Clive Thompson

Shows how every technological advance, from the printing press to the Internet, has been disparaged, caused hand-wringing and has generated anxious predictions of doom, but actually has augmented human life for the better.

How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better

Smarter Than You Think

Magdalene Lim

It was okay. I can't really remember much of the book but it's okay because I know where to get the information from. Yes, this is one way technology is changing our minds. Instead of storing information, we simply have to remember how to retrieve it. There are a lot of similarities to Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains so if you like that kind of book, this is for you.

On another note, Smarter Than You Think was a book I had to read after going through You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself, to feel better about myself. Just kidding.

Abigail Collins

Ashley McFarland

A revelatory and timely look at how technology boosts our cognitive abilities—making us smarter, more productive, and more creative than ever It’s undeniable—technology is changing the way we think. But is it for the better? Amid a chorus of doomsayers, Clive Thompson delivers a resounding “yes.” In Smarter Than You Think, Thompson shows that every technological innovation—from the written word to the printing press to the telegraph—has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But, as in the past, we adapt—learning to use the new and retaining what is good of the old. Smarter Than You Think embraces and extols this transformation, presenting an exciting vision of the present and the future.

How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better

Ketan Nayak

Ahmed Salem

Danté

Ellen Chisa

Katie Day

Julia R

"In Smarter Than You Think Thompson shows that every technological innovation--from the written word to the printing press to the telegraph--has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But as in the past, we adapt--learning to use the new and retaining what's good of the old. Thompson introduces us to a cast of extraordinary characters who augment their minds in inventive ways. There's the seventy-six-year old millionaire who digitally records his every waking moment--giving him instant recall of the events and ideas of his life, even going back decades. There's a group of courageous Chinese students who mounted an online movement that shut down a $1.6 billion toxic copper plant. There are experts and there are amateurs, including a global set of gamers who took a puzzle that had baffled HIV scientists for a decade--and solved it collaboratively in only one month. Smarter Than You Think isn't just about pioneers. It's about everyday users of technology and how our digital tools--from Google to Twitter to Facebook and smartphones--are giving us new ways to learn, talk, and share our ideas. Thompson harnesses the latest discoveries in social science to explore how digital technology taps into our long-standing habits of mind--pushing them in powerful new directions. Our thinking will continue to evolve as newer tools enter our lives. Smarter Than You Think embraces and extols this transformation, presenting an exciting vision of the present and the future"--

Smarter Than You Think How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better

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