Insightful and mostly convincing.
A thoughtful argument that creativity shares many of the same traits as autism.
Psychologist Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge, begins with two case studies: a well-known genius and inventor who left home at age 16 and a genuinely brilliant man who lived with his mother into his 30s. The author maintains that humans alone possess a specific “engine in the brain,” the “Systemizing Mechanism,” which seeks out if-and-then patterns in the environment. Seeing one, it asks a question (“if”), considers how it might change (“and”), and then predicts a consequence (“then”). The best “systemizers” repeat this process dozens or even hundreds of times (i.e., experiment) to ensure that the pattern holds true. If confirmed, the result is a discovery or a creation. Though scientific, this process is also essential in mastering an art, craft, sport, or profession. Hypersensitive to patterns, autistic brains often get stuck in an if-and-then loop. Baron-Cohen adds “another game-changing mechanism,” the “Empathy Circuit,” which allows us to relate closely to someone else’s thoughts and feelings. Dealing with others is almost impossible without this “theory of mind,” which hyper-systemizers lack. The author participated in a large study that revealed five human brain types. About a third are mostly empathizers, a third systemizers, and a third show an equal balance between the two. At the extremes, a few percent are hyper-empathizers and hyper-systemizers, the latter dominated by geniuses and the autistic. Baron-Cohen also includes portraits of high-achieving autistics, both known (Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, and Albert Einstein) and anonymous. Readers curious about how they measure up can take a similar survey in the appendix. Although the author pleads for understanding, this is not a self-help book but rather an account of how systemizers drive human progress. He also briefly discusses how “we can bring hyper-systemizing into education.”
Insightful and mostly convincing.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5416-4714-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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