The Social Animal by David Brooks

Great book within insight into how our subconscious pushes people throughout their lives to create patterns of living. We are partly created by our social brains and follows two people, Harold and Erica, from infancy to old age. As they develop you can see these personalities and themes create different paths that manifest through their core needs, actions, and values.

What you should learn from the book are multiple:

-Our Brains are Made from Our Social Environment. We are creatures and products of how people around us act and think. The very formation of our lives is based in many ways on our parents and our first interactions with them.

-Rationalism and IQ are important but so is the process of experiencing oneself and listening to our inner voice. Those themes that come back into our lives can be discovered and enhanced for greater goal achievement.

-People are not always aware of why they act the way they do. They feel upset or happy but sometimes have a difficult time knowing its causes. Some people will be subject to their feelings and others will learn to enhance and own them.

-You will learn about the deep cognitive processes and human behavior. The book uses modern science to justify its propositions.

-If you pay attention to the macro economic side of issues you will find that certain beliefs and interactions on a social scale will have outcomes decades and generations down the road.