The Social Animal

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:06:00 -0500
community, success

I think this piece by David Brooks in The New Yorker is a little choppy, maybe because it's a boiled-down version of a forthcoming book. But it contains some useful ideas for people with major life decisions ahead (i.e., all of us, but especially young adults). Brooks surveys developments in neuroscience to build a thesis about how people achieve happiness and success. Here's how he frames a fundamental dilemma facing young people from relatively privileged backgrounds:

"They live in a society that prizes the development of career skills but is inarticulate when it comes to the things that matter most. The young achievers are tutored in every soccer technique and calculus problem, but when it comes to their most important decisions—whom to marry and whom to befriend, what to love and what to despise—they are on their own. Nor, for all their striving, do they understand the qualities that lead to the highest achievement. Intelligence, academic performance, and prestigious schools don’t correlate well with fulfillment, or even with outstanding accomplishment. The traits that do make a difference are poorly understood, and can’t be taught in a classroom, no matter what the tuition: the ability to understand and inspire people; to read situations and discern the underlying patterns; to build trusting relationships; to recognize and correct one’s shortcomings; to imagine alternate futures. In short, these achievers have a sense that they are shallower than they need to be."
It's a longish article, but worth checking out.