The Origins of Virtue

This book by Matt Ridley was genuinely recommended once in the episodes we index, on Tim Ferriss. The people who vouched for it on air: Naval Ravikant. It comes up in conversations about meditation & mindfulness, productivity & performance. Every quote below is verbatim, attributed, and linked to the exact second it was said. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

If evolution by natural selection relentlessly favors self-interest, why do human beings live in complex societies and show so much cooperative spirit? In The Origins of Virtue, Matt Ridley, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist, shows that recent research in a number of fields has suggested a resolution of the apparent contradiction between self-interest and mutual aid.

• “genome the Red Queen the origins of virtue the rational optimist they're all great”

  Why it counts as a recommendation: “they're all great”
  Naval Ravikant · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 202000:25:58

  Said during "Tribe of Mentors, Naval Ravikant, Susan Cain, and Yuval Noah Harari | The Tim Ferriss Show". The episode features Naval Ravikant, Susan Cain, and Yuval Noah Harari: A compilation of three Tribe of Mentors profiles. Naval Ravikant is CEO and co-founder of AngelList and a prolific angel investor; Susan Cain is the bestselling author of Quiet and co-founder of Quiet Revolution; Yuval Noah Harari is a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of Sapiens and Homo Deus. Tim Ferriss introduces Tribe of Mentors, then shares profiles of Naval Ravikant, Susan Cain, and Yuval Noah Harari.