t2b7a's review against another edition
3.0
Hallelujah I finally finished. I love Sapolsky's other work but this was a hard slog with a lot of unnecessary hardcore neuroscience. I think he's a better educator when lecturing (like in his Great Courses series) than as an author. I took another star off for the political bias which seeped through, I don't like my science and politics mixed.
nate_b's review against another edition
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This is one of the best books I have ever read. I am glad to have read it, so to speak, as an audiobook because of its length. But I was blown away by the way the author brings so very many threads of knowledge and history to bear in understanding how our brains operate. He really made me laugh out loud at many points, too. He kept it light-hearted and very well-paced.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough for any teacher, parent, doctor, policy-maker, or other adult working with human brains and bodies at various stages of development and distress. Beyond informative, he also helps us understand how to apply what we know about how our brains work to help us avoid treating each other poorly. A truly phenomenal book. Enlightening and inspiring!
The formatting of the audiobook was a bit off-putting, with the text itself reaching its natural conclusion, then an appendix or two begin to play for quite a bit longer, which applied to the information contained in a previous chapter which had been over at that point for many many hours. I am not sure how to solve that problem but I found it an unpleasant way to end the book. Perhaps the appendix material could be inserted as a separate track like a sidebar to be read at that point in the book, rather than saving some fascinating information about pain sensing for after the conclusion of the entire book.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough for any teacher, parent, doctor, policy-maker, or other adult working with human brains and bodies at various stages of development and distress. Beyond informative, he also helps us understand how to apply what we know about how our brains work to help us avoid treating each other poorly. A truly phenomenal book. Enlightening and inspiring!
The formatting of the audiobook was a bit off-putting, with the text itself reaching its natural conclusion, then an appendix or two begin to play for quite a bit longer, which applied to the information contained in a previous chapter which had been over at that point for many many hours. I am not sure how to solve that problem but I found it an unpleasant way to end the book. Perhaps the appendix material could be inserted as a separate track like a sidebar to be read at that point in the book, rather than saving some fascinating information about pain sensing for after the conclusion of the entire book.
markusams's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent review of the current state of wisdom on human behaviour, and all the the things influencing this behaviour. Written in a very engaging and funny way and understandable without a degree in a related science. Absolutely recommended for anybody interested in the subject. There are some more "technical" sections that might be hard to understand without studying biology (and especially how the human brain functions), or at least they were tough for me, but you can simply skip over them without losing too much context.
overheat4600's review against another edition
5.0
It gets 4.5 stars, but I have to round up.
It was a long book and it took me a while to read it; here are some thoughts that stand out:
- for an 800 page book on neuroscience, it was quite funny
- the chapter on the homunculus (i.e. legal reform and free will) was especially funny
- behaviour is complex and influenced by everything
- there was a lot of more in-group/out-group discussion than I expected. I guess it plays a significant role in behaviour.
- hormones don't cause things, they exacerbate tendencies
- you're basically an accident of history, and that's okay.
It was a long book and it took me a while to read it; here are some thoughts that stand out:
- for an 800 page book on neuroscience, it was quite funny
- the chapter on the homunculus (i.e. legal reform and free will) was especially funny
- behaviour is complex and influenced by everything
- there was a lot of more in-group/out-group discussion than I expected. I guess it plays a significant role in behaviour.
- hormones don't cause things, they exacerbate tendencies
- you're basically an accident of history, and that's okay.
lillowo's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
4.0
This book is simontaniously sense and light hearted. It is sad and funny. It is hard and understandable. Just as the subject has no absolutes, this book is a mix of everything. I think I'll need to read it a few more times before I fully comprehend it but the stuff I did comprehend, I really enjoyed!
nwisnoski's review against another edition
5.0
This is a monumental survey of human behavior aimed at lay readers. It's current and highlights many high profile studies across the fields of neuroscience, psychology, social evolution, animal behavior, sociology, and anthropology, to name a few. While there are three appendices in the back, they may not be sufficient to get somebody up to speed if they've never taken a neuroscience course (or a biology course). Sapolsky isn't afraid to dig into the nitty gritty details of specific neurotransmitters, hormones, and receptor proteins. But there's something for everyone here: biologists like me will get something very different out of this book than a social scientist would, and that's great.
Sure, it's too long (its 700 pages could've probably been 400 or 500 by eliminating adverbs alone). And yeah, Sapolsky's attempts to translate scientific jargon into cutesy phrases tends to obscure rather than clarify. But he sure is funny and witty, and I enjoyed every page.
Sure, it's too long (its 700 pages could've probably been 400 or 500 by eliminating adverbs alone). And yeah, Sapolsky's attempts to translate scientific jargon into cutesy phrases tends to obscure rather than clarify. But he sure is funny and witty, and I enjoyed every page.