Good science behind the urge to travel or stay put.
Looking at why humans roam.
Hutchinson is both a runner and a writer. Although his 2018 book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, sold well, he found himself ignoring opportunities to exploit the success. Then, perhaps influenced by a modest bank balance, he wondered why his attention kept wandering. He had discovered philosophy’s ancient explore-exploit dilemma. You can exploit the resources you have or explore in search of an outcome that’s uncertain but may be better. You can’t do both. Business books belabor this point, but Hutchinson delivers a rare focus on individuals. He reviews three clues suggesting that we are natural-born explorers. Anthropological clues help reveal how humans spread across the earth. Biological clues help explain how exploration has affected our genes and vice versa. The third clue is neurological: a new theory of the brain called predictive processing. Taken together, they make an ingenious and convincing case that we find it rewarding to seek out the unknown. We push into new territories even when we’re comfortable where we are. Other animals don’t do this. While there is no smoking-gun “explorer’s gene,” many gene variants exist that encourage novelty seeking. Neuroscientists discovered that the brain does not simply receive information from the senses; it generates signals about what it expects to happen. This “predictive processing” saves work (brains evolved for survival, not accuracy), and the brain usually predicts correctly. It doesn’t like surprises. Fortunately for the reader, Hutchinson’s broad definition of his subject allows him to dip heavily into behavioral psychology, gambling, business, aging, evolution, and urban planning, all of which feed our yearning to make the future better, provided the risks aren’t too great. The latter half of the book delivers insights into even less tangible forms: creativity, art, research, play.
Good science behind the urge to travel or stay put.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063269767
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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