One of the books I enjoyed the most over spring break was David Brooks’ The Social Animal.  Brooks says lots of things, and most of them well, in the book.  He creates two characters and tracks their imaginary lives through the decisions they make.  A big part of his premise is that people are not primarily thinkers, that many decisions are made on a more subconscious level.  This, of course, was part of C. S. Lewis’ argument at the beginning of The Abolition of Man, that we create “men without chests” when we teach them thinking correctly without helping them feel correctly.

Below is a TED talk that Brooks gave a couple of years ago about the book.  Don’t let his humor throw you- he has a lot of good things to say.  One thing he doesn’t address in his talk that I found most helpful was his view on emergent systems, which is a thread I’ve started noticing in a number of places.  So if you’ve got 18 minutes to spare, give this guy a bit of your time.

I really like Brooks’ take on limerance.  It’s a word he seems to want to rehabilitate.  It doesn’t have the best original uses, I fear.

Tomorrow I’ll direct you to another TED talk by an author that has more to say about technology.  And at some point soon, I’ll get to what is becoming a transitional metaphor for me as I try to put things together.