This book deals with things that you wish were taught in schools but typically left out, although essential for life and work; the life-skills. First part "Apollo" deals with reason and logic, and comprehensively covers critical thinking topics including cognitive biases, logical fallacy, mental models, and an overview of philosophy. Second part "Dionysus" deals with emotions and covers much of soft-skills, including emotional management, creativity, personal productivity, time management, personal finance, motivation, learning, memory, personality, social skills, and leadership. The key message is that reason and emotions are intertwined in much of our lives; child-like curiosity enables us to make the best use of it.
Life-skills is a concise manual for better decision making and living a life well-lived.
About the Author: Prof. Felix Bast is an award-winning Indian science communicator and a public educator working as a Full Professor at the Central University of Punjab, India. He is an expert panellist of the Paris-based International Science Council, an elected fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and a member of IUCN, Geneva. He holds PhD in Marine Biology from MEXT, Japan (alumnus of Monbukagakusho: MEXT Japanese Govt. international doctoral fellowship), and served as an expedition scientist in Indian Antarctic Mission. Dr. Bast discovered seven new species of marine algae and moss from India and Antarctica. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, University of Washington-US, Marine Biological Association of UK-Plymouth, UK, and Leibniz Institute of Tropical Marine Research, Bremen- Germany. Dr. Bast served as an in-residence intern with the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi and received "President's Inspired Teacher" recognition (2015). He also won the Teaching Innovator Award from the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India (2019). He spread the word of scientific thinking through several media, including YouTube, school outreach talks, magazine articles, blogs, and books. Dr. Bast is also involved with SWAYAM, a flagship online education program of the Ministry of Education, Government of India as a Course Coordinator. A TEDx speaker, Dr Bast's works have been featured in numerous media, including All India Radio, Rajya Sabha TV, BBC, The Independent, The Hindu, Indian Express, Times of India etc.
Dr. Bast is an advocate of sustainable lifestyle- a primary focus of his works. He is an avid cyclist who often commutes to his workplace by cycle. Dr. Bast is also a runner, a frequent blood donor, and an advocate of zero-waste and low-carbon footprint lifestyle. Dr. Bast has also signed up for posthumous whole-body donation for medical and forensic education and research through NOTTO, the Government of India. His previous books include Voyage to Antarctica (Vigyan Prasar/Govt of India), Arctic Circle (Amazon/KDP), and Textbook of Biostatistics and Mathematical Biology (Pearson).
