Mind Hacks: Tips & Tricks for Using Your Brain: Tips and Tricks for Using Your Brain (Hacks)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Tom Stafford, Matt Webb Our price £12.25 (£17.50) New from £7.56 Used from £7.53 Pages: 394 (Paperback) ISBN: 0596007795 Pub: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Pub date: 2004-11-22 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 22596

Reader Reviews:

Very good. though the lingo can put you off. (1/38 people found this helpful)

Okay first off I must congratluate the Authors and those that helped them with building this archive of short cuts that the mind takes to create a imige of the world.

Though there are a few things, if you arnt fammiler with Psychology or the layout of the brain, your likly to become confused, but its quite possible to get your head round it, all in all, exceeltent work. but not desighed for the person who is just starting out on Psychology/psychiartry studys.

Great read (2/15 people found this helpful)

Not particularly great in terms of giving 'tips and tricks', but still an awesome book if you're into the way the brain works.

Informative and, more importantly, fun! (52/53 people found this helpful)

I've only just finished reading it, but I have a feeling this will be one of those books that you keep coming back to. There's a lot of scope for flicking through and reading bits that catch your eye.

A lot of this is down to the layout - within each section the points are made in short "hacks", each one capturing a particular trick of the mind to reveal the (occasionally hackish) way it works.

If an optical illusion can trick us into thinking that two identical objects are different sizes, why do our hands know the right size when they go to pick one up? This is one of the hacks, and it proves that visual information is processed on two paths - the motor control is happening before the processing of context. Or does it? Many of the hacks raise questions which have not been settled, so readers can explore the controversy for themselves.

The authors have an infectious enthusiasm for the subject which is manifest in a lot of links and supplementary reading (as well as a blog). It's certainly a good idea to have the internet accessible to you while you read so you can look up the demos they link to, or you'll find your copy overflowing with bookmarks like I did.

Two minor notes of caution - not all of the hacks are tricks that you can actually try out. Especially at the beginning of the book many of them are textbook information presented in the "hacks" style. This is a fun book, but the science is there as well so be prepared for it! The other potential irritation is that, because the hacks are designed to stand on their own, the book can feel a bit repetitive if you try to read it cover to cover.

Overall, though, an excellent roadtrip through the workings of the mind, with plenty of opportunity for picking up party tricks along the way. There'll even be some serious lessons for anyone interested in the way senses are processed for interface design etc. I can thoroughly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in how the mind works.

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