An Outsider's Guide to Humans

What Science Taught Me About What We Do and Who We Are

By: Camilla Pang

Narrated by: Camilla Pang

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Royal Society Science Book Prize

An instruction manual for life, love, and relationships by a brilliant young scientist whose Asperger's syndrome allows her - and us - to see ourselves in a different way...and to be better at being human.

Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of eight, Camilla Pang struggled to understand the world around her. Desperate for a solution, she asked her mother if there was an instruction manual for humans that she could consult. With no blueprint to life, Pang began to create her own, using the language she understands best: science.

That lifelong project eventually resulted in An Outsider's Guide to Humans, an original and incisive exploration of human nature and the strangeness of social norms, written from the outside looking in - which is helpful to even the most neurotypical thinker.

Camilla Pang uses a set of scientific principles to examine life's everyday interactions:

• How machine learning can help us sift through data and make more rational decisions
• How proteins form strong bonds and what they teach us about embracing individual differences to form diverse groups
• Why understanding thermodynamics is the key to seeking balance over seeking perfection
• How prisms refracting light can keep us from getting overwhelmed by our fears and anxieties, breaking them into manageable and separate "wavelengths"

Pang's unique perspective of the world tells us so much about ourselves - who we are and why we do the things we do - and is a fascinating guide to living a happier and more connected life.

©2020 Camilla Pang (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“An enlightening hybrid of popular science, memoir, and self-help... By leavening scientific theory with personal anecdotes, Pang draws up a life guide that’s accessible and entertaining... A unique take on life’s big questions.” (Publishers Weekly)

"In this book, Pang uses her extensive scientific knowledge to help readers understand the world of humans. With topics like thinking outside the box, forgetting about perfection and finding harmony, learning from your mistakes, and cultivating empathy and connections...Pang's Outsider’s Guide will help readers embrace their individuality while also finding their place in the greater humanity." (Booklist)

"A vivid picture of how an individual with Asperger’s views the world...Ingenious pop psychology." (Kirkus)

Excellent review of scientific principles

This is a great perspectve on human personality. It would also be helpful to students struggling with basic science concepts in that they can see how scientific processes are intimate examples of human interaction. It may help with better comprehension of science.

Just a personal journey. Not self help.

She is very atypical, so many of her personal coping mechanisms are not likely to apply to almost anyone else. I'm autistic too (65 & far more experienced) and she has clearly not talked to anyone else about coping to present things that might be applicable to more than a tiny fraction of readers. None of them applies to me.
This doesn't make the book useless. If you want a description of what it's like for some of us she does a decent job. Provided the reader realizes anything in particular will only apply to a small fraction of us.

Life manual

Neurotypical here. Loves this book. As a person who has struggled with anxiety all my life, I found social stuff perplexing. A manual like this would have saved me years of fighting against the current. Now I'm a Counseling Psychology graduate and Autism post graduate student. I can relate to everything said and explained here. Humans work best with analogies so this is a great manual for life.

(Mostly) Good Neurodivergent Representation

Dr. Pang is interesting, to be sure. She has a sort of focus on her special interests that makes her a more accurate, if high achieving, example of how neurodivergent people can sometimes work, if she does make us sound like machines at times. The scientific aspects are unfortunately truncated, as they are enormous topics. Their coverage is mostly basic, but their relation to lived experiences is easily the best part of the book.