The Elephant in the Brain by Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler

🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

1. Animals, such as humans, are selfishly programmed to benefit their chances of getting allies, mates, and status.
2. To hide our uglier, selfish motives, the brain will deceive itself into believing things even if it knows that something else is logically true.
3. The ugly motives are often hidden but are incredibly important to why we do almost anything in everyday life.

🎨 Impressions

For the most part, I found The Elephant in the Brain to be a pretty straightforward, having some background learning about evolution and biology, but this book still was eye-opening for me. Often as I was reading I would try to find ways in my personal life that the behaviours in the books were similar.

This book was really interesting to read through and pick apart different aspects of life and society and how every action someone takes is programmed can be seen as the mind being selfish in some way. Typically, not wasting time, energy or other resources would give you an advantage over other people (survival of the fittest). However, things like charity and altruism can often give you an edge in society. It would seem counter-intuitive that giving away your resources would benefit you, which felt totally backwards to me; but, at the same time it makes a lot of sense.

How I Discovered It 

I had seen this book get highly rated by a variety of different creators online, such as Nat Eliason and Ali Abdaal to name a few, so I thought I’d give this book a shot. Overall, I liked and thoroughly enjoyed The Elephant in the Brain.

Who Should Read It?

I think a lot of people could find this book either useful or just an interesting look into the human mind and a lens through to view how society works. It might help somewhat to have a basic understanding of evolution, but the authors give you the tools to understand the book as you read.

☘️ How the Book Changed Me 

• Often when I’m considering options of what I want to do, I’ll remember the ideas in The Elephant in the Brain and understand why I choose what I do.
• It was definitely a lesson in humility for me. Even though we, as humans, might believe we are superior as intelligent beings, we still have animalistic tendencies at our core.
• I got a new perspective on how people, including myself, can be selfish and charitable at the same time. Moreover, I learned it’s okay to be both and we’re all just human.

✍️ My Top 5 Quotes

• “In fact, we’re able to act quite skilfully and strategically, pursuing our self-interest without explicitly acknowledging it, even to ourselves.”
• “But here’s the puzzle: we don’t just deceive others; we also deceive ourselves. Our minds habitually distort or ignore critical information in ways that seem, on the face of it, counterproductive.”
• “Rationalization is a kind of epistemic forgery, if you will. When others ask us to give reasons for our behavior, they’re asking about our true, underlying motives. So when we rationalise or confabulate, we’re handing out counterfeit reasons.”
• “We may get psychological rewards for donating anonymous donations, but for most people, the “warm fuzzies” just aren’t enough. We also want to be seen as charitable.”
• “In this way, the conspicuous care shown in our medical behaviors is similar to the conspicuous care shown in charity; by helping people in need, we demonstrate our value as an ally.”