It had been thought that learning was a matter of intelligence or diligence, that differences in achievement were due to "ability" or "effort."

The new science of learning suggests that learning power can be enormously increased. It shows that the brain will deliver mastery of complex environments without supervision by the conscious, rational mind. Indeed, thinking too hard can get in the way of practical learning. In the author's best-selling Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, he described the new skills of learning and focused on the three "slow" processes of intuition, contemplation and creativity. In Wise-Up, he looks at the full mental processes of learning-not only the "slow" ones-and teaches how to acquire, hone, and expand those qualities and skills.