Docendo discimus (by teaching, we learn.)

This was a very fascinating and informative reading experience. I learned quite a few new and interesting things about human psyche and the working of a human brain from this book. Human brain is complicated and neuroscience is a very vast topic that can't be cramped up in a small book like this one, but Sigman did a decent job, if not the best, of consolidating information and making it accessible even for those who had no prior knowledge on the topic. However, some part could have benefited from further explanation and elaboration. The information that we got wasn't enough to fully comprehend The secret life of the mind, but it provided, nonetheless, a general idea about the working of human brain.

This book can be divided into three parts. First part is developmental psychology that covers the moral and reasoning capacities of newborns, and goes on to prove that newborns are more capable of learning multiples languages than their adult counterparts. Moving on, in the second part, Sigman explores the complicated world of cognitive psychology in adults and deals with topics such as consciousness, dreaming, effects of drugs on our brain, rational vs intuitive decision making, free will and goes on to explain how optimists and pessimists, like liberals and conservatives, are wired differently. He also introduces us to some of the most fundamental Freudian and Socrates concepts in this chapter. The third and final part is related to education where we are are invited to think of a way to apply the knowledge of neuroscience in educational institutions. Sigman suggests that our current knowledge of human brain can help us create better programs specially for students suffering from dyslexia, which, according to him, is a more phonological problem than a visual one. He then builds on the idea laid out by Socrates that learning is actually remembering and establishes a more radical idea that sometime learning can also be attained by forgetting.

There was quote in my favourite Netflix show The OA that perfectly explains how the acquired knowledge should feel like.

Knowledge is a rumor until it lives in the body.

Learning start with us using our dorsal system and end when our ventral system takes over to automize the process. For example: We exert more effort during the initial phase of learning how to read and later, with practice, reading becomes almost automatic.

If such ideas and concepts fascinates you and/or you want to understand the working of human brain then this book is a perfect starting point. It cover plenty of topics in short, digestable and often bite sized format.

I found quite a few parallels between sigmand's and Jonathan Hadit's thoughts on morality and decision and making. If you are interested you can check out my thoughts on Jonathan Hadit's book The Righteous Mind as well.