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 lives—from
the author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain “More than a guide to better
conversations it’s a blueprint for a more connected and humane way of living. It’s a must-read
for anyone looking to deepen their relationships and broaden their perspectives.”—Bill Gates
GatesNotes (Summer Reading Pick) As David 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 seen—to accurately know another person
to let 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 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 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.
