Reddit reviews Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert Sapolsky's new book Behave shits on Peterson's new book. Robert's book is probably the best book I've bought in my entire life. Seriously, I open it and learn something new everyday. If Robert and Jordan ever "debated" I guarantee that Robert would make Jordan look like Kathy Newman.

Kirjasuositus aiheesta kiinnostuneille https://www.amazon.com/Behave-Biology-Humans-Best-Worst/dp/1594205078 on muuten yksi parhaista tietokirjoista ikinä.

Robert Sapolsky's relatively recent book, "Behave".

It is phenomenal.

You might enjoy reading Robert Sapolsky's Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. If you're not familiar with him, I would encourage you to look him up, watch some videos, listen to Harris' podcast episode with him, etc. He gets into the biological mechanics that explains just how we do know how behavior works - an alternative to the theory of free will, if you will.

I will say that human behavior was the first big crack in the foundation of my faith. Understanding how children on the autistic spectrum aren't "acting out" or being "willfully naughty" because they respond to stimuli in previously unexpected ways started this rabbit trail. If a child on the spectrum isn't culpable morally for throwing a temper tantrum at the age of ten, then can the same be said about the culpability of the person with a lifelong eating disorder? Can you assign the moral blame of gluttony or anorexia on someone who doesn't possess more effective skills to navigate their own emotional battlegrounds? What about the person who was raised by an alcoholic and never experienced healthy relationships predicated on communication and respect? How can you be blamed for not knowing what you don't/can't know? How can you be morally culpable for not having skills you don't know exist?

Harris' book started to put this all into perspective for me. Understanding behavior in the same way as understanding weather patterns is a good reminder for me, so thank you.

Are you open to doing some reading?

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"Behave" by Robert Sapolsky

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This book is an amalgamation of scientific research, referencing study after study that demonstrates how different aspects of our biology play key roles in our demeanor, our emotions and how we think and behave. Our gut flora, for instance, plays key roles in mood and perhaps even our social interactions [1] [2] [3]. That's just one example of the many dozens of lines of evidence that the book describes.

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Now, it does look as though you've done some research into the philosophy of human subjective experiences, specifically qualia. I'm sure you're aware, but there are other philosophers who explain that qualia doesn't exist at all. Even one of the larger proponents of qualia, John Searle, doesn't ascribe it to a soul, or substance dualism, but to property dualism. Interestingly, Searle and Dan Dennett (a denier of qualia) had a published exchange on this very topic some 20 years ago. I'm not versed enough on the topic to actively engage in a debate on it, but it seems that, at second glance, qualia isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be. Time will tell, of course.

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With that said, there are vast amounts of data that thoroughly link our emotions, feelings, behaviors, etc. specifically to certain function of our biology. There is certainly more to be discovered in this field, but "Behave" spells out all of the nitty gritty details and compiles years and years worth of research. If you're actually interested in reading a thorough hypothesis coupled with the multiple lines of evidence to support it, I have a pdf copy of this book I'd be willing to share. Simply PM me your email address.

If someone feels confused or angry about serial killers, psychopaths, etc. I highly recommend Robert Sapolsky's book BEHAVE (link to Amazon).

Most people's confusion and anger regarding these topics are possibly from two misconceptions:

Firstly, they are working with a mistaken model of non-deterministic "free-will," which makes no sense, or secondly, they are exhibiting emotional reactions such as anger, fear, or vengeance, which, while being understandable given our ape-biology, is simply not rational.

I also highly recommend his fascinating interview about the criminal justice system with Alan Alda, linked here.

Feel free to ask more questions if you have any! Hope you enjoy.

It seems like there are lots of well written books lately exploring popular neuroscience topics from different angles. I might recommend Behave, which has some nice primers in the appendices. And Sapolsky is just a great communicator.

If you're interested in SES from an anthroplogical/primatological/neorobiological perspective, I'd recommend Behave by Robert Sapolsky, Stanford professor and popular youtube lecturer.

The book is mostly somewhere between a trade book and a textbook. Near the end, the author applies concepts to modern society and social interactions, from the ways in which people offload stress, to weaving biological and environmental causes of a crime, to the similarities between primate hierarchies and human SES. Note that some of the psychological studies have come under scrutiny over the past few years.

He doesn't really make an argument one way or the other, but I came away with a more nuanced view of the Hobbes vs Rousseau debate after reading Robert Sapolsky's new book. I don't think it's the case of it being one way or the other, but actually both.

It's perhaps not precisely what you're looking for, but I'm reading the brief, "The Problems With Philosophy" by Bertrand Russel, even though I haven't finished the epic "A History Of Western Philosophy" and I'm interested in Bert's many other books. Might not be a great holiday reading companion though– but I think it would be fair to say that exploring Russel's work is a logical™ place to go from The Moral Landscape.

Not philosophy, but I've been listening to Robert Sapolsky's "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" audiobook– and I recommend it. I'd say it deserves a physical read more than some recordings of books, because it's not read by the author, and the dialogue with the reader that Sapolsky uses is really engaging.

This talk is based on his book, Behave, just released a week ago, and looks like the most ambitious scientific book I've seen. Each chapter delineates causal steps preceding particular behaviors, from the neuroscience milliseconds before to genetics to evolution and beyond. He's been working on this book for a decade, and judging by his utterly outstanding book on stress, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, which I consumed over a year a page or two at a time like nibbling at cheesecake, this new book is going to rock the fucking scientific community. I'm getting mine tomorrow.

Love this man.

Sapolsky discusses it extensively in the relevant chapters of this book. All the studies referred to are cited.

This stuff is mentioned in the book Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky. I'd recommend reading it. Not advertising it either, I'm aware Reddit has advertisers for stuff.


I'll link the book in case you may want to give it a look at, what he covers is great, along with environmental disadvantages/advantages to brain development:


Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594205078/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Nq9uDbKBD0Z4R

I used this YouTube Channel in the past when I was taking Biochem. He has some good videos on genetics and biochemistry.

https://www.youtube.com/user/mathdude2012/playlists

Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, and professor of neurology and neurological sciences and, by courtesy, neurosurgery, at Stanford University. You can find his entire intro course here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD7E21BF91F3F9683

I would highly recommend his most recent book as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Behave-Biology-Humans-Best-Worst/dp/1594205078

Behave by Robert Sapolsky https://www.amazon.com/Behave-Biology-Humans-Best-Worst-dp-1594205078/dp/1594205078

Currently reading this:

https://www.amazon.com/Behave-Biology-Humans-Best-Worst/dp/1594205078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502742060&sr=8-1&keywords=behave

So far pretty interesting and funny read.

Robert Sapolsky's terrific book [Behave] (https://www.amazon.com/Behave-Biology-Humans-Best-Worst/dp/1594205078) has a great sub-chapter on the biological and psychological differences between liberals and conservatives. With appropriate caveats, Sapolsky states that "it's easier to make a liberal think like a conservative than the other way around." He points to a number of studies that, taken together, can be summarized as follows: conservatives are made much more anxious by ambiguity; dislike novelty and find comfort in structure and heirarchy; and more readily perceive changing circumstances as threatening. As Sapolsky puts it, the conservative mindset is that it's "better to resist change and deal with the devil that you know."

Liberals, by contrast, have a higher capacity for ["integrative complexity"] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_complexity) and prioritze hope and novelty over tradition and honor. It makes them more likely to support the candidate who is better positioned to achieve some form of progress, even if the candidate endorses policies that they disagree with. Obviously, this is a broad generalization (look no further than the shockingly large number of Bernie Sanders voters who refused to vote for HRC, even though doing so was effecively a vote for Trump). On balance, though, I have found the principle to be generally true.

The book you need to read to understand what happened here is Behave

In a nutshell, people believe what they want to believe... Elizabeth surrounded herself by powerful, old men who knew nothing of science... She impressed them, made then feel like a million dollars and promised them money and power... They wanted this to happen so they believe her even when others saw through Elizabeth and warn them

In their minds (EH and SB) they believed they were smarter than anyone around them and that all that was needed to produce the next revolutionary tech was to whip it out of people... The concept that very smart people had tried to accomplish this for decades was completely alien to them

I'M LATE! But god damn it I'm posting.


Absolutely CRAZY couple of weeks. Moved into the new house, then immediately took off for a week in Paris with just the wife and I.


Had an amazing time, but am SO, SO excited to just settle in to the new house, get back on my diet plan, rebuild my routine and habits, etc. I love vacation, but I also love my day to day life.


(note: trying a slightly different format)


Rate the week (out of 5):

5

What were you grateful for this week?

Trip to Paris. This was a wonderful trip, and a huge reminder of what I've accomplished over the past year or so.

What needed work this week?

Found myself getting VERY reactive about sex. Time away also centered me around what I've been slacking on at home.

PHYSICAL

No diet plan or exercise due to trip. Weighed in on first morning at home at 179 - not too bad. Next morning I was down to 166 (1 lb over before I left).


We did a ton of walking. That said, lack of sleep and constantly eating out has really made me excited to get back on track.


Today my brain is absolute garbage - really need to catch up on sleep. May try dosing with melatonin today and getting to bed earlier than normal.


MINDSET

Reactivity about sex is clearly a huge deal for me, still. I clearly had a large covert contract that we would be having sex every day - and found that (for whatever reason, probably the huge amount of beautiful women in Paris) my sex drive was MUCH higher than normal. Those two things collided to drive up my initiations and my frustration when it wasn't reciprocated.

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I have to remember a few things:

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- Her reaction (or lack thereof) says nothing about my value as a person.

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- I don't need to read into every encounter as a verdict on one part of our relationship or the other. There are a million and one factors in whether she's in the mood or not; take it for what it actually is and nothing more.

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- I let these things ruin my mood, which in turn decreases my chances in the future. Beware of continuous hedonic adaptation stealing my ability to actually enjoy the present (upset about what things "should be," rather than enjoying things as they are).

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Anyway, the experience - and becoming aware of it halfway through - helped to re-center me. Started re-reading MMSL and it re-connected me to where I was when I started this whole process. It reminded me that the process is what matters - like almost anything, progress here is characterized by long plateaus followed by large, quick advances.

RELATIONSHIPS

We had sex twice, and mutually jerked off once while watching porn. Being as the porn thing happened last, I was almost irritated by it (I had initiated, gotten turned down, but then she got interested by me watching porn - enough to jerk off, but not enough to have sex).

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Didn't though - had my head screwed on straight again by then. In a pique of irritation (after what was actually a great night out, and after about a bottle of wine), I made a move I haven't done in ages and tried to talk about our sex life. This was unproductive, as it always is when it's anything other than "making the implicit explicit" from a position of strength. Still, it was good in the sense that she opened up about her birth wound - she has a fistula that sometimes stuff from her digestive tract into her vagina. She's incredibly sensitive about it, and I realized that some of the times she's begged off sex because she "feels gross", it's actually been because she has leakage going on.

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Like all people trying to understand their own behavior, myself included, this is part truth, part hamster. But it reoriented me to a few things: sympathy and empathy for her, rather than frustration; towards responsibility for my situation, rather than irritation for her; and back towards some of the "basics" I'd lost track of while working so deeply on my own co-dependency. Reconnecting to my ability to be angry is great, but I'd lost sight of working on attraction for a bit.

FINANCIAL / WORK

Part of the reason this trip was such a big deal for me was that it's been a sign of how much I've accomplished in the last few years.

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Last time I was in Paris I was single, traveling alone, and poor as fuck. This time, our hotel bill for the week was more than my entire budget for a month-long trip ten years ago. It means a lot to me to be able to live this kind of life - defined by freedom, lack of anxiety, adventure.

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I've worked very hard to make it happen. The wife appreciated it, but she doesn't really understand what it took, or how much effort I've really had to put in. Like most people, things seem simple, easy, or inevitable from the outside.

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That's fine. I'd rather she not know. This is work I would do even if I was single - my trajectory has been mine alone. I've designed this life over many years now, and the fact that it looks easy from the outside is a compliment.

What am I looking forward to this week?

Getting back into the swing of things. We're finally in the new house, and I'm dying to just return to normal...getting back into the gym, the office, eating on my diet plan, hanging with my kids, etc. I like my routines.

What is important to me this week?

Just focusing on re-establishing a baseline. I've got plans for the next few months - things I was to improve or work on - but for now, I want to just re-build my "cornerstone habits": diet, exercise, sleeping well.


Reading


Got back into MMSL. A lot of it's old news now, but I remember how BLOWN AWAY I was when I read it the first time.


Behave - https://www.amazon.com/Behave-Biology-Humans-Best-Worst/dp/1594205078


I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK ANY HIGHER. It is absolutely blowing me away - every single chapter is fucking me up. Incredible. Kind of book that changes how you see the world.


Read two "fun books" on vacation - Lexicon and The Yard. Both were fun thrillers. I can down that shit like nobody's business.


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It's really touching that you care about my education so much as to suggest this. Thank you! Amongst others, I'm currently reading this book during the holiday and it's great: https://www.amazon.com/Behave-Biology-Humans-Best-Worst/dp/1594205078 by Sapolsky.

If you read it aswell I believe you will be happy to see it's arguments of there really being such a thing as "born in the wrong body", as some people that claim they are born into the wrong body really do have a brain structured as the opposite sex. For example, we look at instances of people with penis that claim they are female. Some of these do in fact have a female brain. Or maybe it's better to say, brain with structure most characteristic of those with xx chromosones so we don't step on any toes.

If you'd be so kind as to point out any wrongs again it would be much appreciated