Explaining Humans: Winner of the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2020

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But most of it is a long, laborious slog - it's all relevant and important to the author, but the metaphors and models won't necessarily make sense to anyone else. This is an intriguing book, written from the perspective of someone who has had to self-consciously learn much of what most of us take for granted. Since my parents felt they were superior to our neighbors, such an explanation was in line with my family’s attitude. I thought I was, since I am the parent of an adult daughter with Asperger's Syndrome and the author is also on the spectrum and only a few years older than my daughter.

The author uses complex (to a lay person like me) analogies about proteins and thermodynamics to explain people but. This scientific principle can be applied to our decision-making, where thinking in boxes limits the range of possible outcomes; hitting goals requires the ability to keep challenging yourself to get out of static and inflexible boxes as life is dynamic and constantly changing. Observe people's behavior and adjust your assumptions about them as you go along, getting a clearer picture with every step.Maybe it was the fact that I had a dedicated adult mentor sitting next to me in each class, my tendency to go into meltdown when a teacher said a word that scared me, or my uncontrollable nervous tics.

It will make you see yourself and the society in which you live from a different perspective, and perhaps it will help us all to celebrate our differences and laugh at our weirdness in new ways. Each of those people has struggled in the workplace because of how their diversity is perceived, just like Millie struggles with people viewing her as rude or emotional. No matter how much psychology I’ve studied and explanations from others for the behaviour of humans as a collective, I could never quite wrap my head around it. Pang's application of scientific metaphors starts off poorly by relying on outdated theories or unquestioned folk psychology.

Camilla Pang ne arată cum putem să înțelegem oamenii și legăturile care se formează între ei cu ajutorul științei. Winning doesn’t feel real yet, but it does feel like an incredible honour, to be up there with people I admire. They're hugely detailed and complex in places, and did little to enhance my understanding or my own coping mechanisms.