How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A practical, heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another person in order to foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our livesfrom the author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain

More than a guide to better conversations, its a blueprint for a more connected and humane way of living. Its a must-read for anyone looking to deepen their relationships and broaden their perspectives.Bill Gates, GatesNotes (Summer Reading Pick)

AsDavid Brooks observes, There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seento accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.

And yet we humans dont do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them What kind of conversations should you have What parts of a persons story should you pay attention to

Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.

The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly creative: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.

Reviews

Praise for the works of David Brooks

The Second Mountain

Deeply moving, frequently eloquent and extraordinarily incisive.The Washington Post

The Road to Character

David Brookss giftas he might put it in his swift, engaging wayis for making obscure but potent social studies research accessible and even startling.The New York Times Book Review

A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.The Guardian

Original and eye-opening... Brooks is a normative version of Malcolm Gladwell, culling from a wide array of scientists and thinkers to weave an idea bigger than the sum of its parts.USA Today

The Social Animal

Provocative and fascinating... seeks to do nothing less than revolutionize our notions about how we function and conduct our lives.The Philadelphia Inquirer

Brookss considerable achievement comes in his ability to elevate the unseen aspects of private experience into a vigorous and challenging conversation about what we all share.San Francisco Chronicle

Author Bio

David Brooks is one of the nations leading writers and commentators. He is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, a writer for The Atlantic, and appears regularly on PBS Newshour. He is the bestselling author of The Second Mountain, The Road to Character, The Social Animal, Bobos in Paradise, and On Paradise Drive.