To the list of writers connecting mainstream readers and cutting-edge science ;Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, James Surowiecki ;add Read Montague, with this exploration of what exactly determines the choices we make. With a new perspective on the science of decision-making from the researcher at the center of the computational neuroscience revolution, Why Choose This Book?shows what the latest brain science reveals about the crucial events of everyday experience ;the choices we make. From how we decide what we consume to what kind of art we like, and even the romantic, ethical, and financial choices we make, Read Montague guides the reader through a new approach to the mind with an accessible style that is both entertaining and illuminating. In taking apart the mind's decision-making machinery, Montague first illustrates how our brains are like computers that are slow, small, fuzzy, and cheap ;and began with goals like food, water, and sex. Second, he reveals how simple goals like these then turn into ideas like beauty, love, and terror with a life of their own. Finally, he explains how a value system in our heads controls those ideas so we can make good decisions ;and how that physical system can break down leading to bad decisions, addictions, mental illness, and even large economic disasters.

In a world where the value of a liberal arts education is no longer taken for granted, Mark William Roche lucidly and passionately argues for its essential importance. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience in higher education as a student, faculty member, and administrator, Roche deftly connects the broad theoretical perspective of educators to the practical needs and questions of students and their parents. Roche develops three overlapping arguments for a strong liberal arts education: first, the intrinsic value of learning for its own sake, including exploration of the profound questions that give meaning to life; second, the cultivation of intellectual virtues necessary for success beyond the academy; and third, the formative influence of the liberal arts on character and on the development of a sense of higher purpose and vocation. Together with his exploration of these three values—intrinsic, practical, and idealistic—Roche reflects on ways to integrate them, interweaving empirical data with personal experience. Why Choose the Liberal Arts? is an accessible and thought-provoking work of interest to students, parents, and administrators.

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

What type of business should you start? For the past 10 years, Inc. 500 CEO and #1 national best-selling author, Ryan Levesque--featured for his work in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and Entrepreneur--has guided thousands of entrepreneurs through the journey of answering this question. One of the biggest reasons why so many new businesses fail is because in the quest to decide what business to start, most of the conventional wisdom is wrong. Instead of obsessing over what--as in what should you sell or what should you build--you should first be asking who. As in who should you serve? The what is a logical question that will come soon enough. But choosing your who is the foundation from which all other things are built. That is what this book is all about. If you've ever had the dream to start your own business, become your own boss, or do your own thing--but have been afraid to take the leap and screw up your already good life--this book is for you. You will find the meticulously tested, step-by-step process outlined in the book is easy to follow, despite being the result of a decade of research and experience. This process, designed to minimize your risk of failure and losing money up front, coupled with the inspiring stories of everyday people who have used this process to launch successful businesses, will not only give you clarity on what type of business to start, but also the confidence to finally take that leap and get started.

It’s said that decisions are made in the details. And yet, we make hundreds, even thousands of decisions daily. So how do Christians process all those details and come up with answers that please God? In Decision-Making by the Book, author, lecturer, and radio personality, Haddon W. Robinson, takes his usual clear-eyed, not-a-word-wasted approach, to help you make decisions according to biblical principles—every time.

Conferring with students about reading allows for clearer access to one-on-one, in-the-moment teaching and learning, yet it can feel intimidating or overwhelming. Kari Yates and Christina Nosek want to help. Here they have provided practical, reflective, student-centered teaching moves that you can use to develop an intentional, joy-filled conferring practice.To Know and Nurture a Reader: Conferring with Confidence and Joy is a get-going guide to conferring. The book includes step-by-step guidance that is also considerate of time and other classroom challenges, as well as: Numerous tools such as guiding questions, reproducible planning and note-taking documents; Classroom vignettes that pull you close to a reader and teacher in a conference setting; Video clips of classroom conferences to show what conferring looks like in action. The book breaks conferring into manageable chunks with specific goals for knowing and nurturing young readers, then puts all the pieces together with various classroom scenarios and examples. The tools, examples, and ideas in this book make conferring something every teacher can do right away and master with continued effort and practice.

Miller and Sharp provide the game-changing tools and information teachers and administrators need to dramatically increase children's access to and engagement with books.