The Secret of Our Success

How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter

De: Joseph Henrich

Narrado por: Jonathan Yen

Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters, or avoiding predators. On the other hand, human groups have produced ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions that have permitted us to successfully expand into a vast range of diverse environments.

What has enabled us to dominate the globe, more than any other species, while remaining virtually helpless as lone individuals? This book shows that the secret of our success lies not in our innate intelligence, but in our collective brains - on the ability of human groups to socially interconnect and learn from one another over generations.

Drawing insights from lost European explorers, clever chimpanzees, mobile hunter-gatherers, neuroscientific findings, ancient bones, and the human genome, Joseph Henrich demonstrates how our collective brains have propelled our species' genetic evolution and shaped our biology.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2015 Princeton University Press (P)2018 Tantor

Great subject, clumsy delivery

The narrator at times sounds almost like they’re imitating an old times radio announcer. The material is compelling enough that I sat through most of the book suffering through the narration. This is one I may buy in physical form so I can skip through all the foreshadowing of what’s to come in future chapters. Some of the earlier chapters seem to be nothing but talking about what the author will talk about later. It gets a little annoying.

However, the fundamental concepts of cultural evolution are very clearly laid out. It is made evident how foundational cultural evolution is to our species in almost every aspect of our human lives. I found the material fascinating, and has triggered many avenues of further research and study for me.

Enjoyed it, but narration was lacking

Combination of a very dry narrator and some sections of the book that were very detailed and pedantic had me snoozing a bit at times, but the bulk of it laid out his thesis very well and gave me a new perspective on human nature and how it evolved

Culture and Human Evolution

The idea that culture has been one of the driving forces in human evolution is truly fascinating and the author has made some compelling arguments. For example, his argument that cultural learning created a change in human biology that lead to psychological adaptations for learning from other people makes sense to me and has opened my eyes to a new way of understanding the current behavior of the human species.

One of the rare accessible, paradigm-shifting books!

I think this book will appeal to both academics and the general public. However, some of the evolutionary concepts *might* require a little extra work (e.g. Wikipedia) for some non-scientific folks.
For me this book significantly shifted my perspective and understanding of the “human story” in a major and permanent way. Other books that had that level of impact on me were “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman and Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel”.

Great book, but audio is way too quiet. Can barely heart with AirPods in the city streets

Great book, but audio is way too quiet. Can barely heart with AirPods in the city streets

Clear and compelling argument and richly detailed analysis

Fascinating and convincing book. Not my field but still of great interest. Henrich does a great job of moving the book along through complex theoretical discussions and breaking down difficult concepts. Highly recommended for anyone interested in human evolution, psychology, and culture.

Some have complained about the narrator but I think he’s very good. A bit of an old timey radio voice vibe, yes, but his delivery is clear and expressive. His vocal patterns make the technical material more digestible and it’s clear he understands the gist of what he’s saying.

One teacher leads to degredation

Nice book. I loved it. Best idea I' ve got is - learn from many teachers not one, if You want to be the best in something.

MUST READ - absolutely fundamental

I have a long list of nonfiction books that I love. this is now the book I'm going to recommend ahead of all the others.

Brilliant

Clear and consistent narrative of who we are and how we got here. Eye opening!

An intellectual goldmine

This book is absolutely remarkable. Paired with *The Weirdest People in the World," an audio/book I also highly recommend, I believe this to be the most valuable contribution to the social scientific understanding of our world in my lifetime. (I'm a practicing social scientist and nearly 50.) Henrich uses a theory of cultural evolution, grounded in standard Darwinian evolution, to explain how humans and their societies work. I have long disliked socio-biological books that make assertions like "all men are horndogs who just want sex and don't care about taking care of kids," or what have you. Henrich's causal stories are rooted in a much more sophisticated application of Darwinian theory to human life. He is able to explain *variation* in outcomes using evolutionary theory, e.g., why some tribal societies are able to grow in size while others are not, or why men in monogamous societies experience a drop in testosterone after getting married and having kids, but men in polygamous societies don't.

Among Henrich's intellectual virtues: he's intellectually ambitious and gutsy as heck without being reckless, scrupulous and up-to-date in his techniques of causal explanation, very widely read, lucid and fun to read. He grapples with counterarguments without being ponderously academic, and he manages to make assertions that are both counterintuitive and viscerally plausible.

If you want to understand how our species and our societies have evolved, listen to this book. Then, once you're hooked, go listen to his next one, on the "WEIRDest People in the World," which uses the insights of this book to explain the origins of the modern world.