A fine addition to the growing literature that refutes the long-held idea that there is such a thing as ``general'' intelligence and that it can be quantified. A professor of psychology and education at Yale and a prolific writer (The Triarchic Mind, not reviewed, etc.), Sternberg strongly and persuasively challenges the usefulness of IQ, SAT, and other tests that, he notes, measure only knowledge that is ``inert'' (i.e., decontextualized and often quickly forgotten). The type of intelligence that helps people succeed in life requires imaginative approaches to problems that are far more ``ill-structured'' than those found in the largely one-dimensional, multiple-choice approach of standardized instruments for quantifying intelligence. Successful intelligence is more multifaceted; it includes elements of creativity, adaptability, practicality, intellectual risk- taking, interpersonal skills, and perseverance. In addition, our standard intelligence tests often are culturally biased and favor those with good test-taking skills. In making his argument, Sternberg also demolishes the Herrnstein/Murray hypothesis in The Bell Curve that much of intelligence is inherited; on the contrary, he notes, intelligence is ``incremental'' (our ability to learn grows with learning itself). With the exception of some repetition and some self-evident assertions in a concluding chapter that delineates 20 aspects of successful intelligence (does it really need stating that ``successfully intelligent people spread themselves neither too thin nor too thick''?), Sternberg writes clearly and gracefully, holding the reader's attention by peppering his theoretical material with interesting anecdotal examples. Like the writings of Howard Gardner and Daniel Goleman, among others, this book will prove helpful to a wide range of readers, from professional educators to mental health professionals, business managers, and parents in appreciating just how multifaceted intelligence is and how it can be better nurtured in each person. (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club altnerate selection)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-684-81410-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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