This is a book about success and how it happens, told through the fictionalised story of a couple, Harold and Erica, representative of you and me. Brooks follows their story from birth to old age and explores the forces that expand and limit their choices in life. Following their progress, he explores everything that influences human development in the 21st century - why our interest and passions develop, how we decide whom to marry, why emotion trumps IQ, and how the vast power of the unconscious, where most of the mind's work takes place, plays such a fundamental role in the choices we make.
Through this captivating fable of modern life, Brooks shows us that the current thinking on how to improve society - from education to equality to creating a functional workplace - is all too often based on a false view of human nature.
The Social Animal culminates in a broad vision of society that emphasizes trust over individualism, social mobility over the status quo, and, ultimately, human character over human calculation.
