Written by Davis Yoshitani, Account Associate, Breakthroughs by Keith Nelson
The COVID-19 pandemic took away a lot from the world. It took away fans from stadiums, jobs from loyal employees, guests from marriages, and the lives of loved ones.
However, the pandemic contained a particular paradox. While much was lost, the COVID-19 quarantine period also gave a lot to the world. Specifically, it gave time. Time for new hobbies, new self-given haircuts, or new do-it-yourself home improvement projects. For Keith Nelson, it gave him time to write.
Keith Nelson’s role as an author is just the latest of many for him. His adventure started in the fields of Kansas where he discovered his love for the natural world. Harvard was next for him before he moved to New Haven, Connecticut for a Ph.D. in Psychology at Yale. After his Ivy League education, Dr. Nelson ventured out west to teach at Stanford and then returned east to
do the same at The New School for Social Research in New York City. Nelson eventually settled down in 1978 to live on a central Pennsylvania farm near his job as a professor of Psychology at Penn State.
At each of his stops, Nelson has advanced his passions for the brain and worked hard to complete research in “developmental psychology, educational psychology, communication disorders, linguistics, art education, dynamic systems, cognitive psychology, creativity and innovation, environmental processes, and evolution,” just to name a few. 1 But out of all the knowledge Professor Nelson has acquired through his years, what did he choose to write about?
The answer lies in the flash of understanding one gets as complex processes within the brain successfully complete their scramble through millions of data points, previous experiences, and cognitive patterns. Like finding a three-digit code to finally unlock the padlock protecting the solution to one’s obstacle, brains put together “dynamic tricky mixes” that are the code to solving problems and achieving “breakthroughs.”
To explain how and why these sudden bursts of progress occur, Keith Nelson’s book titled Breakthroughs provides over 300 pages of psychological insights and breakthrough experiences of all kinds. The book will bring you through stories of “skill acquisitions, inventions and innovations, … recovery of lost abilities, new significant connections between people and between people and nature, and more.” Nelson hopes that by the conclusion of one’s journey
through the pages, they will have a new understanding of how their brain can dynamically mix and move its way to reach advancements.
Nelson’s book challenges the reader to find recognition in their capability to work out the troubles they face. Nelson’s biggest hope is to spark “worldwide collaboration and cooperation,” but a world with fewer problems requires a handbook. Nelson’s noble pursuit of knowledge has led him to the creation of one. In the end, the long quarantine gave Nelson the time he needed to give the world one more positive to come from this pandemic, Breakthroughs.
Happy Valley Comm 