I am cutting back on buying books. I may well have more now that I can even look at roughly, let alone read, before I can no longer read at all. I spend more time these days looking over what I have already and reading them. I started reading "The Extended Mind" by Annie Murphy Paul and durn if what she was stating wasn't strongly related to "Incognito" by Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons About Your Brain" by Lisa Feldman Barrett. Her comments were about information sensors we humans have that give us information about the world.
I saw that she has a TED talk that has been viewed by millions of people. Her main point is that babies, before being born, gain lots of information while still in the womb. She describes babies showing a preference for the mother's voice over others and the mother's diet strongly influences what the baby learns about what food is good. Her earlier book, "Origins", is about this subject of life before birth.
It is true that we learn and are shaped by our mothers and our fathers too, for that matter. If we find in post-birth years that we are overly bold or overly shy, overconfident or under confident, we can take steps to modify ourselves and our guiding views and habits. However, we have to first notice and classify views or habits that hold us back or interfere with a good life. Sometimes, it is shocking to find our idea of a good life evolves too, and daunting to see what we need to learn, or cease, to improve.
