Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things

by Laurence Gonzales

Book Overview

"Curiosity, awareness, attention," Laurence Gonzales writes. "Those are the tools of our everyday survival. . . . We all must be scientists at heart or be victims of forces that we don't understand." In this fascinating account, Gonzales turns his talent for gripping narrative, knowledge of the way our minds and bodies work, and bottomless curiosity about the world to the topic of how we can best use the blessings of evolution to overcome the hazards...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393337065
• ISBN13: 9780393337068
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Bait and Switch

This is by the far the best book I've read with such a low reviewer score. And the negative reactions here, ironically, are actual proof of the power of Gonzales' thinking. Everyday Survival is about the 'mental models' that tend to blind us to the deeper reality of our human condition. They are the evolutionary and cultural blinders that - while critical to our survival in the past - can lead to our downfall in the future once the situations in which we find ourselves have changed. It's the oldest heuristic, if it ain't broke don't fix it, but once things break we often lack the vision to adapt. It seems like many of the reviewers here, especially those with a 'survivalist' bent who loved Deep Survival can sign on to this premise and track as the author begins to explore how our 'mental models' can lock us into rigid ways of thinking and living. But as Gonzales goes deeper and deeper, challenging more and more preconceptions, a gnawing uncertainty, then discomfort, then mild outrage begins to well up in these readers (this feeling is also called cognitive dissonance, and it's a good feeling that usually accompanies learning and a broadening of one's world view... if that's what you're interested in.) Problem is that the culture and politics that surround American 'survivalism' quickly come under attack as just the kinds of dysfunctional 'mental models' that can threaten our survival. So how dare someone writing about the survival of the human race talk about something as heretical as global warming? What does evolutionary biology, physics, and astronomy have to do with survival? That's the bait and switch - a book that, especially coming off of Deep Survival, first appears to be ideal LayZBoy reading in the bunker and then pivots to argue that this bunker mentality, this rigid world view that refuses to deal with the truly big picture will result in the destruction of LayZBoy, bunker, and all the readers who don't evolve their thinking. Ouch! Two stars for you buddy! How dare you shake me out of my complacency! To be fair, the editor's choice to title this book Everyday Survival did create the expectation this this would be a sequel to the first book. I'd argue that it is, but then again I'm open minded enough to agree with the central premise - that science, knowledge, and a perspective far beyond our petty tribalism are critical for our survival (this is what some reviewers call 'elitism' I believe.) That the answer isn't pallets of Spam, an arsenal of fully automatic weapons, UN black helicopter detectors, and the Book of Revelations clearly let a bunch of folks down. Sorry. So if you do want to be challenged by a broad ranging, interdisciplinary, and thoughtful (at times touching) exploration of the human condition, you'll enjoy and be rewarded by this book. If you'd rather stay locked away inside your mental models - there is no global warming, creationism is as valid as evolution, science is interesting but besides th

I am surprised by all the negative reviews; this book IS good.

I am surprised this book has received so many negative reviews, but I can also understand why some people may not like it. The reason, I believe, is that this book is multi-disciplinary. Gonzales attempts to blend a little information from a lot of fields with the intention of explaining why people make mistakes - this is extremely hard to do! That said, I think he does a fairly modest job of adding another perspective to the growing field of Complexity Theory/ General Systems Theory. Here are a few sample quotes from the book and additional books that pertain to that quote: "And one of the most frequently ignored factors in our behavior is the way we form models and scripts and use them rather than information from the world itself in most of what we do." - (Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average & Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things) "As demonstrated in the Stanford prison experiment, anytime two groups are formed by whatever means, the likelihood is that the interactions between them will become hostile." - (Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind, Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression & The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom) "The burning question for our survival as a species is: Can we leave the ape behind and grow up." - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Living within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos & Living Within Limits: A Scientific Search for Truth) In the end, Gonzales is attempting to pull off a monumental task in less than 300 pages so I understand why many people don't like this book. I don't believe that makes this a bad book in any way; I recommend it. I consider it a satisfactory introduction to General Systems Theory, even if Gonzales doesn't call it that. If you find the book interesting I would also read General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications and An Introduction to General Systems Thinking (Silver Anniversary Edition). I hope this review helps clear up some issues with the book and gives some additional perspective on the negative reviews.

"What's smart depends entirely on context."

In "Everyday Survival," by Laurence Gonzalez, the author purports to explain "why smart people do stupid things," and to an extent, he does just that. However, Gonzalez goes way beyond his initial premise, as he explores the origins of life on earth and much more. Why does Gonzales begin with a relatively narrow theme and branch out in so many directions? He wants us to become more curious about where we came from, how we fit into the earth's giant ecosystem, and where we might be headed if our thinking does not expand to consider some hard-to-grasp realities. This book is a journey for readers who enjoy a challenge. Gonzales refers frequently to the Santa Fe Institute, "one of the most respected research institutions in the nation." Its members are scientists, economists, mathematicians and others who wish to broaden their scope of knowledge. For instance, Nobel Prize winner Murray Gell-Mann, a physicist, is studying the evolution of language at SFI. No matter how brilliant we think we are, we are all, to some extent, trapped in our "narrow little preserves, focused only on the minutiae of our own lives." To avoid the worst mistakes, it helps to be curious, aware, attentive, and flexible. We must be "scientists at heart or be victims of forces that we don't understand." Gonzales believes that we are headed for big trouble because we are content to live in a "vacation state of mind," relying on "outmoded mental models and behavioral scripts." Unless we open our eyes, it may be too late to save ourselves from the destruction of our planet through war, global warming, and economic collapse. Natural laws do not change; human behavior does, sometimes for the better, often for the worse. Although we tend to behave as if we have dominion over our surroundings, we do not, as we are slowly learning to our woe. To bring his controversial and thought-provoking ideas to life, Gonzales describes his trips to such places as the Outer Banks in North Carolina, Glacier National Park (where the ice is indeed melting), the intricate Wind Cave in South Dakota, and the volcanic islands of Hawaii. He also discusses why certain people (including a ten-year-old British girl), knew enough to move to high ground before the tsunami of 2004 wreaked its catastrophic destruction. This child convinced her family to escape, while others stood around and were swept away. This gifted storyteller mesmerizes the reader with his beautifully crafted prose, personal anecdotes (a section about the author's father is particularly poignant), and his astounding breadth of scientific knowledge. "Everyday Survival" makes us aware of our environment and of our role in promoting the well being not just of our own species, but of other living things as well. We are all interconnected. "We live delicately poised in a fragile web. Life is certain, but our position in it is not."

Stimulates thinking in new ways

I was surprised by how negative some of the reviews of this book are. It seems that people who read Gonzales' previous book, Deep Survival, were disappointed in this one because they expected a very different kind of book. Not having read Deep Survival, I had no particular expectations and I found Everyday Survival thought-provoking and interesting. I don't entirely agree with Gonzales' main thesis - that our modern way of living has made us unable to call on adaptive behavior that came naturally to our prehistoric ancestors, making us at risk in today's world. But, though they were occasionally a tad too drawn out, I found his stories intriguing, his examples powerful, and his overall analysis thought-provoking.