The second best book I have read in my life

Foil:You are so gaga about being smart. What will you do if you end up
marrying a dumb wife?
Me: I will make her intelligent


Foil is a human being and a good friend of mine who is now heading the Centre For Innovation.

I subscribe to the premise that anyone can do anything. I am a big fan
of rejecting the idea of talent. Rarely you come across a book which
shatters everything you have been believing."Now discover your strengths"
 by Marcus Buckingham is one such book.Unlike
most books he defines what he means by talent and the role it plays
in being exceptionally great at something.

Human brain is the only organ in our body which shrinks. It does not
shrink in size. It shrinks in the number of connections. When you are born
the number of connections in your brain are in the order of billions. As
you grow the brain severs the number of connections. It does that way
to keep you sane. When you have so many connections the brain ends up
drawing several interpretations of its environment. To avoid this
confusion your brain severs some of the connections.

What is your first reaction when you see a particular situation?
When the news of the Taj bomb blast came in the news paper. I skipped the
news article and moved on to the next one.  That probably is not the case
for you. you might find me evil/cruel looking at my reaction. My argument
is that when I can do nothing about a situation what is the point in
reading about it. I dont mind reading it if it is interesting to me but otherwise no.
It also does not mean that I dont read newspapers at all. I do sometimes skim
through them but not regularly. I have been accused of not knowing things which
seem to be common knowledge. You can see more of that in the about me section
on the right hand side of this page.

You must be thinking - Enough of telling about yourself just get to the point.

Talent as defined by the book depends on  the kind of top of the mind
reactions of your mind when you see a situation. These are not under your
control. They just happen. They depend on how your mind severed connections
in your brain.

Marcus(author) found that there are 34 different themes of talents.Your innate talent is
decided by the top 5 themes of talent. The top five themes
of talent  depend on how your mind severed the connections. How your mind
has severed the connections depends on how you grew up.

Whomever I have recommended this book thanked me profusely. I suggest you
get a copy of the book and read it.
caveat: when you buy the book make sure the code on the last page is not
scratched. You will need that to find your top of the mind reactions.