Maria Konnikiva entered into my consciousness a little over a year ago when I started finding her blog posts on Scientific American and Big Think. She was essentially a psychology science blogger, but in the end it was her fascination with Sherlock Holmes that turned me into a religious reader.

Since then I have featured her writings on my Om Says Weekend Reader numerous times. A few days before the Christmas break, I received an advance copy of her book, MasterMind: How to think like Sherlock Holmes. To say that I was delighted would be an understatement. I am almost finished with the book and it doesn’t disappoint; you can tell she has spent time learning about Sherlock. If it is not on your shopping list, then please make sure you do buy it, especially if you work in our business.

As luck would have it, she was also visiting her in-laws who live in the Bay Area. We made plans to catch up and talk about Sherlock. (Ok, I am a little obsessed with Holmes and talk of him as a real person, but we all have our quirks, and that is mine.) Maria and I ended up talking about what makes Sherlock so enduring and what we can do to be like Holmes in this age of information explosion around us.

“Sherlock Holmes can be a hero for any generation, the reason for that is he is super human but he is yet very human and very accessible,” she said. One of things which made him exceptional was the fact he was a “paragon of unitasking” and that is why we need to learn from him, Konnikiva said. We talked about Sherlock, Twitter, Dr. House and a whole bunch of other stuff. Hope you find time to watch this video.

How to be more like Sherlock Holmes

Inside the mind of Sherlock

The enduring appeal of Holmes & Watson