Practical intelligence: the art and science of common sense / Karl Albrecht.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A problem and an opportunity. Accidental intelligence : the terminal assumption ; The widening "smart gap" ; The dumbing of America and the culture of amusement ; Knows and know-nots : the new social divide ; Who cares? : who needs to care? -- Multiple intelligences : the possible human. IQ doesn't tell the whole story ; There are at least six kinds of "smart" ; Building out : applying theory to everyday life ; Build-out 1: emotional intelligence ; Build-out 2: social intelligence ; The next build-out: practical intelligence -- What is practical intelligence? Thinking is a bodily function ; Meet your biocomputer ; Brain cycles, brainwaves, brain states, and the daily trance ; Mindmodules : you have many "minds" ; Mindmodels : your portable reality ; Four habits that unlock your mental capacity ; Four dimensions of PI : your mega-skills ; Getting started : upgrading your mental "software" -- Mental software upgrade 1: developing mental flexibility. Are you a finished product? ; Dynamic thinking and archaic thinking ; You might be a mental redneck-- ; The creative paradox ; The "beginner's mind" : innocence and humility ; The "plexity" scale -- There is no truth; only your truth, his truth, her truth, their truth-- ; How I learned to stop arguing with people ; A new way to think about opinions ; Three phrases that can keep your mind open -- Mental software upgrade 2 : adopting affirmative thinking. Cleaning out the attic : mental decontamination ; "Sensorship" : choosing what you will allow into your mind ; Resistance to enculturation, a.k.a. "crap detecting" ; Cleanse your mind with a "media fast" ; Re-engineering your attitudes ; The attitude of gratitude ; The attitude of abundance ; Practical altruism ; Meditation, mindmovies, and affirmations -- Mental software upgrade 3 : adopting sane language habits. Language as mental software : what you say is what you think ; How language "packages" your thoughts ; Jumping to confusions : inferential thinking ; "Clean" and "dirty" language : strategies for semantic sanity ; Expressions you can remove from your vocabulary ; The self-conversation : cleaning up your internal dialog ; Snappy comebacks : the language of funny --

Mental software upgrade 4 : valuing ideas. Do you have lots of good ideas? (almost everyone does) ; "It slipped my mind ..." (almost everything does) ; The greatest thinking tool ever invented ; Thinking in pictures ; Are you a yes-person or a no-person? ; The P.I.N. formula : protecting ideas ; Using your magical incubator ; "Metaboxical" thinking : breaking the boundaries -- Mega-skill 1: "bivergent" thinking. The divergent-convergent polarity : the D-C axis ; Process consciousness : managing the "pivot point" ; Groupthink : the collusion to fail ; Brainstorming : more often talked about than done ; Systematic creativity : the balancing act -- Mega-skill 2: "helicopter" thinking. The abstract-concrete polarity : the A-C axis ; Visionaries and actionaries : we need both ; Connecting the dots : you have to see them to connect them ; Painting the big picture : mindmapping ; Explaining the big picture : using the language of ideas -- Mega-skill 3: "intulogical" thinking. The logical-intuitive polarity : the L-I axis ; Thinking styles : yours and others' ; Sequential thinking : re-owning your logical abilities ; Trusting your hunches : re-owning your intuitive abilities ; The "zen mind" : flow and mindfulness -- Mega-skill 4: "viscerational" thinking. The rational-emotive polarity : the R-E axis ; First we decide, then we justify : irrational thinking explained ; We're all neurotic, and that's ok ; The five primal fears we live by : the psychology of risk ; Signal reactions : disconnecting your hot buttons ; Emotions and health : if it's on your mind, it's on your body ; Can you motivate yourself? : the "Popeye point" -- How to become an expert problem solver. Forget those "five steps" they taught you ; Using heuristic (a.k.a. natural) problem solving ; Your five key mindzones ; The high speed problem solving process -- Success programming : causing the outcomes you want. Using what we've learned ; Mindmovies : who's producing your life's story? ; Alpha programming : making the movies you want ; Your life wheel : taking stock, setting priorities, and making changes.