NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A practical heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another
person and fostering 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 all around are people who feel
invisible unseen misunderstood. In How to Know a Person Brooks sets out to help us do better
posing essential questions: 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 determination to grow as
a person Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and 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.
