Table Of ContentCopyright © 2017 Robert G. Best
KINDLE ISBN: 9781634924207
HARDCOVER ISBN: 9781634924184
PAPERBACK ISBN: 9781634924177
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the author.
Parts of this book appeared in different form on Robert G. Best’s blog site, Mindframewithrobb
Audio book link available at BestMindframe.com,
a division of Giant Pivot Table LLC.
Cover & book design by Vincent Skyers of UmbraSolutions.com
Edited by J.M. Best
Published by BookLocker.com, Inc.,
St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.A.
BookLocker.com, Inc., 2017, First Edition
DISCLAIMER
This book details the author’s personal experiences with and opinions about
cognitive science. The author is not a licensed medical doctor.
The author and publisher are providing this book and its contents on an “as is”
basis and make no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to this
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The statements made about products and services have not been evaluated by the
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You understand that this book is not intended as a substitute for consultation
with a licensed medical, legal or accounting professional. Before you begin any
change your lifestyle in any way, you will consult a licensed professional to
ensure that you are doing what’s best for your situation.
This book provides content related to cognitive science topics. As such, use of
this book implies your acceptance of this disclaimer.
Chapter 1 Mindset App
Chapter 2 Goal Strategy App
Chapter 3 Willpower App
Chaper 4 Deliberate Practice App
Chapter 5 Habit Formation App
Chapter 6 Creativity App
Chapter 7 Flow App
Putting It All Together The Maestro of Brain Apps
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
Prologue
What separates the supremely accomplished from the rest of us? Is genius
learned or innate? Those questions have haunted us for decades. About four
years ago, we embarked on a mission to find answers. The more we delved into
the mysteries of what makes people successful and how—or even if—those
traits can be learned, the more two things quickly became apparent.
First, that it all seemed to lead back to neuroscience. To improve your behavior,
skills, and thinking—to truly pursue excellence—you must maximize your
brain’s potential. Learning how to do that means both looking at some surprising
new insights about how the brain works, and unlearning some harmful myths.
Second, we discovered that these lessons are startlingly universal. When we
studied people operating at the top of their game, whether it was business, music,
sports, or science, a few common truths seemed to emerge.
You can’t always choose your circumstances or experience the bright lights of
fame. But if your goal is to radically improve your skills and master something
successfully, that is absolutely within your control. You can create brain apps
that will take you wherever you want to go.
This book can be read in two ways. You can approach it as a curious observer,
pulling back the curtain on genius and the path people have followed to get
there. Or, you can read it as a how-to, a blueprint for the steps necessary to
harness your own brainpower for your best chance of success at work, play or
life.
Either way, you’ll likely pick up a few brain hacks you’ll find useful.
We hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we enjoyed researching and
writing it.
Robert G. Best J.M. Best
Imagine that we can travel back in time to 1995. We’re in New York City,
standing on the steps of Manhattan’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.
If La Guardia High sounds familiar, you might recognize it as the School of the
Performing Arts from the movie Fame. That said, there’s nothing glamorous
about its appearance, a giant boxy structure of cement and glass. The building is
old and beat-up; it feels more like a prison than a high school. You walk through
the double doors and after a couple of twists and turns, you climb down a flight
of concrete stairs into the basement. From here, we make our way toward the
back of the building, where you can hear the school band practicing.
How do they sound? Like every high school band in every state, in every city or
town of this country: mixed. That is to say, the players run the full spectrum:
some of them are really good, and some are only average.
And within four years, the vast majority of them will have moved on to
something else. The instruments they’re playing now, in 1995, will wind up in
attics, garages and crawl spaces. Not a lot of kids keep pursuing the tuba or the
piccolo after they’ve landed their first full-time job. Not a lot of kids take their
timpani to college. The horns and drums are more likely to be sold, thrown out
or, for the more desperate, pawned.
But at least one of those instruments in La Guardia High School will not end up
in a pawnshop. It belongs to a guy in the brass section—not just any guy, but
Dave Guy.
It’s a bit of fluke that Dave even got this far. He’d wanted to play trumpet since
seventh grade, but the position was already filled, and his junior high band
teacher talked him into playing the clarinet instead.
And so Dave began his musical career as a very half-hearted clarinetist. He
wasn’t interested, rarely practiced, and as a result, never got that good. Our story
could end right here, with Dave Guy as just another former band kid, except for
one lucky thing: in the middle of the year, the band director left unexpectedly.
When the new band teacher showed up, Dave didn’t mess around. “Nice to meet
you,” he said. “I’m Dave Guy, I’m the trumpet player.”
Why was young Dave so determined to follow this path? Had the legendary
Louis Armstrong inspired him? Was he enchanted by the music of Miles Davis
or Chet Baker?
Nope.
When we interviewed him later, Dave gave three reasons for his early interest in
the trumpet:
First, it was shiny. Second, he thought it had a cool-looking shape. Last, and
most importantly, “It was really loud!”
Whatever the initial draw, as we survey the band room of La Guardia High
School, that loud, gleaming trumpet is all Dave’s. Dave Guy loves playing the
trumpet. But if we’d been talent scouts, standing in that basement in the mid-
nineties, we probably would’ve walked right past him.
Dave’s a junior, shy, a little pudgy, quiet when he’s not playing. He’s not the
best trumpeter in the area. He isn’t even first chair in his high school band—just
one of countless other aspiring teenage musicians, patiently filling in that backup
position. In 1995, he does not command attention. He is not a standout, not the
next big thing.
Why are we telling you this story?
Today, many musical experts consider Dave Guy to be one of the greatest
trumpet players alive. You may not know his name, but if you’re a fan of
Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, you’ve definitely heard him. Dave Guy plays
alongside The Roots, a critically acclaimed hip-hop group that also serves as
Jimmy Fallon’s house band.
When Eric Clapton needed a trumpet player for recording, he got Dave Guy.
When Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings would go on tour, they called Dave Guy.
He toured with Amy Winehouse. Jazz legend and nine-time Grammy winner
Wynton Marsalis once gave Dave Guy a trumpet.
Guy is unquestionably one of the premier trumpet players out there today. So
how did he get from that basement in La Guardia High School—where again, he
really wasn’t an early standout—to the Tonight Show?
Dave Guy succeeded by changing the wiring in his brain, something that every
one of us has the opportunity to do. Up until fairly recently, we didn’t know, on
a technical level, what the map to excellence looked like. Today, we’ve
aggregated enough information that we can give you a good overview of the
route to achieving your long-term goal.
How does it work?
How did Dave Guy go from second chair to the main stage? How did a shy high
school junior become one of the great trumpet players in the world today?
Dave Guy’s story is in some ways not unique, but to understand it, we will first
need to unravel some myths that lie at the heart of our very idea of genius.
Description:For years, most of us believed that remarkably talented people were born different, and that exceptional performance lay beyond our grasp. Now, groundbreaking neuroscience studies are revolutionizing our understanding of “genius” and how it works. Brain Apps is the first book to consolidate that
