Brain Rules

Introduction

Go ahead and multiply the number 8,388,628 x 2 in your head. Can you do it in a few seconds? There is a young man who can double that number 24 times in the space of a few seconds. He gets it right every time. There is a boy who can tell you the precise time of day at any moment, even in his sleep. There is a girl who can correctly determine the exact dimensions of an object 20 feet away. There is a child who at age 6 drew such vivid and complex pictures, some people ranked her version of a galloping horse over one drawn by da Vinci. Yet none of these children have an IQ greater than 70.
The brain is an amazing thing.

Your brain may not be nearly so odd, but it is no less extraordinary. Easily the most sophisticated information-transfer system on Earth, your brain is fully capable of taking the little black squiggles in this book and deriving meaning from them. To accomplish this miracle, your brain sends jolts of electricity crackling through hundreds of miles of wires composed of brain cells so small that thousands of them could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. You accomplish all of this in less time than it takes you to blink. Indeed, you have just done it. What's equally incredible, given our intimate association with it, is this: Most of us have no idea how our brain works.

12 Brain Rules
My goal is to introduce you to 12 things we know about how the brain works. I call these Brain Rules. For each rule, I present the science, introduce you to the researchers behind it, and then offer ideas for how the rule might apply to our daily lives, especially at work and school. The brain is complex, and I am taking only slivers of information from each subject—not comprehensive but, I hope, accessible.

Here is a sampling of the ideas you'll encounter:

• We are not used to sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary perspective, our brains developed while we walked or ran as many as 12 miles a day. The

survival
The human brain evolved, too.

exercise
Exercise boosts brain power.

sleep
Sleep well, think well.

stress
Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.

wiring
Every brain is wired differently.

attention
We don’t pay attention to boring things.

memory
Repeat to remember.

sensory integration
Stimulate more of the senses.

vision
Vision trumps all other senses.

music
Study or listen to boost cognition.

gender
Male and female brains are different.
exploration
We are powerful and natural explorers.

John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant. He is an affiliate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He was the founding director of two brain research institutes: the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research, at Seattle Pacific University, and the Talaris Research Institute, a nonprofit organization originally focused on how infants encode and process information. Medina lives in Seattle, Washington, with his wife and two boys.

"Dissects the workings of the brain in plain English, explaining its role in the workplace and classroom…a writing style that makes words leap off the page."
- USA TODAY

"Oliver Sacks meets Getting Things Done."
- Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing

"A marvelous job in simplifying the best ways to get the most out of our brains. He is funny, tender, and completely engaging. Everyone should read this book."
- John Ratey, MD, author of Spark and A User's Guide to the Brain

"Brain Rules is one of the most informative, engaging, and useful books of our time."
- Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen

"A self-designated 'grumpy scientist,' Medina cites only research that has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and that has been successfully replicated. Remarkably, this molecular biologist is a gifted communicator who is able to write for both the scientist and the layperson."
- Psychiatric Times

"Medina has taken what may be the most complex thing we know -- the human mind -- and explained it in a way that even the human mind can understand. Brain Rules is THE book on how neuroscience can help you at work and at home."
- Douglas Stone, co-author of Difficult Conversations

"Few people are better qualified to help managers sift through all the hype than John Medina."
- Harvard Business Review