Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions

A quarter of a century after her memoir, Thinking in Pictures, forever changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin--the "anthropologist from Mars," as Oliver Sacks dubbed her--transforms our understanding of the different ways our brains are wired. Visual thinkers constitute a far greater proportion of the population than previously understood, she reveals, and a more varied one, from the purest "object visualizers" like Grandin herself, with their intuitive knack for engineering and problem-solving, to "visual spatials"--the abstract, mathematical thinkers who excel in pattern recognition and systemic thinking.

With her genius for demystifying science, Grandin draws on cutting-edge research to take us inside visual thinking and its intuitive affinities for design, invention, and problem-solving. She also makes us aware of how a world geared to the highly verbal screens out visual thinkers from an early age. Rather than continuing to waste their singular gifts, driving a collective loss in productivity and innovation, Grandin proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers. In a highly competitive world, this important book helps us to see, we need every mind on board.