The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now

(Paperback, Main - New edition)

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Description

Contemporary culture tells us the twenty-something years don't matter. Clinical psychologist Dr Meg Jay argues that this could not be further from the truth.

The Defining Decade weaves the latest science of the twenty-something years with real-life stories to show us how work, relationships, identity and even the brain can change more during this decade than at any other time in adulthood.


Smart, compassionate and constructive, The Defining Decade is a practical guide to making the most of the years we cannot afford to miss.


Included in this updated edition: Up-to-date research on work, love, the brain, friendship and technology What a decade of device use has taught us about looking at friends - and looking for love - online A social experiment in which 'digital natives' go without their phones A reader's guide for book clubs, classrooms or further self-reflection.

Reviews

'Meg Jay takes the specific complaints of twentysomething life and puts them to diagnostic use' - New Yorker

'Any recent college graduate mired in a quarter-life crisis or merely dazed by the freedom of post-collegiate existence should consider it required reading' - Slate

'I strongly recommend The Defining Decade for anyone in their 20s trying to figure out their life's direction. You'll learn how to search productively, how to avoid being indulgent, and how to turn good opportunities into great ones' - Po Bronson

'The Defining Decade is the book twentysomethings have been waiting for. It will not tell you what you should do with your life, but it will inspire, motivate, and educate you to figure it out' - Rachel Simmons

'The Defining Decade is eye-opening, important, and a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it' - Wendy Mogel

Author Bio

Meg Jay, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist and an Associate Professor of Human Development at the University of Virginia. She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and in gender studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Her books The Defining Decade and Supernormal have been translated into more than a dozen languages and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and on NPR and BBC. Her TED talk 'Why 30 is Not the New 20' is among the most watched to date.