THE IDEA FACTORY: Learning to Think at...

THE IDEA FACTORY: Learning to Think at MIT by Pepper White (Plume: $11., illustrated). White’s entertaining journal of his graduate work at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute Technology recalls the 1973 film “The Paper Chase.” Simultaneously delighted and intimated at being there, White quickly discovered M.I.T. was even tougher than he expected: He had to struggle to understand some concepts and fight for acceptable grades. But he also learned that this intellectual Olympus had a down side. Many of students he encountered were brilliant prodigies who lacked even rudimentary social skills, because they had spent their lives in labs or in front of computers; this pernicious disbalance resulted in negative self-images, alienation and a disturbingly high suicide rate.