Here are the notes I took watching the following presentation from www.ted.com:

  • People learn from people they love.
  • We’re really good at talking about skills, but very bad at talking about emotions.
  • Emotions are at the center of our thinking. They are the foundation of reasons because they tell us what to value.
  • We’re social animals and we emerge out of relationships.
  • What’s really important is not intelligence but the ability to work within groups.

Tapping into the findings of his latest book, NYTimes columnist David Brooks unpacks new insights into human nature from the cognitive sciences — insights with massive implications for economics and politics as well as our own self-knowledge. In a talk full of humor, he shows how you can’t hope to understand humans as separate individuals making choices based on their conscious awareness.