Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better

I FINALLY finished my book and I LOVED it!

I feel that Clive Thompson has the same point of view that I do about technology. He understands that it has it downfalls, but he sees the amazing things it's capable of too! From the very beginning with his explanation of Centaurs, he had me hooked! I've always loved chess...I'm terrible at it, but I still think it's fascinating. I remember watching Searching for Bobby Fischer as a kid and I thought it was such a good movie. I'm a little surprised that I didn't already know about Centaurs, but they totally make sense. Having a machine perform the logical moves while you employ the creative side is genius! 

The book certainly made me think. It gave me ideas for my students and for collaborating with my team. It helped me become more aware of what's going on in the world as well. One of my favorite stories that Thompson relayed was about Ahmed Abulhassan. It was incredible how one Twitter account could supply several hospitals in Egypt with needed supplies!

The last point I want to make is that it was really great how Thompson spoke of technology throughout history. When he explained that Socrates was worried about the written word eroding human memory, all I could think was YES! This is exactly what people say about our current technology. While Socrates' worries were partially well-founded because there was some memory lost, just think of where our world would be now without writing!

And now for the favorite quote...

How should you respond when you get powerful new tools for finding answers? Think of harder questions.

Reference
Thompson, Clive (2013). Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better. Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.