What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit? This is the issue John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to the world’s most influential thinkers. Their visionary answers flow in the frontiers of psychology, beliefs, economics, physics, sociology, and more. Amazing and enlightening, these insights will revolutionize how you consider yourself and the world.

This CAN MAKE You Smarter features Daniel Kahneman in the ‘focusing illusion’; Jonah Lehrer on concerning this Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Principles to boost Your Thinking managing attention; Richard Dawkins on experimentation; Aubrey De Gray on conquering our concern with the unidentified; Martin Seligman within the ingredients of well-being; Nicholas Carr on controlling ‘cognitive fill’; Steven Pinker on win-win negotiating; Daniel C. Dennett on benefiting from cycles; Jaron Lanier on resisting delusion; Frank Wilczek in the brain’s hidden layers; Clay Shirky on the ’80/20 guideline’; Daniel Goleman on understanding our link with the natural globe; V. S. Ramachandran on paradigm shifts; Matt Ridley on tapping collective intelligence; John McWhorter on path dependence; Lisa Randall on effective theorizing; Brian Eno on ‘ecological vision’; Richard Thaler on rooting out fake ideas; J. Craig Venter in the multiple feasible origins of life; Helen Fisher on temperament; Sam Harris in the flow of believed; and Lawrence Krauss on living with uncertainty.