Your Brain at Work

By David Rock

This book puts some sense into what we know about brain research and how we can use it to our advantage. There is a lot of knowledge I 'somehow knew' and now I understand really why. And there is a lot of new information as well.

The book is nicely structured by

- Firstly, explaining what is known in brain research

- Secondly, writing about daily life and connect this to the brain research, illustrating what can go wrong and how things can be done better

- Concrete action items ready to use for improving our daily life

One thing that you will learn from the book is about multi-tasking. I find this very relevant because I observe that a lot of people try to multi task like attending a meeting and answering phone calls / emails at the same time.

Here is the answer. If you multi task and both tasks require involvement of your prefrontal cortex (that is the part of your brain that you use to make decision and solve problems) then your error rate increases quickly when you do two things (multi-task) at the same time. Discussing a problem at a meeting and making a decision while answering an email would fall into this category.

Apparently, we can multi task if two activities require different parts of the brain. A good example is driving a car. Once you are a seasoned driver, you will be able to drive and have a high level conversation at the same time. If you are driving and need to search for the way to a new location at the same time, that requires your prefrontal cortex again, then you would find it more difficult to hold a high level conversation.

Another mystery of my life is now solved as well. My wife and I are both good cooks. However, my wife can cook and hold a conversation at the same time. When I cook I don’t want anybody to talk to me as I want to concentrate. I have started cooking only recently as a hobby. So, I understand now that my skills are not yet seasoned enough to become an automatic skill controlled by another part of the brain and I am still using my prefrontal cortex when cooking.

There are many more useful insights. To me, a ‘must read’ book.