ABSTRACT
Bill Gates’s real expertise is reading minds, knowing what people want, and knowing what he could get away with giving them. Gates’s genius is in reading minds, knowing what people want, and providing them with something close enough. At University College London, researchers at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience first demonstrated that mind reading is not a magician’s trick or sleight of hand, but, rather, an innate property of the human brain. Reading minds is an essential skill for navigating the social world. Poker offers the starkest examples of competitive mind reading and many have found playing it an excellent way to practise their skills. Shy children interact cautiously and their theories of other minds tend to be based on thoughtful reflection. Inhibitions are primarily caused by anxiety, shame, and other difficult emotions. Severe inhibition of thoughts and emotions can lead people to experience life as meaningless, empty, or even unreal.
