial training and ask the students to do more problems, about 20 percent will have discovered the shortcut. But, if in that 12 hours you also allow eight or so hours of regular sleep, that figure triples to about 60 percent. No matter how many times the experiment is run, the sleep group consistently outperforms the non-sleep group about 3 to 1.

So what?

Like I said, if you enjoy learning about how we learn and how to function at your highest level, then you need to read this book. Plus, Medina gives some great solutions on how to incorporate what this great brain research is telling us. Some of them might surprise you.

Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

February 21, 2012 • Blog, Books, Education, Life, Love • by
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I am happy to say that I am no longer someone who hasn’t read Harper Lee’s
To Kill a Mockingbird. I can now talk to my former English teacher without shame. Of course, I’m sure she has another book for me to read, but I finished this assignment!

While it may have taken me 28 years to pick this one up, I’m glad I did. It’s been on my list for awhile and perhaps it was a good idea to wait. I say that because when I was speaking recently with a friend about it, she responded that she should probably read it again as she has grown a lot since the last time she read it. I didn’t understand that at the time, but now that I have finished it, I do.


The book, if you haven’t read it, it very well written. The writing is superb. It kept me, a mind wanderer, focused on the characters. It included great foreshadowing and while I wasn’t around in the 1930s in the South, it felt like I was there. It felt like I was living with Jem and Scout and Atticus.

“[...] librarians across the country gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the twentieth century.” While I don’t agree with that statement, I am glad I read this.

The book showed how three people can not only have a certain image of the world they live in, but also have an image of each other and over the course of time, the events in their lives change who they are. Or perhaps, it helps them become who they were meant to be.

I can’t say for sure and I have never been one to interpret literature properly, but I do believe that Lee created a world of change. Of growth. A situation where bad things happen and through the experience of life in the South, Jem, Atticus, Boo and Scout all become new, and perhaps better people.

To Kill a Mockingbird is definitely a classic and I will always recommend it, if for no other reason then you can identify with someone in this book. Try it. Sit in the courtroom while every waits with baited breath … you’ll feel the tension and yourself changing right along with the characters.

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