Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently
No organization can survive without iconoclasts -- innovators who single-handedly upturn conventional wisdom and manage to achieve what so many others deem impossible.Though indispensable, true iconoclasts are few and far between. In Iconoclast, neuroscientist Gregory Berns explains why. He explores the constraints the human brain places on innovative thinking, including fear of failure, the urge to conform, and the tendency to interpret sensory information in familiar ways.
Through vivid accounts of successful innovators ranging from glass artist Dale Chihuly to physicist Richard Feynman to country/rock trio the Dixie Chicks, Berns reveals the inner workings of the iconoclast's mind with remarkable clarity. Each engaging chapter goes on to describe practical actions we can each take to understand and unleash our own potential to think differently -- such as seeking out new environments, novel experiences, and first-time acquaintances.
Packed with engaging stories, science-based insights, potent practices, and examples from a startling array of disciplines, this engaging book will help you understand how iconoclasts think and equip you to begin thinking more like an iconoclast yourself.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Psychiatry professor Berns (Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment) describes an iconoclast as "a person who does something that others say can't be done." Though keeping his promise to reveal the "biological basis" for the ability to think outside the box, Berns keeps technical explanation to a minimum, instead using themes like perception, fear and networking to profile a number of famous free-thinkers. While the ordinary person perceives the world based on his past experience and "what other people say," the iconoclast is both willing and able to risk seeing things differently; in the case of glass sculptor Dale Chihuly, his creative breakthrough (departing from symmetry in his ice-sculptures) came after a car crash blinded him in one eye, literally changing his view of the world. The will to take risks is also paramount; Cardinals baseball coach Branch Rickey and his controversial hire Jackie Robinson, the first black man in the Majors, provide models of imagination and fearlessness. Berns also looks at iconoclasts like Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Ford, the Dixie Chicks, Warren Buffett and Picasso, relating in lucid terms the mindsets that set them apart.
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Review
This fascinating work lays out where great ideas come from, how our brain often works against us, and what we can do about it to seize the day. --Fast Company, Best Business Books of 2008
About the Author
Gregory Berns, MD, PhD, is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University. He has written for numerous science publications and has been interviewed on National Public Radio, CNN, and ABC's Primetime. He has been profiled frequently in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other media.
Customer Reviews
A wonderful tapestry of interconnectedness between perception, visual creativity, fear, social networking & purposeful actions!
'Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently',
by Dr Gregory Berns
In the first place, I have been rather attracted by the title of this book, 'Iconoclast' which I have always thought it means "a nerdy guy" or maybe even "a nut case'.
Now, I know: an iconoclast is one who breaks conventions or buck the trends, especially against overwhelming odds, & yet able to remain steadfast in his or her individualistic pursuits.
To be clear, the author has deliberately operationalised the definition of an iconoclast as a person who does something that others say can't be done.
In Singapore, Sim Wong Hoo, founder & chairman of the billion-dollar global technology outfit, Creative Technology, comes quickly to mind.
Since he was a teenager, he has had this propensity to think differently, & his unwitting brushes with our pen-pushing law-abiding bureaucrats during the early years have been legendary, especially with regard to the 'No-U-Turn' syndrome or NUTS, as reported in his semi-autobiography, 'Chaotic Thoughts From The Old Millennium'.
[If interested, you can visit this link to order it, in the event that you can't find it in the stores.]
Since this book has been penned by a neuro-scientist, it has taken diligent efforts on my part to read it, as it's quite heavy-going. Luckily for me, I have a deep interest in brain stuff.
That's to say, the book is not tool-specific &/or application-friendly for the reader.
In reality, one has to read it carefully to get to the ideas of implementation in one's own sphere, as the author likes to throw up varied insights here & there within the dense passages, often filled with neurological foundations - actually, from neuro-economics - to support his thesis.
But I must say, it will be worth your while to read it because the brilliant author explores the many constraints on innovative thinking, as well as challenges commonly held assumptions about human nature.
To my great delight, he uses vivid accounts of exemplary innovators, many of whom I am already familiar with - Nolan Bushnell, Walt Disney, Florence Nightingale, Richard Feynman, Martin Luther King, Henry Ford, Pablo Picasso, Ray Kroc, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, Jonas Salk & Steve Job - & many unknown others from a wide variety of disciplines to reveal the inner workings of the iconoclast's mind.
In a nut shell, what the author is contending is that we can become iconoclasts as long as we understand, pay attention to, & take care of three things in our lives:
- how we see the world (perception), & how we translate our perceptions into actions, as iconoclasts perceive things differently & act on them fearlessly than other people;
- how we deal with our own fears of the unknown, uncertainty, failure & feeling of stupidity in front of peers (fear response);
- how we interact with - especially when selling our unconventional ideas to - other people (social intelligence);
I like to take this opportunity to share with readers my major takeaways from as well as personal reactions of the book:
- our brains work on a fixed energy budget; hence they always take shortcuts in the interests of efficiency - this means that they often draw on both our past experiences & other people's opinions to make sense of the world; in some ways, we can blame our evolutionary pressures;
- how we see the world is learned through experience; everything we sense has multiple interpretations; hence the one that is ultimately chosen is simply our brains' best guesstimate;
- the most effective solution is to bombard our brains with things we have never encountered before - to me, this mean we must constantly expose ourselves to new & novel experiences; only then will our brains be forced out of the efficiency mode & reconfigure their neural networks to entertain fresh insights;
- the problem with novelty is that for most people, it triggers the fear response in our brains, especially the fear of uncertainty & the fear of public ridicule;
- almost every decision we make must be considered in the context of how it might affect the other people in our lives - that's where social intelligence comes in handy!
- humans do not like asymmetry as a general rule;
As a result, I reckon it is often difficult to break away from ingrained habits, especially in the way we always look at the world;
Many creativity gurus, especially James Adams, had wrote about this subject of perceptual shifts. His book is 'Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas'.
That's also why, from my experience as a coach, when people are asked to draw an imaginary creature from outer space, they inavariably will draw a symmetrical one - with two or four eyes, &/or with two or four legs.
No wonder, even Hollywood producers want to play it safe.
Can you imagine the audience's reaction - which affects box office receipts - to the Alien or Predator running on one leg?
- we have a natural blind spot into both of our eyes - interestingly, cats & dogs don't have blindspots - & this phenomenon is unique to humans, resulting in our brains filling in with their best guesses of what should be out there in the world;
To me, this is not so bad when compared to the more deadly kind of bindspots - the acquired ones, which are analogous to our experience-based categorisations.
- iconoclasts do differently from other people in the way they categorise & label what they see; that's to say whether one person sees ugliness or beauty in asymmetry is entirely a result of categorisation & labelling;
- because of the built-in distributed processing power of our brains, we can reprogram our brains to perceive things differently - wow, good news!
- the key to seeing like an iconoclast is to look at things that you have never seen before;
Unfamiliarity forces our brains to discard the usual categories & labels of perception & create new ones; that's to say our brains constantly need some sort of fresh kick starts;
No wonder, according to the author, when our brains are repeatedly presented with the same visual stimuli, the neurons in our visual system continue to respond, but with decreasing vigor;
Sad to say, repetition may be the mother of learning, but when it comes to brain efficiency, it's a stumbling block!;
- sometimes a simple change of environment is enough to jog our perceptual proclivity; a more drastic change of environment - like globe-trotting & hitch hiking - is even more effective;
- new acquaintances can also be a source of new perceptions; 'familiarity breeds contempt' & 'variety is the spice of life' now make more sense!
- a change of vantage point may also be sufficient to yield new perceptions;
All these kick starts remind me of the significance of mindfulness as postulated by Dr Ellen Langer of Harvard University & 'insight restructuring' or 'provoking insight' as propounded by Edward de bono;
- we use all of our brains - just not all at the same time; also, our brains always adopt the path of least resistance;
- imagination or visual creativity stems from our ability to break categorisation & labelling;
- in order to think creatively, & imagine possibilities that only iconoclasts do, one must break out of the cycle of experience-dependent categorisation & labelling - now, we can blame our schooling, especially in Singapore, which favours exam-smart students!
- the frontal cortex, which contains rules for decision making, can reconfigure neural networks in the visual pathways so that we can see things that we didn't see before simply by deploying our attention differently - so, come to think of it, Edward de bono has been right all along: what do you choose to see & where do you direct your attention;
- novel stimulus - people, places, things - is the key to jolt our attentional systems awake & reconfigure both perception & imagination; the more radical & novel the change, the greater the likelihood of new insights being generated;
That's why when you are stuck with a problem in the office, it feels good just to take a walk outside, besides getting some fresh air!
- an effective strategy to fight categorisation & labelling is to confront them directly; the author suggest using analogies - a technique already proven effective by the Synectics problem solving methodology since the sixties; to William Gordon & George Prince: you were right on!
- today, the major stressor for most people stems from social reasons.
Social stressors come from conflicts with spouse, bosses, & competition with peers. Add on top of this an increasing perception of lack of control over the environment, & you have a recipe for ongoing stress that takes a toll on the body . . . As the flashpoint for the stress response, the brain is the organ that initiates the cascade;
I am not surprised to learn this, as the HeartMath people have long maintained that stress is often the problem of perception & communication;
Personally, I also feel their Freeze Frame methodology for stress relief is a powerful antidote;
- the author has an interesting proposition to deal with the fear of the unknown:
One is proactive, prevent or limit our brains from making unpleasant associations that they will remember;
The other is reactive, acknowledging the fact that unpleasantness is unavoidable but need not be paralysing . . .
Instead of trying to eradicate the fear response, a more reasonable approach is to examine & reappraise the situations that tend to set off the alarm, & use the prefrontal cortex to inhibit or override it;
Remember the pain/pleasure scenario from Anthony Robbins?
- I like the author's suggestion of Baynesian updating - rarely used in daily decision making - which is the statistical process of using new information to updating probability estimates when reappraising ambiguous circumstances or risks. The strategy is to view them as opportunities for knowledge updating - this is just a form of reframing our minds;
- Paradoxically, physical exercise, which is a short term stressor, is perhaps the best remedy for chronic stress;
- the 'Law of Large Numbers', though mathematically rock solid, is fascinating; that's the power of the group or 'group think' which often comes into play when an individual is making multiple interpretations of visual stimuli, because an even more potent source of categorisation that affects perception: other people;
- the author suggests one possibility to deal with 'groupthink':
Isolate oneself so that one doesn't have to face others' opinions;
Another solution, in the spirit of Richard Feynman, is to develop a thick skin & simply not care what others think;
There's still a third possibility, from the iconoclast perspective, recruit just one like-minded individual to fight your war!
- Fear is easily recognisable - I agree, it's just "false evidence appearing real".
One only needs to listen to the body's responses to know that one is scared. But once fear is recognised we must bring online cognitive processes to deconstruct what the fear is. Only when the fear is broken down into its component pieces can it be eliminated. The key is recognising the fear in the first place & not make judgements while under the influence of fear;
I hold the view that fear has also to do with our own belief system as well as as our self esteem or feeling of being capable & lovable;
- the power of social connectedness as described in the book is also fascinating; so is the concept of mere exposure effect where one increases the familiarity - our brains love familiarity - of one's idea with the intended audience;
Actually, it's just plain public relations; this is then extended through whom-you know & who-knows-whom;
So, the six degrees of separation now makes sense!
- it is important to remember what Warren Buffet once famously said: "It takes 20 years to build a reputation & 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."
So positive reputation becomes a premium when building a social network.
This is because, according to the author, our brains are wired under the assumption of reciprocity. Every social interaction is undertaken under the assumption of tit for tat. This biological golden rule means that we must approach every interaction as if the roles will be reversed someday.
- novelty equals learning, & learning means physical rewiring of our brains;
This certainly resonates with the pioneering work of Dr Marian Diamond of UCLA in the late eighties. She has argued relentlessly that a new & stimulating environment enhances the regeneration of our brain cells.
On the whole, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading & assimilating from the book, except for the last part, the 'Appendix: The iconoclast Pharmacopoeia', which I thought it has been somewhat of an intellectual mumbo-jumbo by the author. All I can make some sense of from here is that, just stay away from stimulants!
Nonetheless, I must also add that this is the first time that a neuro-scientist has masterfully weaved together a wonderful tapestry showing the interconnectedness of our vision, perceptual shifts, power of imagination or visual creativity, fear response, social interaction & networking, & purposeful actions, at least from the neurological standpoint. The author certainly deserves my kudos!
[Reviewed by Lee Say Keng, Knowledge Adventurer & Technology Explorer, January 2009]
Great perspective on how we think and the science behind it!
I think Grergory Burns nails this one. It is a very well researched book on different iconoclasts in history that have made a difference to this world. This book connects neuro science with how people think and clearly explains this with practical real life examples. This is one of the finest non fiction books that I've read in the recent past and would highly recommend this.
good but flawed
This is an interesting book, but one that has been difficult for me to read and review.
First, there is basically nothing new stated here insofar as iconoclasm itself is concerned. The author merely takes things which are well known about iconoclastic thinking and behavior, and dresses them up in the science bling du jour, neuroscience.
Most of what he has to say about the actual behavior and thinking of iconoclasts is true, and can be gotten directly from the people themselves. The author tries to show how all this is created by the materialistic determinism of brain science. I find this to be classic example of the "I only have a hammer so everything looks like a nail" syndrome. Specialists are forever trying to make the whole universe fit into their narrow, limited view.
Aside from the chicken-and-egg nature of brain science, I find that materialists who think everything is generated by matter make the mistake of thinking that the TV program originates in the components of the TV set. All the wonderful "brain mapping" being done falls apart when confronted with the example of people like the English mathematician whose cranium is filled with 95% fluid and only 5% brain tissue, yet functions with complete normalcy.
While I have no quarrel with his observations and conclusions about iconoclasts, I have many problems with the delivery and overall tone. The book rambles a bit, and I found myself distracted by factual errors and bad logic in many places. For example:
Marconi did not invent radio, Tesla did. This fiction persists despite the 1943 court decision concluding Marconi plagiarized Tesla's earlier patents, and awarding the patent (posthumously) to Tesla.
Steve Jobs did not create the Apple computer, he co-created it with Wozniak, who almost certainly did the majority of the technical work.
"Imagination comes from the visual system." (p.36) - so does this mean that congenitally blind people have no imagination? They might disagree.
The accommodation of the eye depends on the muscles controlling the shape of the eyeball as well as the lens, a fact well documented over 100 years ago by William Bates.
In the discussion on page 24 of the Kanizsa Triangle, the author states that there is no white triangle, but that your brain just makes it up. Having some knowledge of plane geometry, I beg to differ. It can be clearly shown in seconds with a straightedge that there is indeed a white triangle defined quite precisely by the so-called "pacmen" and the chevrons. To prove this conclusively, simply adjust the position slightly of the pacmen and chevrons, and the triangle will "magically" disappear. This is not an illusion, as is the example of false perspective tricking the eye in the Ponzo illusion on page 41. The triangle really does exist. Just because a line is not completely drawn in does not mean it does not exist. Ask any competent geometer. It would only be an illusion if it appeared to be something it was not.
These obvious errors cast doubt on the other information mentioned.
The book bounces back and forth between discussions of brain science and various examples of iconoclasts, much of which is fascinating information. It is not well organized, in my opinion. Toward the end, it degenerates into an infommercial for private exploration of space, then ends rather suddenly with a very strange and ambiguous section on drugs and brain function.
There are many things of interest in here, but I found I needed to do a lot of sorting and careful reading, making it much more work than it should have been.
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