Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

Frankly, I have never read another book quite like the one Maria Konnikova has written. Almost immediately after I began to read it, I thought of the television series, The Mentalist, whose lead character (Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker) is a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation. Each week, he demonstrates the intellectual curiosity as well as observation and analytical skills for which Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is renowned. Both possess a "mastermind" that has been highly developed over an extended period of time during a wealth of experiences with the best and worst of human nature. Its most dominant characteristic is "mindfulness."

As Konnikova explains, "The idea of mindfulness itself is by no means a new one. As early as the end of the nineteenth century, William James, the father of modern psychology wrote that 'the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention over and over again, is the very root of poor judgment, character, and will...An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.' That faculty, at its core, is the very essence of mindfulness. And the education that James proposes, an education in a mindful approach to life and to thought."

Cleverly, to make several key points, Konnikova juxtaposes two stereotypes from Conan Doyle's characters: "System Watson" and "System Holmes." The former personifies "our naive selves, operating by the lazy though habits -- the ones that come naturally, the so-called path of least resistance -- that we've spent our whole lives acquiring." As for the latter, System Holmes, it "treats every thought, every experience, and every perception of the way [Holmes] would a pink elephant. In other words, begin with a healthy dose of skepticism instead of credulity that is your mind's [and Watson's mind] natural state of being. Don't just assume anything is the way it is [or seems to be]. Think of everything as being as absurd as an animal that can't possibly exist in nature."

These are among the dozens of passages I found to be of greatest interest and value, also listed to suggest the range of subjects covered during the course of the book's narrative:

o Pitfalls of the Untrained Brain (17-21)
o A Prime Environment: The Power of the Incidental (49-54)
o Paying Attention Is Anything but Elementary (67-74)
o The Four Elements of Mindfulness (76-108)
o Learning to Overcome Imaginative Doubt (115-128)
o Sustaining Your Imagination: The Importance of Curiosity and Play (150-152)
o The Difficulty of Proper Deduction: Our Inner Storyteller at the Wheel (160-168)
o The Improbable Is Not Impossible (177-184)
o Bringing Habits Back from Mindlessness to Mindfulness (193-197)
o Learning to Spot the Signs of Overconfidence (201-205)
o System Holmes: A Five-Step Process (213-222)
o The Mindset of a Hunter (240-249)

In Chapter One, Konnikova cites a reminder from Holmes worthy of our consideration. "Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study nor is life long enough to attain the highest possible perfect in it." That said, Konnikova has convinced me that in order to move from a System Watson to a System Holmes, one must combine highly developed Mindfulness (in the sense of constant practice of mind) and highly developed Motivation (in the sense of active engagement and desire). "To think like Sherlock Holmes, we must [begin italics] want [end italics], actively, to think like him." Those who are self-motivated always outperform those who aren't...and such motivation requires both desire and effort.

I now intend to re-read this book again because I am determined to increase and strengthen my understanding of the scientific method, guided and informed by an abundance of information, insights, and counsel that Maria Konnikova provides. More specifically, "to understand and frame the [given] problem; observe; hypothesize (or imagine); test and deduce; and repeat." It's time, now, to conclude this brief commentary and resume my search for pink elephants.

A brilliant topic, using one of literature's most famous characters as a springboard toward exploring how the mind works: Konnikova makes the point that studying how Sherlock Holmes solved his cases is more about noting that he was a man of intensely logical observation, not unfathomably magical powers; we're reminded that the character is human, after all. So we, too, can enrich our lives and world by becoming more intuitive and deductive, both. Most engaging and persuasive is the argument that there's no such thing as "multi-tasking": Short-lived focus on many things sequentially isn't the same as harnessing keener powers of presence and mindfulness.

The book is written beautifully, and it's fun to read, with psychological information presented in a lively, palatable way; one needn't be an expert on the detective to enjoy hearing how our "brain attics" act as repositories out of which we all build the narrative threads of our lives. The caution that there's no easy path to true creative depths helps keep us honest as we explore how to free ourselves from our usual hazy thinking, which directly determines how rich and exciting our days end up. The reader emerges wanting to re-read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work--a bonus; there's also an invigorating sense by the end that we are capable of tackling and refining what we store in our minds, the better to use it in ways that might astonish us.

One of the things we love about Sherlock Holmes is his brilliant mental acuity. This book, by an expert in the field, explores the intellectual gymnastics and profound depth of Holmes' rational mind.

I just re-read this remarkable book and found even more material that I can fit into my own life.

If you've ever wondered the thought process that Sherlock Holmes calls upon to see what others cannot.

This book is definitely for you. Maria draws upon extensive research, as well as her own very uniquely educated perspective that allows us to get a visible glimpse into the mind of Sherlock - and this information if properly digested, is indispensable.

As Seth Godin once said.... -- Ignore this book at your own peril.

Beats around the bush. Is very repetitive and leaves a lot of actual "how to" up in the air/up to you to interpret. Entertaining at times, mostly because it alludes to cases featured in Sherlock novels we all love and remember fondly.

I originally got sucked into the Sherlock Holmes movement after watching Elementary on TV. After some research, I found that it is possible to train your brain to be more observant in day-to-day living. this book teaches you how!

I purchased this book because it was somewhat favorably reviewed in the NY Times, and I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan. A significant portion of the text is simply quotations from Doyle's stories. There are some interesting parts, but in many places it's obvious that the author is attempting to see something in a passage of a Holmes story that isn't there. Also, there are instances where the author simply repeats an idea from another current book to make a point. One example is drawing a comparison to the ideas in a good book the Checklist Manifesto. If you want to think like Sherlock Holmes read the original works.

I love Sherlock Holmes. I have read all the books by A Conan Doyle....however, .I cannot remember every detail of every story so when the author of "Mastermind" refers to a situation in one of Sherlock Homes' cases without elaborating on the complete story, it is sooo frustrating. I did not seem to connect the story and what ever the helpful part of this book was trying to convey. Sorry

I gave this book four stars instead of five because I wish the author had thought to include a summary for review at the end of each chapter, and perhaps some action items to follow up on. The book is full of great analysis of Sherlock's methods, but the ground the author covers is pretty broad, and a more detailed prescriptive approach might help those people who get overwhelmed with all the information. All in all though, a real gem of a book!

The book started out in the right direction, but ended up rambling without explicitly defining any techniques on the process of how to think like Sherlock Holmes. Could have defined exercises designed to stimulate your brain to analyze and sort data, or possibly improve memory cognitive skills. There are similar titled books that are better suited towards these goals if that is your aim.

I highly recommend reading Mastermind.

Maria has done a great job in making the book informative and entertaining. It will definitely help you become more productive, proactive and focused. You won't want to put it down. Sir Author Conan Doyle would be pleased with Maria's work.
So if your sick of being a patsy, buy this book.

I was hoping for advice on observation and logic; maybe even common sense applied in a novel way, but sadly, no. Giving the clues in a case and then saying you're jumping to conclusions may be fine, if all the clues were given from the beginning. She doesn't do that. What the author does is give you some of the clues, then say what a moron you are because, lo and behold, there was another clue you didn't know about! Then advises you not to jump to conclusions until you know all the facts, when she purposely held back information to mislead you. Unfair! I wasted my money on this one.