William R. Brody had just begun his 13-year tenure as president of Johns Hopkins University (1996–2009) when he decided to teach an Intersession course for undergraduates.

 “I had the feeling that students were getting great at solving problems where the answer is known, but were challenged in thinking critically about problems that have never been posed,” he says. His remedy? A seminar, Uncommon Sense, which found an eager student audience. It was, he says, “a crash course in outside-the-box thinking,” with insights on “what separates the visionary who takes a risk and does amazing things from the regular person who clings to safety and merely gets by.”

 As a biomedical engineer and successful entrepreneur who had co-founded several medical device companies and helped pioneer heart transplantation, Brody certainly had ample wisdom to share. That wisdom was no doubt broadened by the years he served at Johns Hopkins as the Martin W. Donner Professor of Radiology and radiologist-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital (1987–1994).

 Brody would go on to teach the course again after he retired as director of the Salk Institute (2009–2016) and settled in Baltimore. Now he’s turned his insights into a book, Uncommon Sense: Rethinking Ordinary Problems in Extraordinary Ways. Co-written with Mike Field, it was published this spring by Johns Hopkins University Press.

 One theme that runs through the book: the importance of giving back. “As I look back on my life,” says Brody, “the opportunity to have mentored young people and to see them succeed is so much more important to me than all the honors I collected.” 

 His advice to both undergraduates just starting out and to readers who may be farther along in life’s journey? “Live your life as though you may die unexpectedly tomorrow, and ask: ‘How would I change my goals for my life accomplishments?’ If things I am doing today are not aligned with those goals, they may waste my precious time.”