Comments on: I can has engineer-mind?

Question: I can has engineer-mind?

lilithim — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:24:23 -0800

Any good books to help develop an analytic mind?

I'm finding myself in a place where I've got some energy to devote to being more mentally well-rounded.
Being able to understand engineering, or investing, or law, it doesn't necessarily matter.
Any books/other resources that you read and found helpful to continue developing your thinking skills to solve problems.

By: Snerd

Snerd — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:52:03 -0800

This may be more general than you had in mind. You might take a look at Asking the Right Question: A Guide To Critical Thinking. (Earlier editions are widely available, used, at bargain prices.) Disclaimer: I bought it on the recommendation of an engineering management professor but have not read much of it yet. However, I learned some important things about critical thinking from him and see many of the same themes in this book.

In the same vein, you may find value in this AskMe question about critical thinking.

I will be interested in the more specific subject matter recommendations to follow...

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:14:06 -0800

When I was about 20-years-old I received a subscription to Skeptic magazine. It definitely helped me calibrate my bullshit detector and learn quite a bit about critical and scientific thinking. I haven't touched an issue in 10-years, but hopefully it's still just as good. You can usually find them at any good newsstand, or barring that, Barnes and Noble.

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:21:03 -0800

Martin Gardner's collections of his "Mathematical Games" columns are a very good place to start.

By: findango

findango — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:37:23 -0800

How to Solve It is a great book about general problem-solving techniques (despite the word "mathematical" in the full title). I find myself applying his heuristics to all sorts of situations:

What is the unknown?
What is the data?
Do you know a related problem?
...

By: zengargoyle

zengargoyle — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:06:17 -0800

2nd "Mathematical Games", add Godel, Escher, Bach and Metamagical Themas. Might make your head explode. Any Edward Tufte. These books get your brain a'thinking.

By: francesca too

francesca too — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:17:29 -0800

Inevitable Illusions by Massimo Piatelli-Palmerini. I tried unsuccesfully to find a link. I liked the book and it was on how easy it is to fool the mind and think illogically. Easy to read, if you can find it.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:32:20 -0800

I think a book like Freakonomics might help, the author looks at ordinary, average things and illustrates the most bizzare connections and ideas.

By: eccnineten

eccnineten — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:41:45 -0800

"Conjectures and Refutations" by Karl Popper.

By: frankie_stubbs

frankie_stubbs — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:56:03 -0800

An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald Weinberg is a good one.

From Amazon: "Originally published in 1975 and reprinted more than twenty times over a quarter century -- and now available for the first time from Dorset House Publishing -- the text uses clear writing and basic algebraic principles to explore new approaches to projects, products, organizations, and virtually any kind of system.

Scientists, engineers, organization leaders, managers, doctors, students, and thinkers of all disciplines can use this book to dispel the mental fog that clouds problem-solving. As author Gerald M. Weinberg writes in the new preface to the Silver Anniversary Edition, "I haven't changed my conviction that most people don't think nearly as well as they could had they been taught some principles of thinking."

By: frankie_stubbs

frankie_stubbs — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:10:45 -0800

Game Theory by Morton Davis is also one I thought was helpful.

By: phyrewerx

phyrewerx — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:04:41 -0800

Books by Raymond Smullyan have interesting logic puzzles that are great mental exercises, they are lean more towards rational reasoning than critical thinking though.

By: peacheater

peacheater — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:11:11 -0800

Seconding Raymond Smullyan -- try What is the Name of this Book and Alice in Puzzleland.

By: sgmax

sgmax — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:37:26 -0800

Try reading John Allen Paulos: his book Innumeracy has a new edition out. You might also be amused by A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper .