Your Brain: The Missing Manual: How to Get the Most from Your Mind (Missing Manuals) - Softcover

MacDonald, Matthew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0596517785 ISBN 13: 9780596517786

Publisher: O′Reilly, 2008

Synopsis

Puzzles and brain twisters to keep your mind sharp and your memory intact are all the rage today. More and more people -- Baby Boomers and information workers in particular -- are becoming concerned about their gray matter's ability to function, and with good reason. As this sensible and entertaining guide points out, your brain is easily your most important possession. It deserves proper upkeep.

Your Brain: The Missing Manual is a practical look at how to get the most out of your brain -- not just how the brain works, but how you can use it more effectively. What makes this book different than the average self-help guide is that it's grounded in current neuroscience. You get a quick tour of several aspects of the brain, complete with useful advice about:

• Brain Food: The right fuel for the brain and how the brain commands hunger (including an explanation of the different chemicals that control appetite and cravings)
• Sleep: The sleep cycle and circadian rhythm, and how to get a good night's sleep (or do the best you can without it)
• Memory: Techniques for improving your recall
• Reason: Learning to defeat common sense; logical fallacies (including tactics for winning arguments); and good reasons for bad prejudices
• Creativity and Problem-Solving: Brainstorming tips and thinking not outside the box, but about the box -- in other words, find the assumptions that limit your ideas so you can break through them
• Understanding Other People's Brains: The battle of the sexes and babies developing brains

Learn about the built-in circuitry that makes office politics seem like a life-or-death struggle, causes you to toss important facts out of your memory if they're not emotionally charged, and encourages you to eat huge amounts of high-calorie snacks. With Your Brain: The Missing Manual you'll discover that, sometimes, you can learn to compensate for your brain or work around its limitations -- or at least to accept its eccentricities.

Exploring your brain is the greatest adventure and biggest mystery you'll ever face. This guide has exactly the advice you need.

About this title

About the Author

Matthew MacDonald is a developer, author, and educator in all things Visual Basic and .NET. He's worked with Visual Basic and ASP since their initial versions, and written over a dozen books on the subject, including "The Book of VB .NET" (No Starch Press) and "Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook" (O'Reilly). He's also written "Excel 2007:The Missing Manual", "Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual", "Access 2007:The Missing Manual", and "Access 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual", all from O'Reilly. His website is www.prosetech.com.

Edition details

• Publisher: O′Reilly
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0596517785
• ISBN 13: 9780596517786
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 273