Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less

The human brain will do a number of unusual, interesting and important things - if given time. As described in this book, there is evidence from cognitive science and elsewhere that it will learn patterns of a degree of subtlety which normal, purposeful, busy consciousness cannot even see, let alone master; it will make sense out of hazy, ill-defined situations which leave everyday rationality flummoxed; it will get to the bottom of personal, emotional issues much more successfully than the questing intellect; it will detect and respond to meaning - in poetry, for example - that cannot be articulated; and it will sometimes come up with solutions to complicated predicaments that are wise rather than merely clever. The book explores these slower ways of knowing and explains how we could, or should, use them more often and more effectively.