Into the Impossible: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: Lessons from Laureates to Stoke Curiosity, Spur Collaboration, and Ignite Imagination in Your Life and Career

by Brian Keating

How can you unlock creativity and imagination to inspire, teach, and lead? What mental models do the world’s most accomplished scientists use to supercharge their creativity and strengthen their most precious collaborations?

In this mesmerizing collection of interviews with some of the world’s brightest minds, you’ll discover that achieving greatness doesn’t require genius. Instead, dedication to a simple set of principles, habits, and tools can boost your creativity, stoke your imagination, and unlock your full potential for out-of-this-universe success. Through their own words, you will discover why Nobel Prize-winning scientists credit often-overlooked “soft skills” like communication, motivation, and introspection as keys to their success. You’ll see why they turn to curiosity, beauty, serendipity, and joy when they need a fresh view of some of the universe’s most vexing problems...and how you can too, no matter what you do!

Within Into the Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, the wisdom of nine Nobel Laureates has been distilled and compressed into concentrated, actionable data you can use. While each mind is unique, they are united in their emphasis that no one wins alone - and that science, and success itself, belongs to us all.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

Audible Audio

Published September 28, 2021

Reviews

[Demond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inside the ingenious minds of Nobel laureates

A very insightful - well balanced - guide for self-motivated problem solving, collaboration, and candid techniques Nobel laureates use to cope with human insecurities. Excellent for Everyone!

[Ian Pitchford · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mind is flat

There are a few interesting comments and observations here, but overall I was left with the impression that most of the Laureates had no insight at all into either the causes of their creativity or their capacity to understand things that are opaque to most.

[Dave Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you ever wondered how brilliant people think and how it compares to the way youk process information, the book, "Into the Impossible: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: Lessons from Laureates to Stoke Curiosity, Spur Collaboration, and Ignite Imagination in Your Life and Career" will help you understand. Authors Brian Keating, Barry Barish, and James Altucher conducted interviews wirh many Nobel prize winners and sharee what they learned from those conversations.

We see that success in science and discovery goes beyond raw intelligence—it also requires emotional intelligence, communication skills, and the courage to look for other ideas. Many Nobel laureates didn’t simply stick to what was known or what others approved of; they often pushed boundaries, posed uncomfortable questions, and challenged conventional wisdom. Curiosity plays a central role in their journeys. Unlike ambition, which is externally fueled by validation, curiosity provides an intrinsic and sustainable drive that allows for resilience and deeper engagement.

Collaboration is another fundamental theme. Although competition can be fierce, the laureates interviewed for the book highlight the value of viewing rivals as potential collaborators. Cooperation, despite its challenges, can yield more significant outcomes, both in terms of scientific progress and personal growth. Constructive criticism is presented as an invaluable resource, guiding individuals toward their goals.

The authors also stress the importance of perseverance and creative problem-solving, using the example of Sir Roger Penrose, whose success is attributed not only to his mathematical talent but also to his unyielding determination. They suggest that problem-solving is a learned skill, cultivated through a playful and experimental approach to challenges. The journey to success is rarely linear; instead, it involves accumulating skills and embracing failures as learning opportunities.

The authors advise adopting a growth mindset, emphasizing lifelong learning and adaptability. Nobel Prize winners continuously sought knowledge beyond their fields and refined their teaching and leadership skills, understanding that educating others also enhances personal comprehension. The overarching message is to stay true to curiosity, keep learning, and recognize that the pursuit of knowledge is a collective endeavor where the work is passed from one generation to the next, building on the efforts of others.

This is an easy to read book that synthesizes various ideas into interesting advice.

Five Highlights from the Book:

1. Embrace Curiosity Over Ambition: The book emphasizes that curiosity is a powerful and self-sustaining force. Unlike ambition, which seeks external approval, curiosity is unique to each individual and provides resilience throughout challenging endeavors.

2. Collaboration and Emotional Intelligence: Nobel laureates underscore the importance of emotional intelligence and collaboration in their success, even viewing competitors as potential partners. The ability to work together often leads to greater achievements than individual effort alone.

3. Perseverance and Creative Problem-Solving: Perseverance is as crucial as talent. The book highlights Sir Roger Penrose's approach to problem-solving—using creativity, such as art, to overcome mental blocks and maintain persistence despite challenges.

4. Learning Through Teaching: The book encourages teaching as a way to reinforce one's own understanding. Nobel winners practice and study pedagogy, believing that sharing knowledge with others deepens their insights and skills.

5. Audacity and Asking Challenging Questions: Many Nobel laureates were unafraid to ask audacious questions, often irritating those around them. This audacity, paired with judiciousness, is vital for pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

[Ronald J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this. Lessons from Nobel Laureates physicists is bound to contain some fantastic lessons. It’s interviews with nine Nobel winners, based on the podcast the author, who is also a physicist and wrote the memoir, Losing the Nobel Prize. The problem for me was the author talked too much. I wanted to hear more from them, and yet he interjects his interpretations and analysis of what they said, which take up far more words than what was said. Not that I didn’t enjoy his analysis, I did. But there was just too much of it. I know it’s probably designed to get you to listen to the podcast, but that’s not what I expected from a book. That said, there are some gems in this work, such as the common characteristic of the nine is an insatiable curiosity. “Science is not about knowing the answers; it’s about asking the right questions.” They talk about the imposter syndrome—a healthy dose of inadequacy, and how even some of these Nobel winners suffer from it. We can’t overcome it, only manage it with understanding and acceptance. Certainly these nine defy what T.S. Eliot once said: “The Nobel is a ticket to one’s own funeral. No one has ever done anything after he got it.”

I'm not sure I agree with the author’s take on the scientific method, that it’s a social consensus factory. Doesn’t science progress through dissent, not consensus? A theory can be right or wrong even if only one scientist thinks so, as some of the winners in this book have proven, such as Lemaitre who, when he first posited the idea of the Big Bang in 1927 it was heterodoxy. You can be alone and still be right, consensus be damned. As the author writes: “To be clear, you can almost never prove something in physics to be right, but you can falsify it to the degree that it is almost certainly wrong. That’s a very important distinction. The process of falsification itself must be present. If you can’t prove something wrong—if there is literally no way to even try—then it doesn’t matter what confirming evidence you have, because it’s probably not going to be scientifically valid. It can’t stand up to the scientific method.” Apply that to climate change and I do not believe the science is settled.

I’d give the book 2.5 stars and just say that your life will not be that much different if you don’t read it.

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Keating has crafted a phenomenal book and follow-up to his incredibly insightful first work, “Losing the Nobel Prize.” Since the publishing of his first book, Dr. Keating has been working tirelessly through his podcast “Into the Impossible,” to bring listeners up close and personal with science’s greatest living personalities. It is through this venture that this new book, “Into the Impossible: Think like a Nobel Prize Winner,” was born. As a longtime listener, I can tell you that Dr. Keating takes us all closer to the greatest minds of our generation and this book represents the very best of those interviews. Finally, the book has a sense of intimacy that goes beyond even the podcast, as readers feel they are having the conversation with laureates themselves. Want to enhance your own personal metacognitive ability, then pick up this book as it is a great read!

[Darrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Into The Impossible" by Dr. Brian Keating is a tribute to the nine brilliant minds behind Nobel Prize-winning discoveries featured in this book. Keating illuminates the complex interplay of individual traits and external circumstances, such as luck and timing, that culminate in a Nobel Prize win. A collection of Nobel laureates worthy admiration and emulation. A depository of wisdom and knowledge for future generations.

[Ravi Nuxoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the advice is very standard, e.g. "follow your passion" and "cultivate curiosity". There are occasionally non-generic answers, but they are the exception rather than the norm. I think this book would've benefitted from the interviewer asking more specific, technical questions as opposed to generic ones.

[Melissa]

Deep life