20 times longer than necessary

What would have made Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You better?

This is insanely trivial. A few examples of "how to outsmart your brain":
If you are afraid of fyling on a plane: RELAX (yes, that is the trick!).
If you want to learn new skills: Practice (who would have thought that!)
If you are stuck on a problem: Do something else (seriously - people pay money for this kind of research results?)

But wait, it gets better:
If you feel depressed - just consider yourself to be a scientist who does a scientific research AND TAKE DRUGS (honestly, that's the tip! He's talking about Aspirin there - just take it to "brighten up your mood", like ... every day)

But wait - it STILL GETS BETTER:
If you feel stage fright - DRINK ALCOHOL!

I kid you not. "Researches have shown that a drink or two releaxes you". You have to read that one again to believe it.

That was about the moment when I stopped listening. I am just not interested in what "Tricks" this "professor" might have up his sleeves after those two.
The "researches" reported in this course are about a century old, it seems as if "psychology" is not a science, but draining money from people with every-day trivia. Now, I do not believe this, but this course definitely makes you think "why am I financing public universities to undertake researches that lead to the conclusion that smiling makes you feel happy" (another example from this "outsmart the reader to buy this nonsense".

Would you ever listen to anything by The Great Courses again?

If I need a reason to cancel my Audible membership: Yes, immediately. Otherwise - am I completely insane?

What does Professor Peter M. Vishton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mr. Visthon repeats the same information over and over and over and over again.
Then he repeats is a couple of times, in case someone wasn't capable of following.

An example (not word by word, just to give an expression)
"Now, in order to relax, look for a place that is calm enough to allow you to sit down for a few minutes. Then sit down for a few minutes. Take a seat in order to relax in a calm place. Take care that you can relax in that place that you take a seat in, then sit down and relax. Breath out. Relax. haaaahhh... now, breath in again. Relax. You are in a calm place and want to relax, in order to do so, breath calmly. In ... hmmm .... and out .... relax. Feel how your body relaxes and you're getting all calm.
If you want to practice relaxation, look for a calm place where you can sit down. Then take a few minutes ..."

You get the picture. Every single chapter I have listened to (around half an hour each) could be shortened to max. 1 minute - that is in no way exaggeration, you do not need more than 60 seconds to give ALL the information contained in the respective chapter.
In the chapters I listened to, FRMI was explained IN DETAIL at least four times. Starting from zero every single time.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

The tips to experiment with drugs, drink alcohol or wait for beta blockers to become daily praxis in treating fear (!!) plus the obvious lack of ANY serious, more recent research results (e.g. about sleep) actually made me angry. That does not happen that often when listening to (obviously) comedy.

335 people found this helpful

handful of tips...but

The book goes too much in detail on the experiments informing the tips. without this roundabout, the book could be a few chapters. the book could summarise the key points or tips at the end of the chapter

30 people found this helpful

Nothing of value

Only listened to the first few lectures. The goal of these lectures is to promote positive changes to behaviors and thinking patterns in common, everyday situations. The main issue with these lectures is that it greatly implies that most behaviors are influenced by one main factor; this is NEVER the case. He also fails to present potential downsides to his recommendations. An early example is when he recommended ways of increasing motivation. He recommends to immediately tackle the most difficult task first before moving on to easier ones. His reasoning is that if you accomplish smaller tasks first you won't have enough energy left when it comes time to complete the more difficult task. There is some truth to this, but it is also true that immediately trying to do something very difficult without gradual steps towards it can GREATLY increase that chance that you will give up altogether.

The other issue is that the supportive research studies he described were dubious at best. No mention of how many participants were in the study, when it was conducted, or how many trials were involved. Instead, he spends most of his time repeating the same poorly-supported conclusions over and over again.

21 people found this helpful

Really?

The back of A cereal box has more scientific and serious info.

Asumptions and scientific shams

5 people found this helpful

Brilliant Lectures

If you could sum up Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You in three words, what would they be?

Outstanding, Enlightening, Applicable

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

What does Professor Peter M. Vishton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

N/A

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Overcome obstacles by understanding your brain.

Any additional comments?

Provides deep insights into latest developments in neurosciences. Deals with overcoming everyday problems like fears, phobias, insomnia etc. Couldn't have been more thorough in explaining the functioning and control of key parts of your brain including hippocampus and amygdala. A course for everyone but won't go to the extent of saying a course for all age groups. The part I enjoyed the most was about exercising using your brain without moving a muscle. Tricking yourself into thinking you are exercising. Haha. Looking forward for more courses by Dr. Vishton.

49 people found this helpful

Great scientific self help information!

This course is awesome, no fluff just real strategies that can improve your life! love the section about imagery and how to use it , and the science to back up how effective it truly is. Also information about scientific information on how to influence others was fantastic!. Wow, is how I describe this course!

21 people found this helpful

Practical, insightful book!

This book was full of practical tips to improve happiness and health. My husband, who is a scientist, loved hearing all the science behind each idea. I just wanted the advice! It was a win - win for both of us. I've recommended the book to several friends already.

4 people found this helpful

Good content

An easy to digest course, with lots of practicle advice and scientificaly backed and explored techniques and 'mind hacks'. I was also very pleased with the professor

11 people found this helpful

So much new data in 3 decades!

I graduated with a double honours degree (one of which was Psychology) 30 years ago. My career took me on the path of the other half of that degree but I like to think some of the psychology knowledge stayed with me.

This Great Course showed me what almost 30 years of new experiments and data and advances in technology have done. Very exciting. Highly interesting. Wonderful.

The presentation was great and the idea of providing the data as “tips” was a fantastic learning method.

I highly recommend this.

2 people found this helpful

Incredibly Practicle Overview of Neuroscience

I have a background in psychology and have studied neuroscience. This author gives an incredibly insightful and practical overview of some of the latest research on neuroscience as it relates to behavior.

2 people found this helpful