We don't really know ourselves yet. Stanford's Brian Lowery offers a primer.

Hello Monday ?is LinkedIn News’ weekly career podcast hosted by me,?Jessi Hempel. ?You’ll hear from thoughtful experts, authors and business leaders about the changing nature of work—and how that work is changing us. Each week, this newsletter shares learnings and practices connected to the conversations.?Subscribe to the show's newsletter?here . This week our guest is public radio journalist?Brian Lowery.

"What makes human beings what we are is that we exist socially, that we cooperate, that we create the world collectively." —Brian Lowery

How Stanford's Brian Lowery is redefining our understanding of selfhood

In this episode of Hello Monday, I chat with Brian Lowery, a social psychologist who challenges the notion of individualism by arguing that our sense of self is socially constructed through relationships. Brian runs the Leadership for Society program at the Stanford Business School. His new book is SELFLESS: The Social Construction of “You.”

Brian believes that while physical characteristics do play a role in who we are, the self is constantly evolving and shaped by our interactions with others. This idea is important because it shifts our perspective on relationships with colleagues and friends, urging us to let go of fixed individualism. According to Brian, genetics do not determine our destiny, but rather serve as a set of guidelines that interact with social influences. We have the power to change ourselves by changing the people we surround ourselves with.

The episode also reveals how individuals are influenced by their social context. The conversation revolves around the deep individualism of our current culture and our misplaced faith in the individual self. Brian sees individuals not as separate entities making their own decisions, but as nodes in an incredibly complex network, influenced by others. He suggests that if individuals can let go of the idea of a self as an island and recognize their part in a collective, they can alter their decision-making and empathize with others.

You can listen to the full episode here , or in the audiofile below. Then I hope you'll jump into the conversation in our comments.

?? NEW SEGMENT! BOOKS

We often feature authors on the show, but there are so many other important books that influence our conversations, seed our best ideas and encourage us toward innovation, personally and in our workplaces. I'm a reader, and I can't get through them all. These books mount in piles beside my bed, collect in the basket next to the couch, and weight down my backpack on the subway. And: I want to start to bring more of them to you. So, I'm introducing a books segment on the show and in the newsletter.

???????? SHOW: Every few weeks, LinkedIn's Scott Olster will join us to share the highlights of a book you should know about. Scott runs the Big Ideas Book Club on LinkedIn, and you can join him here . This week, he brings us the big ideas from Matthew Desmond's Poverty by America. If the book piques your curiosity and you haven't time to read the entire thing, you may want to check out Scott's q&a with Matthew right here .

???????? NEWSLETTER: I also plan to bring you my own reviews more regularly, and this week I have a great one. As a memoir writer, I'm also a memoir reader. When they're written well, memoirs offer us the best opportunity we have to understand the world through the eyes of another person. The best ones connect us to the universality of humanity.

Check out Kathryn Graven 's Memoirs of a Mask Maker . My own colleague George Anders calls this book "honest," as well as "revealing" and "inspiring." I concur. Kathryn's mother dies in a tragic car accident when she is five. Her life is seasoned by loss, and this is a coming-of-age story in which she describes the strong women and the events in her life that imbued her with hope and filled her life with connection. Just as she found herself reflecting on what it was like to sew masks during the scary quiet days of the pandemic, she reflects on how she has stitched a beautiful life out of the material she has come upon. In this story, there is hope and redemption for all of us.

OFFICE HOURS

Join me and friend of the show Michaela Green this week for?Office Hours. ?We'll go live Wednesday at 3pm EST from the?LinkedIn News Page. We'll talk through where we all get stuck in our careers, and how we manage through the experience. And we'll support each other as we go.