How long does it take to read Extraordinary Minds?
Extraordinary Minds by Howard Gardner takes about 3 hours 16 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 16 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1997. 178 pages, about 48,950 words.
7 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 26 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 16 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 2 minutes |
The page count is the median across 4 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In Extraordinary Minds, a book as riveting as it is new, Gardner poses an important question: Is there a set of traits shared by all truly great achievers - those we deem extraordinary - no matter their field or the time period within which they did their important work? In an attempt to answer this question, Gardner first examines how most of us mature into more or less competent adults. He then examines closely four persons who lived unquestionably extraordinary lives - Mozart, Freud, Woolf, and Gandhi - using each as an exemplar of a different kind of extraordinariness: Mozart as the master of a discipline, Freud as the innovative founder of a new discipline, Woolf as the great introspector, and Gandhi as the influencer. What can we learn about ourselves from the experiences of the extraordinary? Interestingly, Gardner finds that an excess of raw power is not the most impressive characteristic shared by superachievers; rather, these extraordinary individuals all have had a special talent for identifying their own strengths and weaknesses, for accurately analyzing the events of their own lives, and for converting into future successes those inevitable setbacks that mark every life. Gardner provides answers to a number of provocative questions, among them: How do we explain extraordinary times - Athens in the fifth century B.C., the T'ang Dynasty in the eighth century, Islamic Society in the late Middle Ages, and New York at the middle of the century? What is the relation among genius, creativity, fame, success, and moral extraordinariness? Does extraordinariness make for a happier, more fulfilling life, or does it simply create a special onus?
Subjects: Case studies, Gifted persons, Genialiteit, Hoogbegaafdheid, Intellect
