[.ca] Mean Genes: From Sex To Money To Food: Taming Our Primal ... (ISBN 0738202304)

From Amazon.com:
"Don't trust your instincts." Hardly the standard self-help fare, to be sure. Arguing that Darwin has a lot more to tell us about ourselves than Freud, Mean Genes is high on evolution and low on inner child. Deemed "brilliant" by none other than E.O. Wilson himself, the book is the work of two young Wilson disciples: Terry Burnham, an economics professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and Jay Phelan, a professor of biology at UCLA. Burnham and Phelan divide life issues into 10 categories (debt, fat, drugs, risk, greed, gender, beauty, infidelity, family, and friends and foes), and then offer up a two-step guide to better living: "Step 1 is to understand our animal nature, particularly those desires that get us into trouble and can lead to unhappiness. Step 2 is to harness this knowledge so that we can tame our primal instincts." Needless to say, Nancy Reaganesque bromides don't fit into the Mean Genes scheme of things: "Just say no" to drugs is the simplest way to kick a habit. Unfortunately, this obvious and low-cost approach is also the route most likely to fail. For example, only one person quits smoking for every twenty who attempt to just say no. Raw willpower seems like a great solution right up until weakness strikes and we light up a cigarette or mix a margarita. Instead of slogans, the Mean Genes approach to overcoming drug addiction is to first recognize that "every person has strong, instinctual cravings for destructive substances." This, coupled with a thorough scientific understanding of a given drug's pleasurable effects on the brain, offers a more realistic course of action, such as finding a less harmful substitute for achieving a similar buzz. Be it talk of weight loss, saving for retirement, or resisting the neighbor's wife, such practical, tough-love suggestions for subduing the beast within are provided throughout the book. Phelan describes how he instantly smears mayonnaise all over tempting sweets served with airline meals to keep from eating them during long flights, and Burnham writes of giving away his Internet access cable in order to free himself of a serious day-trading fixation. The authors also rely heavily on findings from the animal world in stating their case, which makes for fascinating reading, if not always for the most readily transferable lessons to daily life. Consider, for example, certain frog species that "continue individual bouts of mating for several months. If people mated for a similar percentage of our lives, a single round of intercourse would last almost ten years." And then there's the famed black widow spider. "Shunning the more traditional chastity belt, the male breaks off his sexual organ inside the female, preventing her from ever mating again. When the act is completed, the female kills and eats the male." Put off by all the sex and violence? Don't worry. There's also a nod to family values in the form of the Australian social spider. "Soon after giving birth to about a hundred hungry spiderlings, Mom's body literally liquefies into a pile of mushy flesh. The babies then munch on the flesh so they can start their lives with full bellies." Mean genes indeed. --Patrick Jennings

A Food For Thought:
This short book is very readable and at the same time, very informative. A lot of information from this book gives one a food for thought, especially the struggles for self-control. Very insightful read and I would recommend it.

This Book Makes Sense.:
Terry Burnham, a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School, holds a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard, while Jay Whelan is a Biology professor at UCLA. Together they have collaborated to produce an excellent book that explains why we humans so often act in what appear to be irrational ways. The essence of their argument is that we human beings come from a long line of hunter gatherers, and are genetically ill-equipped to deal with many of the challenges we face in the modern world. Using specific examples, Burnham and Whelan describe how our genes drive us to make irrational decisions in the major areas of our life (work, love, friendship, sex, and consumption). Forewarned is forearmed. Once you've read this book, you'll have the necessary tools to anticipate and avoid failure. Highly recommended.

Responding to "Amazon Customer":
If you are a believer in all this Freudian crap, this is not the reason to trash a really good book, which approaches things from really scientific point of view, and tries to give a logical picture of our psychology, its origins. Psychoanalysis is not a science, it is bunch of fairy tales, and has nothing to do with science; but I'm afraid people like you would never admit this. This book is excellent!

Fabulous:
I had the honor of reading "Mean Genes" as a textbook when Dr. Phelen, the co-author, taught my Life Science Class at UCLA. This is book worthy of ANY generation's read-I particularly thought it "answered" some of those questions of life that torment the average college student, let alone humans. The insights and personal stories add warmth to "Mean Genes, and the book is immensely enjoyable (hardly "textbook" like.) Overall-buy the book for keeps-you will want to keep it as a manual for life.

Down to earth insight.:
A very readable book that explains complex topics and information in an easy to understand manner. The authors are humorous, humble, and insightful. This book is really for everyone, whether you are in high school or graduate school, an art student or psychology major.