Book Review: *The Vigorous Mind* by Ingrid Cummings

Back-of-the-book blurb:  In The Vigorous Mind, professional ‘Renaissance woman’ Ingrid Cummings offers a social criticism and inspiring self-improvement program that details the antidote to mental undernourishment, unfulfilling careers, untapped talents, and unexplained boredom.  Through the techniques and insights in The Vigorous Mind, you will build a more complex, interconnected brain and replace indifference with cognitive re-engagement, a sense of optimistic gratification, and a full-to-the-brim life lived without regret. 

She is Too Fond of Books’ Review:  The original blurb I read for The Vigorous Mind included these bullet points, which appear on the cover:

Discover the power of Kaizen and

• expand your world
• explore your talents
• energize your life

This caught my attention right away.  I was somewhat familiar with Kaizen from my husband’s use of it in business school (and beyond); it’s an ancient Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement, taking small steps to reach large goals.  I wondered how Kaizen could be applied to me in my daily life.

Cummings advocates cross-training our brains just like we (should) cross-train our bodies.  That is, just as our bodies need both aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic (weight-training/muscle-building) exercise, our minds need to diversify from the routines we put them through.  Or, if you prefer, diversify your learning experiences in the same way that you diversify your investment portfolio.  This means learning about and exploring avocations and interests that may seem far afield from our professional fields of interest.  Cummings shows that this well-roundedness actually makes us better at, and more in tune with, our personal and professional goals.

The Vigorous Mind program encourages a slow but steady pace toward your extracurricular goals.  In just twenty minutes a day (the same amount of time I encourage my 12-year-old to sit at the piano each day), you can learn a few words of a foreign language, practice an instrument, or work on your chess strategy.  Cummings calls this the “Triumph in Twenty,” and shows how these small bursts of learning add up, like compound interest in a bank account.  The book is current, with examples that mention President Barack Obama and the late Michael Crichton.

One of the notes I read from the author indicated that the book is “designed to be interactive, even controversial.”  It is wonderfully interactive, from a history of how we’ve grown from a population of generalists to one of uber-specialists, to explaining the reasoning behind the quest for well-roundedness, to providing a step-by-step guide to applying the Triumph in Twenty to cross-train your brain.

What I didn’t see was the potentally controversial part; I couldn’t find fault with any of the material.  Was Cummings “preaching to the choir” with me?  I’ve always been a generalist; one of my favorite jobs was at a small software company where I started as the office manager, doing general admin work, but wore many hats and learned to write documentation (manuals), train clients, and even program using the company’s object-oriented software (that’s a mouthful!).  My degree, which I earned from a “top” school over eight years in their Extension (evening division) program is in History of American Civilization, exactly the type of liberal arts interest Cummings advocates.  When people asked what I planned to do with my degree, I wasn’t sure how to respond … I don’t see learning as a means to an end.

I sent Ingrid Cummings an email; I wanted to make sure I could present both sides of the story.  She willingly played “devil’s advocate” and shared some of the objections that one might raise when presented with the dictum to cross-train:

• Some people will claim that any attempt to be a Renaissance Person in the year 2009 is just plain foolhardy, that there’s already way too much to take on in this world without being encouraged to load more on their plate. 
• Others will push-back with all they’ve got over the ‘lack of time’ objection and exhort that less is more and Simplify Simplify Simplify is the best prescription. 
• Other readers will bemoan that there’s “too much” democracy online, where anybody and everybody can be a journalist or videographer or musician and gate-keepers aren’t vetting anybody anymore. 
• Others will point to the shortfalls of generalists and say it’s high time we bid them adieu, citing important breakthroughs made by specialists. 

Click here to order The Vigorous Mind.

Many thanks to TLC Book Tours for connecting me with Ingrid Cummings and The Vigorous Mind.