Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Book & DVD)

This book has some excellent research and thought provoking information for anyone involved with learning. As a working professional in the field of Human Resource Development I will be incorporating some of Dr. Medina's research and vision into our corporate learning strategy.

This book is partly an academic-style introduction to brain research and partly a jauntily written practical "how-to" about getting the most from your brain. John Medina has a warm, upbeat persona, and skillfully incorporates stories from his experiences to illustrate points he makes in the book. From time to time he forgets to connect the dots for readers who are new to the material, and so doesn't always articulate the full point or parallel he is making. However, he gives a broad overview of brain research and makes a conscious effort to practice the rules he preaches. He repeats information, as research says he should, and uses lively, varied examples to engage the reader. To reinforce the book's lessons with visual and aural sensory input, the publisher provides a supplemental DVD. Medina summarizes his key points, and touches briefly on the real-world implications and applications of the findings he covers. getAbstract recommends this book to parents, educators, human-resources professionals, executives and all those who want to help themselves, their children or their employees reach their full intellectual potential.

Read this book. Entertaining, clear and you will learn a lot about how we work.

I'm a teacher and have recently become interested in the brain. This book is GREAT for educators. It will make you rethink the way you teach. It made me realize how important some parts of the curriculum are (P.E.) which are often cut in order to make more room for review time. With all the non-sense high stakes tests of NCLB it's not surprising (I did it myself) but if you want to boost your test scores, DON'T CUT P.E. I love this book and would recommend it to anybody, but especially teachers.

What a lovely book John Medina has created. His book is thoughtful and funny. The book provides a springboard into a much larger universe relating to the workings of the human mind and how observations on those workings can be used to perhaps benefit the business world. Notably, Medina never overstates his claims. He simply suggests a business application which relates to the "brain-rule" extracted from an examination of a deeper world of research and experience.

Although Medina provides sufficient clues in his book to hint at his own depth, he limits himself to a gentle, lay-person's introduction, while still providing something with bite!

The use of multiple presentation formats and media (book, internet and dvd) is a beautiful example of where the author reinforces his own words by "living" the advice he offers to others. I'm sure that if Medina had the option of including smell, touch and taste as well, he would have.

A very pleasant, very educational, very thought-provoking read. Highly recommended.