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ENG1101 D371 English Composition I, SPR2015
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Post your beginning of class summary of John Medina’s Brain Rules, Introduction as a comment to this post.
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In John Medina’s “Brain Rules”, he introduced his book with a brief facts of the brain, and busted some myths that one might think of it. By providing examples to support his claim, his main goal was to make awareness to people on how humans began to cope life; not through physically, but with intellectually. He emphasized the importance of each individual area of the brain that is responsible for the action, or things that humans do. For example, an area located just at the back of the forehead is called the frontal lobe; which is responsible for making decisions and response making. Either a damaged frontal lobe, or had severe collisions on that area will cause a drastic change in the personality of an individual that was affected. Medina gave an example of a tragic incident that happened to Phineas gage, a survivor of an unfortunate occurrence that disfigured his frontal lobe and completely changed his personality of who he was.
John Medina makes a direct approach to this book with interesting facts and examples to support his claim. Because he uses facts that were successfully peer-reviewed, the information provided does look factual and gives assurance that I would not be misguided with any more false claims about brains anymore.
While reading John Medina’s “Brain Rules”, I’ve notice that in the introduction that he has pointed out that there are a few people out there who’s IQ are not as high as what many people would expect it to be, but yet they can do amazing things compared to those with high IQ’s that can’t. Like for example John asks at the very beginning for us the readers to multiply a problem in our head. Then he ask can we do it in a few seconds. I would say no for me but he says that there is this young man who can double that number of the problem 24 times in the space of a few seconds and gets it right every time. To me it’s amazing that he can do that in seconds. Its pretty impressive. What’s also impressive is another boy he mentioned in the introduction who can tell you the precise time of the day even while he’s sleeping. I wish I was able to do that, I mean I can tell time precisely a little bit but not as precise as he can.
John Medina introduces the brain and it’s facts. He stated myths for the reader to consider while reading this book. With enough facts reviewed and proven by his peers, Medina wanted to educate the reader about the brain. His objective was to show how the brain evolved and how intellectual we are becoming. His style of writing is unique. Instead of connecting every paragraph with a connecting sentence, he connects them with different titles.
in John Medina’s “Brain Rules”, he mentioned the different parts of the brain. For example, he talked about the cortex which is responsible for speech, vision and memory. He also happened to mention the thalamus that regulates the senses. He wrote about the hippocampus, the part of the brain that maintains short and long term memory. Lastly, he mentioned the amygdala, which relates to feelings ,emotions and memories. What I found interesting is how Medina relates evolution of these different parts of the brain to demonstrate how humanity has acquired the ability to use ‘symbolic reasoning’. One way he relates this is when he describes the concept of teamwork, where cavemen use strategies to take down a woolly mammoth. They showed cooperation, working together to achieve a common goal.
In the Introduction to John Medina’s, “Brain Rules”, Medina talks about the early origins of the brain bringing us to discuss Brain Rule #1: The human brain evolved, too. Medina focuses on the evolutionary history when discussing the brain and its survival strategies. Symbolic reasoning was one of the survival strategies. As humans, we have this talent to fantasize, where our brains can see an object for what it is, but we can also believe it to represent something else. Symbolic reasoning was important because it helped us communicate and create a society, which was to our advantage because we able to prosper. Another survival strategy was adapting to variation. Climate started to change and jungles became grasslands, which disrupted our food supply. We had no choice but to adapt to variation itself. Only the ones that solved problems and learned from their mistakes survived which indicated we became smarter, not stronger to last. Due to the trees being gone, we needed to travel for long periods of time to locate food sources. Walking on two legs instead of four helped free up energy allowing our minds to develop more. Medina goes on to discuss how we have three brains in one. The brain stem controls your breathing, sleeping, heart rate, etc.; The mammalian brain, your “animal survival” instincts includes, fighting, feeding, fleeing and reproducing and last but not least, the cortex or the “human brain”, which is the electrical communication within your insides. Medina states these survival strategies gave helped us to understand how we acquired knowledge and the basics on how the brain works. In comparing Medina’s writing to Oshea’s and Gary’s, I enjoyed Medina’s writing better. I believe Oshea’s captivation with the brain was overcompensated with extensive vocabulary. Gary’s tone and context couldn’t keep me interested in reading. Medina overall, with writing style and tone, kept me interested. His tone was relatable and his sub headers were good with transitioning. Good read so far.
In John Medinas “Brain Rules” introduction he mentioned many things such as the difference between peoples IQ levels, and myths and facts about the brain he believed in. At the starting the way he explained the working of the brain had me so captivated that it made me want to read more. He describes the functions of the brain in such a way that it makes the reader want to read and learn more about it. He talks about what he is trying to introduce to us about the brain through this book, and how we do and can apply those rules to our daily lives and work. In the beginning of the chapter he described what abilities few people have and it made me wonder if my brain could do the same? Or what causes the brain to work so fast for them with such a low IQ level? Is someone else would have read the introduction they would definitely want to read the whole book as well just like I do.
John Medina’s “Brain Rules” introduction showed me how the rest of the book will turn out. The book started by introducing facts about the brain and killing off many brain myths people think are real. He proceeded to give examples of how the brain works and how important our brain has been in our development as human beings. He also stated how each component from the backs to the front of our brains are very important. I found this very interesting. He stated some examples of how brain damage has caused many unfortunate people to completely change their personality because of the damage done to the front of their brain. It is very sad when you think about it but it makes people more aware of how important how brain is and how be should always protect it.
John Medina intro to “Brain Rules” explained the way how the brain evolved and how knowledge is passed from one generation to another. This went thru my mind when I was sitting in the dinner table with my family. My mom mentioned that my niece knows how to work a phone and even text a full sentence to a recipient. I was astonished how she’s only 5 and I learned how to text when I was 12. The normal that we have now are being overshadowed by new generation, improving on and evolving on it. Medina also explains briefly how our evolution from just using a stone and smashed into other rocks or things has evolved to sharper rocks and better tools. That knowledge is then passed on to the next generation which is advanced even further and the cycle continues as long as that person is willing. The main aspect of human evolution, helping each other out take down something bigger, or the share of the knowledge is the key factors for our survival.
As part of the introduction, I noticed Medina points out many interesting facts about the brain, like how people with different IQs excel in different areas. He explains what to look for in the book, like little stories here and there or things he has found in his research. In this chapter, he begins to talk about how the brain evolved to be what it is and is still evolving. We as humans went from a species of little population, sleeping in trees and gathering food, to walking long distances on two legs and hunting for food in order to survive sudden harsh climates. We learn to adapt to the change that is brought to us, and Medina points out several times that this is an important feature. Not only this, but he says symbiotic reasoning is one of the major functions of our brain that allows us to be able to think so critically. He states that as we adapted, the brain was used to walking long distances and processing a vast variety of information. It was through our need to understand each other, however, that we came to cooperating with one another, and thus, taking over the world. In comparison two Oshea and Gray, his writing style is more informative, but reader-friendly. While Gray all but idolized the brain, and Oshea described how the brain got to where it is and needs to go, Medina not only points out interesting facts, but gives us examples and details from his personal life and studies in order to back it up.
The brain is a powerful thing. can do complex math in a matter of seconds. The time of day can either be calculated or dictated, which ponders the thought, why is this so? The mind can imagine things, creating pictures in your head of things that are being thought. The thoughts are based on things we see, hear,smell, touch, or taste. Take for example a 6 year old child who has an iq of 70, who can draw works that are incredible. The general consensus is that her work is superior when compared to Leonardo da Vinci. Every person in this world has a mind, what they choose to do with it is up to them. The thoughts of person are varied in nature, many possibilities made possible by electrical connections in the brain. Not many people understand how their mind works. There are 12 basic things which can help with thoughts and functions, termed “brain rules”. People
In the introduction of “Brain Rules” by John Medina it basically tells you different ways to handle situations and to find a balance between in your school life, work life and also in your personal life. He gave many examples of people who have done extraordinary things but there IQ test was never higher than a 70 which he found to be very odd. Medina is trying to prove that the brain is capable to do a lot of more things than what the IQ test proves. He shows different aspects of how your brain is so perfect at doing it’s job but sometimes it can be a little overwhelming which is where all the stress from. However, he is showing 12 principles to overcome the stress and have a better meaning to why the brain is so perfect at what it does.