How to get to the bottom of a mystery?
Pay attention to what you’re doing. What we now call “ mindfulness ” was, to Holmes, an obvious requirement that to get to the bottom of a mystery, you have to examine every detail. We tend to go through life on autopilot, doing everything but paying attention to even our own actions. This is why you lose your keys. While putting them down, you weren’t paying attention to what you were doing. Being distracted, stressed, or just mentally vacant for the moment leads you to these silly and annoying lapses, which you can easily correct by being more attentive in the first place.
How to think like Sherlock Holmes?
In her new book, Mastermind: How to Think like Sherlock Holmes , science writer and Columbia University graduate student Maria Konnikova takes us through the work of the most famous detective of all, showing how his mental processes rival those of even the most sophisticated computer. She contrasts this “Holmes” system, which is slow, analytic, and supremely logical, with the “Watson” system, named after the lovable but less brilliant Dr. Watson who served as the assistant, recorder, and sounding board of the great detective. Holmes and Watson, ever popular characters who most recently showed up in the CBS series Elementary , not to mention the blockbuster Robert Downey Jr. movies, are the quintessential yin and yan of the mystery world. Though physically strong (maybe not as strong as the Downey character), it’s the mental abilities of Holmes that allow him to ensnare the would-be criminals who escaped the best efforts of Scotland Yard.
