Rating: 2/5
Another disappointing book. I was expecting a general framework for tackling complexity but instead I got a bunch of loosely tied examples. The start of the book was captivating but it quickly fell off when the author brought in mathematics. The book also describes the history behind computers, evolution, and information which was interesting but unrelated. Am I reading a history book or a complexity book? There was no thesis behind the chapters, no argument made. It read more like a lecture on various topics than a framework for managing complexity.
Rating: 2/5
A disappointing book. I was hoping for more details on the Thousand Brains theory but only a third of the book covers it. The rest two-thirds covers artificial intelligence and exisentialism, which I found interesting but not relevant to understanding the brain. I understand the book was written for a layperson and would not recommend it for experienced neuroscientists. Instead, read the papers by Hawkin and his team for more details. The book also repeats ideas too often to make up for the lack of substance. See this for a more in-depth review of the book.
Rating: 3/5
An old but good book on consciousness. Although it was published 30 years ago, many of the ideas stand the test of time and are novel even today. The writing is too philosophical for me, which is expected since the author is a philosopher first neuroscientist second. But there is some neuroscience evidence sprinked in here and there that supports some of the author’s arguments. Overall not a bad read.
Rating: 3/5
An ok book on startups. The author trash talks a lot which is why I dislike the book. And some of the advice is too general to be useful, but it did have some insights. Overall would not read again since the advice is too general or too full of opinions not related to startups.
Rating: 4/5
A great book on the history of models of the brain. It was well structured by moving from the low-level (neuron and action potential) to the high-level (networks and grand theories). While I didn’t learn many new ideas, I think this book is a great intro to the computational study of the brain as it touches many fields. The book only lost points for me because no mention of the efference copy and because the great writing sometimes had an academic tone.
Rating: 2/5
This book started off strong with the story of how sensory substitution can treat and potentially cure cases where our sensory organs fail. However, the chapters after the first were a let down. I disliked how opinionated the author was towards localization, often setting up his argument as “The traditional viewpoint of localization states this, however, this new finding about neuroplasticity disproves that statement and thus the localization viewpoint”. I tend to dislike when authors attack some well-established theory without also explaining all of the previous findings that the theory explains (After Phrenology is also guilty of this) or they attack a simplified version of the theory. Another point that I disliked is that this book didn’t present anything new compared to the “Livewired” book. Livewired has a structured approach to neuroplasticity, tying evidence into a framework with clear progression. This book, however, just presented case after case without many connecting themes.
Rating: 5/5
I’ve been eagerly waiting (a year) for this book and it delivered on my expectations. I love the work by Anil Seth and this book is a great summary for our bleeding-edge understanding of consciousness. The books covers the three mains parts of consciousness: level, content, and self, while tying it all together with Seth’s Beast Machine Theory. While the book did read rough at times (the philosophy parts) and the emphasis on the brain as a prediction machine got repetitive, the ideas are clear and the writing style unique. I don’t think a layperson can read this book and understand everything, but an undergraduate neuroscience student shouldn’t have any problems.
Rating: 1/5
I absolutely despised the writing of this book. Some sentences were extremely long and the word choice was too academic. I’m normally biased against philosophical writing because it seems like trying to hit some word count, and this book continues to support that bias. Aside from the writing, the ideas in the book were ok. Ideas such as neural reuse, embodied cognition, and interactive differentiation were somewhat new to me but the delivery of such ideas was lacking. The book read like a literature review at points and the author seemed more intent on criticizing and comparing other frameworks than on supporting his own. Overall a disappointing book.
Rating: 2/5
I thought this book would be about how information is coded, such as how physical phenomena (DNA, neuron spikes, and computers) can encode information. And while the book did deliver on the computational side of coding, it completely ignores biological and physical ways of coding. However, computational coding is covered really well and I would recommend this book to beginners that don’t know anything about computers. For seasoned computer scientists and computer engineers though, this is just a review of what you’ve learned. A good book, but not what I’m looking for.
Rating: 2/5
A disappointment. The book has no overarching theory but is rather a collection of the author’s thoughts. While interesting, they’re disjointed and leaves the reader asking “so what?” I did find some interesting ideas in the book though so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
Rating: 3/5
A dated but ok book on neurological diseases. Some cases are interesting but the majority of cases aren’t. The stories, while about people, lack humanity and emotion, and read more like a medical school’s description of disorders. Put another way, the book has an academic bias to it’s writing which I didn’t want.
Rating: 2/5
A disappointment of a book. It was just a collection of stories that had no overarching theme. It starts out interesting but ends without a satisfying smoking-gun conclusion. But the cases that the book does cover are interesting.
Rating: 4/5
A great but long read. The author argues that culture is the secret of our success and delves into this argument with examples and hypotheses. I felt the book to be longer than necessary and there was a lot of repetition of ideas.
Rating: 1/5
This book started off great but was in the end a let down. It starts with grand visions and claims but the second half falls short of providing an alternative solution. Read more like a criticism of others than presenting the author’s own ideas.
Rating: 3/5
The average neuroscience book. It was interesting and split time into it’s physical and biological perspectives which is good. The book was well organized and was enjoyable to read.
Rating: 4/5
One of the first times someone decides to follow the electrical spike from sensory organ to brain. While it does fall short at the end, it isn’t necessarily the author’s fault since neuroscience has yet to catch up.
Rating: 5/5
A great and concise book on the path to becoming a neuroscientist. The author is aware that academia isn’t the right path for all and provides a look into other paths such as industry and government. The information is in-touch with modern technology and was a joy to read.
Rating: 2/5
More of a self-help book than about the brain. While there are some interesting facts, such as a live brain is actually pink not gray, this just goes to show that people with experience may not be able to convey their experience.
Rating: 5/5
An incredible book on the history of the brain. The author starts with how we even figured out that it was the brain, and not the heart, that’s the seat of everything we’re aware of.
Rating: 2/5
Eric Kandel’s autobiography. It’s ok and expect some technical neuroscience, but what I liked was how Kandel detailed how he came to his discoveries.
Rating: 5/5
An unexpected great book. It deals with neuroplasticity and it’s many forms from sensory replacement and substitution to sensory enhancement.
Rating: 2/5
The start is great but the rest of the book is dated. The main takeaway is that writing is mostly rewriting.
Rating: 5/5
A book on how to think about systems, what goes in, what goes out, and what stays behind.
Rating: 5/5
A neglected topic that’s extremely important for communicating with others. The book has great steps and examples along the way to nonviolent communication.
Rating: 3/5
A decent book on the science of causality. However, it felt more like the author was shitting on others, specifically the machine learning community, than on pushing and developing their own idea.
Rating: 4/5
A concise book on how cooking was a keystone development in our evolution.
Rating: 3/5
An ok book presenting a theory of consciousness. While some of the ideas are great, like how the brainstem has our core consciousness and the cerebral cortex has our extended consciousness, the book was too philosophical at times.
Rating: 4/5
A good book on how the wiring of the brain matters. It’s well structured by presenting the ideas to a general audience and builds up an understanding of the problem.
Rating: 5/5
A great book on how the most extraordinary piece of our biology is the number of neurons in our cerebral cortex. I loved how the author mixed the science with stories such as the stories behind the experiments.
Rating: 5/5
An amazing book analyzing common factors of good ideas.
Rating: 4/5
A decent book on creating and following habits.
Rating: 3/5
An ok book on graduate school. Not all apply but it’s useful to know.
Rating: 3/5
A so-so book on what the author proposes as two forms of thinking. It does well in combining the author’s personal story with the science but falls short in that it gets too technical at times.
Rating: 5/5
Another great book that opened my eyes to the world of masters and the training required to become one. The claims are well established by experiments and there’s an overall theory/argument in the book.
Rating: 4/5
A somewhat spiritual book on how to live a meaningful life. Life is more than happiness.
Rating: 5/5
A great book on how to learn to learn. The arguments are grounded in evidence and the examples fit overall theory that the best way to learn is distributed retrieval practice.
Rating: 1/5
An ok book.
Rating: 5/5
One of the best books I’ve read. The book is well structured and written with arguments and examples. The steps to become a master are simple but not easy.
Rating: 2/5
An amazing book at first but as I learned more about the research behind the author’s claims it wasn’t so amazing.
Rating: 3/5
A decent psychology book that deals with how we make decisions. However, the decisions and experiments mentioned in the book are biased towards monetary decisions.