BRAIN WHIZ: Molecular biologist John Medina explodes myths about how our brains work, and catalogues ways in which we can get the most out of our most mysterious organ.
John Medina
Molecular biologist John Medina, speaker and author of the best-selling book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, didn’t set out to become a media star. But he got so fed up with encountering myths about the brain— that you use only 10 percent of it, for example, or that there are right- and left- Not that Brain Rules will tell you how the brain oper-
brain personalities—that he once threw a magazine across a seat on an airplane. (The flight, he notes, wasn’t full.)“So I decided to write Brain Rules,” Medina said, “as an attempt to say, ‘Look, here’s what we do know, here’s what we don’t know, here are a few things you can try that might have an application in the business world—and the meetings world as well.’”
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ates.“We don’t know squat about howthe brain works,” said Medina, who has focused on brain research for nearly three decades. He added: “I don’t know how you know how to pick up a glass of water and drink it. But we do know the condi- tions that [the brain] operates best in, even if we don’t know all the ins and outs of that operation.”