The Genius in All of Us

Brooklyn Public Library event, Sunday, May 15

2011-05-12T14:07:14-04:00

New Yorkers:

Join me at the Brooklyn Public Library this Sunday, May 15, 1:30 pm, to hear my book spiel and to ask me vexing questions about IQ, math genes, and musical ears.

If you come, I'll tell you what these mice

and this taxicab

have to do with your ability to juggle a soccer ball on your head.

FREE • Sunday, May 15, 1:30pm, Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture, Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn NY 11218. Map here. Event listing here. Books for sale and signing.

"Genius" in paperback

2011-03-08T09:11:45-05:00

Please raise your coffee mugs and help me welcome my bouncing new paperback:

**A New York Times bestseller** **A London Guardian BookShop bestseller**

Some nice reviews:

"A deeply interesting and important book."

-- THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Profound."

-- LONDON EVENING STANDARD

"The Genius in All of Us has quietly blown my mind."

-- LAURA MILLER, SALON

"A welcome new book…compelling."

-- THE BOSTON GLOBE

"A thinking man's Outliers."

-- NEW YORK MAGAZINE

"Cogent and compelling."

-- THE WEEK

"Engrossing."

-- BOOKLIST (starred review)

"Readable and well-researched...The big idea in this book is that talent is not a matter of genetic endowment, but of an ongoing interaction between genes and environment. The nature/nurture debate is therefore dead (or should be)."

-- THE INDEPENDENT

"Inspiring."

-- THE SCOTSMAN

"An incredibly well-researched meditation on the nature of human talent."

-- KEVIN ROBERTS, CEO WORLDWIDE, SAATCHI & SAATCHI

"One of the best books I have read in the last year."

-- RUFUS GRISCOM, BABBLE

"Rather than championing nurture and downplaying nature, [Shenk] paints a picture in which genes and environment interact in a much more complicated way."

-- THE LONDON OBSERVER (Paperback Book of the Week)

"With a flair for explaining scientific research, [Shenk] debunks outdated assumptions that genes are destiny and shows how environment and mindset are just as important."

-- THE DAILY BEAST (A Book Pick)

"Empowering...myth-busting...entertaining."

-- KIRKUS REVIEWS

_____________

DAVID SHENK

davidshenk.com

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The orange in all of us: new design and a new subtitle for my U.S. paperback

2011-02-16T17:43:43-05:00

My new US paperback drops in three weeks, complete with a new cover, new iconography, and a much more sober subtitle:

The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ

My son approves.

More to come on this soon.

My 15 minutes of (Canadian) Fame

2011-01-27T16:52:54-05:00

In the future, everyone will be famous in Canada for 15 minutes. My 15 minutes happened Tuesday night on a very thoughtful TV program, "The Agenda with Steve Paikin," in a Charlie Rose-style one-on-one discussion.

More from the UK

2011-01-18T13:07:46-05:00

The London Observer just picked The Genius in All of Us as its Paperback of the Week. Review here.

Also, the BBC asked me to write something about the book for their site, which I did. My piece here.

Tiger Mother, Kitten Dad

2011-01-14T15:30:39-05:00

Babble.com invited me to weigh in on the Wall Street Journal "Tiger Mother" mishegoss. Here's my piece. http://bit.ly/fil9hI

UK paperback

2011-01-06T11:40:40-05:00

Icon Books has just released the UK paperback of The Genius in All of Us. (US paperback coming in March, with new cover, new subtitle, and a few other changes).

Today's London Evening Standard calls the book "profound."

The Onion: 97-Year-Old Dies Unaware Of Being Violin Prodigy

2010-10-06T10:40:11-04:00

Very funny piece in The Onion about prodigy:

ROCKFORD, IL—Retired post office branch manager Nancy Hollander, 97, died at her home of natural causes Tuesday, after spending her life completely unaware that she was one of the most talented musicians of the past century and possessed the untapped ability to become a world-class violin virtuoso.

Read the whole article here.

Edinburgh video, Aspen radio, London print

2010-09-10T14:53:57-04:00

A few new bits on me and the book:

• This short video from the Edinburgh Book Festival.

• This thoughtful half-hour interview from Aspen Public Radio's Jonathan Bastian.

• This nice write-up from the Guardian (UK).

Kevin Roberts on The Genius in All of Us

2010-09-09T07:42:04-04:00

Some very flattering, unsolicited praise from Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi:

What does it mean to be “talented” or “gifted” or a “genius”? David Shenk has an interesting take on the issue in his recent book The Genius in All of Us. Although it sounds like a self-help book, it’s actually an incredibly well-researched meditation on the nature of human talent.

According to Shenk, the traditional view of talent as a “gift” that is somehow given to us through our genes is both simplistic and outdated....
He also goes into great detail about the hard work and focus that some of the most talented people in history – including Mozart and Michael Jordan – put into developing their skills. His finding is that talent has less to do with the “gifts” that nature has endowed us with as it does with environmental and behavioral factors. That is, most of us aren’t destined to be talented or untalented. It’s something that happens over time, due to conscious effort and environmental stimuli.
The inspirational upshot of Shenk’s research is that “few of us know our true limits, that the vast majority of us have not even come close to tapping what scientists call our ‘unactualized potential.’"
This is exciting news, and hopefully it will inspire many of us to work harder at developing our skills. Too often I hear people label themselves as “not gifted at math” or “not artistic” or “not creative.” According to the research cited in Shenk’s book, we can’t let ourselves off that easy.