How Did We Get To Be So Different - Review

 

Book 2: How Did We Get To Be So Different 

Author: SS O'Connor

Publisher: Otium Press

Publishing Date: 30th March 2023 

Many thanks to the publishing team and Literally PR team for my copy of the book 

Blurb 

The Secrets of Life series is written for everyone who, frankly, needs a spot of cheering up, and will provide conversation starters for years after reading! O’Connor’s easy-going, conversational style brings an outsider’s questioning eye to the great forces behind life.

The second book in the four-part series debates the steps that led to us being so completely different to anything that had ever appeared before. If we really were just another kind of animal off the production line of life, then what were the revolutions that turbo-charged our abilities? How is it possible that we only arrived a fluttering of an eyelash ago compared to evolutionary time, yet we are now so completely dominant over everything else in life?

Book Two also sets out to answer the questions around what we did that meant we could alter ourselves in an instant, and so avoid being stuck in an evolutionary niche like every other organism. Why, for example, was it such a huge step forward when we began to run? Why was the taming of fire arguably the most important thing we ever did? How did we manage to create the intelligence and insights that allowed us to make our own life decisions? Why was gossiping so critical?

With the same writing approach that typified Book One, in How Did We Get To Be So Different? O’Connor sets out to answer these and other questions by summarising the views of the great biologists, anthropologists, and evolutionary theorists —and then adding some opinions of his own.

My thoughts

This is the book I was most eager to get my hands on. There was something in the blurb that made me ponder on a few things. Probably because it posed questions similar to how my own thinking evolves so it caught my attention sooner. 

I really liked the short chapters that continued to be engaging and delivered to the same standard as book 1. For me it is thought provoking and every engaging. In doing so although it is well written it means that I went off to consider more points and started to change my perspective around me. 

The different take on this book was that it considered different topics such as; gossiping, leadership, mirroring and imitating behaviours that create influence not always for the good, trust and motive. These are just some chapters that are delved into which I found really interesting. 

Another chapter that challenged me was around the deliverance of information and the impact it can make. The use of our language and stance can cultivate either a positive or negative environment. I was really Intrigued to learn that the factors such as:  gaining trust, our genetics and surrounding environmental changes and challenges allow us to play out our imaginative s into real life but what are the future consequences on the individual and other people. 

I have lots of sticky tabs on this book and although I read it in time for the start of the blog tour I am going to re-read this book as I found it so interesting and fascinating. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 

About the author:SS O’Connor spent more than twenty years as an advertising executive before becoming a serial entrepreneur, assembler of private equity projects, investor and corporate strategist. He has been chairman of a number of public and private companies, and a director of many others. His acclaimed novel, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, was published in 2013. He lives in London and Somerset