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Thinking in Pictures: Adventures in Trying to be Smart
'One of the most original writers around. He has profoundly influenced my thinking.' Hannah Fry
Why thinking in pictures? Short because the words seem to need help. If you sample the many smart-thinking books to hit the shelves recently, they all promise a smarter, more rational you, and it all seems just pages away. But if the books are that good, why are there so many? And have they succeeded in moving the dial of people's reasoning?
Using illustrations and photographs, Michael Blastland shows how pictures can help put ideas to the test, making them vivid, showing them in action. Part guide, part gallery, Thinking in Pictures is a brilliantly original and witty introduction to smart-thinking - how to use it and when to question it - for anyone trying to make sense of a puzzling world.
Why thinking in pictures? Short because the words seem to need help. If you sample the many smart-thinking books to hit the shelves recently, they all promise a smarter, more rational you, and it all seems just pages away. But if the books are that good, why are there so many? And have they succeeded in moving the dial of people's reasoning?
Using illustrations and photographs, Michael Blastland shows how pictures can help put ideas to the test, making them vivid, showing them in action. Part guide, part gallery, Thinking in Pictures is a brilliantly original and witty introduction to smart-thinking - how to use it and when to question it - for anyone trying to make sense of a puzzling world.
- GenresPsychology
339 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 17, 2023
10 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 30, 2023
’Smart-thinking’ is trickier than it looks.
Grabbed this at the local library as the cover looked like it may be worthwhile.
It’s not. The author essentially tries to distill a pile of self-help books into one book with the use of a few pictures and end-of-chapter suggested exercises.
After wading through the inane introduction, I speed-read the rest to avoid losing much more intelligence. I’m afraid it did not work. You will find me henceforth communicating exclusively with PowerPoint, relying on the NY Daily News for my worldview, sinking my retirement funds into crypto, commercial REITs, and bars of gold, and living in a $5m uninsured mobile home on the Florida coast. All thanks to Smart-Thinking(TM).
Grabbed this at the local library as the cover looked like it may be worthwhile.
It’s not. The author essentially tries to distill a pile of self-help books into one book with the use of a few pictures and end-of-chapter suggested exercises.
After wading through the inane introduction, I speed-read the rest to avoid losing much more intelligence. I’m afraid it did not work. You will find me henceforth communicating exclusively with PowerPoint, relying on the NY Daily News for my worldview, sinking my retirement funds into crypto, commercial REITs, and bars of gold, and living in a $5m uninsured mobile home on the Florida coast. All thanks to Smart-Thinking(TM).
January 17, 2024
Unicorns good
Mind maps 🤦🏻♂️
Some great illustrations
Mind maps 🤦🏻♂️
Some great illustrations
May 1, 2025
"This is not a book with neat answers about how to be a clever person. It asks you to question things that present as fact. Often scientific facts get turned upside down and disproved with new scientific research. People publish things with a certain tilt because of vested interests.
Blastland writes in a conversational style which is wordy and I often wished he would get to the point.
The book does make you think about the world in a different way. The world is messy and people's thinking is often grey and things are not black and white. The book encourages you to think and question things and see them through a different lens."
Blastland writes in a conversational style which is wordy and I often wished he would get to the point.
The book does make you think about the world in a different way. The world is messy and people's thinking is often grey and things are not black and white. The book encourages you to think and question things and see them through a different lens."
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews