David Brooks

Hay una capacidad que yace en el corazón de cualquier persona o comunidad: la de ver a los demás & x02014;en su sentido más profundo& x02014; y hacerlos sentir valorados, respetados y compren

If you are going to care for someone, you must first understand them. If you're going to hire, marry, or befriend someone, you have to be able to see them. If you are going to work closely with someone, you have to be able to make them feel recognized and valued. As David Brooks observes, "The older I get, the more I come to the certainty that there is one skill at the center of any healthy family, company, classroom, community or nation: the ability to see each other, to know other people, to make them feel valued, heard and understood."And yet we humans don't 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 to do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us. Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and from the worlds of theatre, 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 towards others; it helps readers find the joy that comes

In The Road to Character David Brooks, best-selling author of The Social Animal and New York Times columnist, explains why selflessness leads to greater success.We all possess two natures. One focuses on external success: wealth, fame, status and a great career. The other aims for internal goodness, driven by a spiritual urge not only to do good but to be good - honest, loving and steadfast. The inner self doesn''t seek happiness superficially defined; it seeks emotional commitments without counting the cost, and a deeper moral joy. Individuals and societies thrive when a general balance is struck between these two imperatives, but we live in a culture that encourages us to think about the external side of our natures rather than the inner self. We hanker for praise instead of following our hearts, and we self-promote rather than confront our weaknesses.In this urgent and eye-opening book, David Brooks asks us to confront the meaning of true fulfilment. A famous columnist for The New York Times and best-selling author, Brooks found himself living in a shallow mode. For years, he remained focused on getting ahead and reaping the rewards for his efforts, placing his career before his character. Finding himself at a crossroads, Brooks sought out men and women who embodied the moral courage he longed to experience. Citing an array of history''s greatest thinkers and leaders - from St. Augustine and George Eliot to Dwight Eisenhower and Samuel Johnson - he traces how they were able to face their weaknesses and transcend their flaws. Each one of them chose to embrace one simple but counterintuitive truth: in order to fulfil yourself, you must learn how to forget yourself.An elegant interweaving of politics, spirituality and psychology, The Road to Character proves that it is how we want to be remembered - and not what we put on our CVs - that truly matters.

N.°1 del New York Times. Una aventura intelectual conmovedora, un relato de logros y una defensa del progreso.Ésta es la historia de cómo se produce el éxito. Se cuenta a través de la vida de una par

CÓMO VIVIR POR UNA CAUSA MAYOR QUE TÚ MISMO:LA PLENITUD DE UNA VIDA COMPROMETIDA, SOLIDARIA Y CON SENTIDODe vez en cuando conocemos a personas que irradian felicidad, parecen saber para qué han venido a este mundo y brillan con luz propia.Todas ellas comparten una trayectoria vital comun, que podriamos describir como la silueta de dos montañas: en cuanto terminan los estudios emprenden una carrera profesional, y a partir de entonces empiezan a escalar la ladera que los conducira al exito, al estatus social y a la felicidad personal, siguiendo los dictados de nuestra cultura. Sin embargo, cuando llegan a la cumbre algo les pasa. Miran a su alrededor y el panorama no les satisface porque se dan cuenta de que aquella no es su montaña. Entonces, a lo lejos, divisan otra mayor que si es la suya y emprenden un nuevo viaje. Esta segunda montaña les ofrece la posibilidad de involucrarse con los demas en lugar de centrarse en si mismos; de adoptar una vida interdependiente en lugar de independiente, y de asumir compromisos profundos.David Brooks explica en La segunda montaña que la esencia de una vida con sentido es el compromiso con la familia, con una vocacion, con una fe o filosofia y con la comunidad. Su inspiradora prosa nos invita a re?exionar sobre la importancia de crear relaciones en las que la solidaridad, el amor y la corresponsabilidad primen sobre la independencia individual. Esta obra sugerente, aguda y enriquecedora nos ayudara a descubrir el sentido de nuestra vida y nuestra mision en la tierra.

Vivimos en una cultura que nos enseña a anhelar el éxitoy labrar una carrera deslumbrante, pero que da pocoaliento a la humildad, la compasión y la honestidad, indispensablespara forjar el carácter y cultivar nuestravida interior.En El camino al caracter, partiendo de la clasifi cacionde la naturaleza humana en Adan I y Adan II establecidapor el rabino Joseph Soloveitchik, el periodista y profesoruniversitario David Brooks distingue lo que meramentenos lleva a buscar el reconocimiento de formautilitarista y su dificil conciliacion con un planteamientomoral que nos impulse a crecer en profundidad, conreciedumbre y sabiduria.Brooks dedica el grueso de su libro a retratar a un heterogeneogrupo de hombres y mujeres que, sin ser perfectos,practicaron un modo de vida ahora insolito,como san Agustin, Dorothy Day, Ida y Dwight Eisenhower,George Eliot, Samuel Johnson, George CatlettMarshall, Michel de Montaigne, Frances Perkins, A.Philip Randolph o Bayard Rustin, en la esperanza deconvertirlos en ejemplo vital, puesto que lo que todosellos tienen en comun es que eran plenamente conscientesde sus debilidades y libraron una lucha interiorde la que emergieron con una relativa dosis de respetoa si mismos y una impresionante coherencia interna.

The No. 1 New York Times bestseller on the secret to leading a good life We live in a Big Me culture: universities and businesses alike reward goal-oriented superstars and those who self-promote are most likely to thrive. But what does this say about us? David Brooks argues that our hunger for wealth and status is eroding our ability to create meaningful inner lives. To show us how to live better, he looks at people whose sense of humility was fundamental to their success. What they all understood was a simple but counterintuitive truth: in order to fulfil yourself, you must learn how to forget yourself.

N.°1 del New York Times. Una aventura intelectual conmovedora, un relato de logros y una defensa del progreso.Ésta es la historia de cómo se produce el éxito. Se cuenta a través de la vida de una pa

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 lives-from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Road to Character and The Second MountainIf you are going to care for someone, you must first understand them. If you're going to hire, marry, or befriend someone, you have to be able to see them. If you are going to work closely with someone, you have to be able to make them feel recognized and valued. As David Brooks observes, "The older I get, the more I come to the certainty that there is one skill at the center of any healthy family, company, classroom, community or nation: the ability to see each other, to know other people, to make them feel valued, heard and understood."And yet we humans don't 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 to 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 person's story should you pay attention to?Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and from the worlds of theatre, 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 towards others; it helps readers 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.