How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker

How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker

This book isn't about neural pathways and neurotransmitters. Rather, it's a thoroughly compelling reverse engineering of the functional and emotional modules the mind of a social primate with a genome -- and hence emotional repertoire -- little changed since its hunter-gatherer days would have to possess to out-compete the rest of the biosphere (at least while Earth still has one). The book is solidly grounded in evolutionary and cognitive psychology -- just 2 of the fields in which Pinker has credentials second to none -- and offers at least one "Aha!" moment on every page, not all of them flattering. I caught myself muttering something akin to "Darn, so that's why we keep doing that!" so often I had to give it a nickname I can't share here.

As usual, Pinker somehow manages to write clearly and engagingly without loss of precision while leaving no doubt as to where he gets his data. If professional scientific publications were written this way, we'd be a lot farther along, but it's =extremely= hard to do. Lord knows I've tried.

Pinker focuses on the instinctual (read "emotional") prods our genes use to steer us toward the 90% solutions evolved for success up to and during our hunter-gatherer days. With the explosive growth of technology over the last century or so, many of those once 90% solutions have become 90% backfires, but they continue to motivate our individual and collective actions nonetheless. Before man-made fires became widespread, moths' light-seeking instinct was almost always adaptive. Modern humans likewise repeatedly fly into all manner of figurative "fires" of our own invention -- often with precious little insight into why we keep doing so despite ample opportunities to learn better from instantaneous global news coverage ostensibly pursued for just that purpose. If widely read and taken to heart, this book could make a good dent in that. Seriously.

📌 Genre: Self-help Book.

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