Understand what makes you human!

This book is about the commonalities all 8,000,000,000 people on Earth share.

"In highly readable style, Tim Ash moves readers from the basics of brain functioning to the evolution of its regularities, quirks, and affordances. In the process, we gain invaluable insights into human decision-making and behavior." (Robert Cialdini, Author of Influence and Pre-Suasion)

“A fascinating and thrilling look into our minds and what matters.”
(Jay Baer, Founder of Convince & Convert, co-author of Talk Triggers)

“Tim has studied the research on behavioral science and evolutionary psychology and written an excellent book that explains much of human behavior. If you want to know why we do what we do, then read this book.” (Susan Weinschenk, PhD, Author of 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People)

“This book would be very helpful for anyone who wants to understand what truly drives attention, emotions and cognitive arousal, from the perspective of psychology! Very addictive read by an author with great experience and academic knowledge. I highly recommend this book!”
(Dr. Hedda Martina Šola — Dir. of the Institute for Neuromarketing, Oxford Business College)

"Managing your brain is the job of your life. This book is a good way to understand the operating system we've inherited." (Loretta Breuning, PhD - Author of Habits of a Happy Brain)

"What a wild ride! Tim's ambitious book takes us from early life on earth, to the bizarre qualities that make us uniquely human. Sleep, memory, herd instinct, motivation, language, culture, cooperation - it's all in there. A must-read book that will literally blow your mind!" (Joel Comm, New York Times best-selling author, keynote speaker, futurist)

Drop a rock. It falls and hits the ground.

Once you understand brain evolution, many of our behaviors will become more predictable. To a scary degree, we are reactive animals ruled by passions, and not the rational geniuses with free will that we like to imagine.

First the bad news: The notion that people make decisions and choices to maximize objective self-interest has been demolished. People are not rational — far from it.

Now the good news: We are finding out exactly how and why we act in these seemingly irrational ways. In other words, there is a method to our seeming madness.

We evolved for a particular environment, but our rapid social advances and mushrooming populations have created a bewildering new world. On the timescale of this dizzying change, evolution has effectively stopped, and we must rely on what has gotten us this far. By retracing the path that our distant ancestors took to get here, we can understand the stunning abilities and glaring weaknesses which we have inherited.

Sometimes our reactions and responses are appropriate and uncannily helpful. In the blink of an eye we can assess complex situations and reach critical life-or-death decisions. At other times, we are seemingly our own worst enemies — repeating the same mistakes, even when we know the results will be counterproductive, or even deadly.

Unlocking the true nature of the human brain is the last frontier. Recent work in fields such as biology, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, medical imaging, social science, and behavioral economics is combining to show us the inner workings of this evolutionary marvel.

This book is designed for you — the curious and intelligent searcher for truth.