Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

About the author

Konnikova, born in Russia, is a psychologist and writer based in New York. At the time she wrote Mastermind, Konnikova was pursuing her doctorate from Columbia University. Konnikova became interested in Sherlock Holmes as a child, when her father read her the Conan Doyle stories. She was intrigued by Holmes's power to both "see and observe," as exemplified in A Scandal in Bohemia. The idea for Mastermind came from a series of articles Konnikova wrote for her Literally Psyched column in the Scientific American, entitled Lessons from Sherlock Holmes.

I think the best psychologists are actually fiction writers. Their understanding of the human mind is so far beyond where we've been able to get with psychology as a science.

Contents

Overview

In Mastermind, Konnikova uses what she refers to as the Watson System and the Holmes System to categorize and discuss people's habits of mind; their mindfulness and decision-making processes. The Watson System, according to Konnikova, is the more natural of the two: rapid, intuitive, reactionary, credulous. The Holmes System is slow, methodical, logical, and comprehensive.

Konnikova helps the reader conceptualize acts of memory formation, retention and retrieval by borrowing Holmes's problem solving metaphor: the brain attic. If the brain is an attic, with finite space, then each bit of information placed there needs to be chosen carefully, organized and stored in a way that is both useful and accessible. "When we are forced to do multiple things at once," Konnikova says, "not only do we perform worse on all of them but our memory decreases and our general well-being suffers a palpable hit."

Konnikova recommends developing "a healthy dose of skepticism", along with inquisitiveness, mindfulness, restraint, and a desire to "look for evidence that both confirms and disconfirms" closely held beliefs. She provides readers with a number of research-based suggestions for increasing self-awareness and emphasizes the need for life-long learning to cultivate "Holmes-style creativity:" practise mental and physical distancing when working out problems (i.e., go for a walk), reduce distractions (i.e., turn off the phone when eating dinner), challenge one's own "built-in reactions and first impressions" to reduce the Watson-like habit of reaching conclusions before all the evidence is in or becoming distracted by superfluous details.

Reception

Konnikova received praise for what one reviewer called the "ingenious delivery system" of using Holmes and Watson to "personify rational and intuitive modes of thought." The book is well-organized, thought-provoking, and entertaining, especially for Holmes fans. Some reviewers point out that, because Holmes is fictional, his problem solving abilities came from Conan Doyle's construct. It is Holmes, not Watson (who is, largely, portrayed in Mastermind as "unthinking"), that is the key problem solver in the stories, making his "amazing feats of insight," according to one reviewer, a "little too opportunistic." Reviewers found the book to be based in science, though more of a self-help book than an in-depth exploration of the concepts held within it.