The cooperativeness we evolved on the savannah not only brought us to the top of the food chain, but also enabled the scientific enterprise. Like every other human on this planet, I’m a product of many teachers, mentors, and collaborators, and this book represents a massive cooperative enterprise. There is no way I could have written it on my own, and I didn’t even try. First of all, huge thanks are owed to Lauren Sharp, my agent at Aevitas Creative Management, who contacted me based on a fifteen-minute podcast at Harvard Business Review and encouraged me to write the book in the first place. Lauren also helped me develop the project. Another huge thanks to my editors at Harper Wave: Hannah Robinson, who provided superb editorial guidance; Jenna Dolan, who rescued my grammar and punctuation more times than I care to admit; and Sarah Murphy, who worked on part of the book before moving to another position. And, critically, thanks to Karen Rinaldi at Harper Wave, who decided to invest in me and this book.
My agent and editors played a central role, but so did my friends and family, who suffered through numerous preliminary drafts that were too embarrassing to show Lauren and Hannah. To begin with she who suffered most (and not just because I’d get in trouble otherwise), Courtney read the first draft of every chapter, pointing out when it was boring or unclear, but most notably trying to help me be a little chattier and a little less academic (aka dry and stuffy). After Courtney read them, the chapters went out to a long list of friends and family, and I owe them a huge thank-you: Roy Baumeister, Rob Brooks, Adam Bulley, Steve Fein, Mickey Inzlicht, Pamela Krones, Matt Lieberman, Dave Marshall, Elizabeth Marx, Glen McBride, Amanda Niehaus, Sam Pearson, Tiko Shah, Thomas Suddendorf, and Meris Van de Grift; Arndt, Cathy, Frank, Karin, Marianne, Maya, Paul, and Ted vH; and Henry Wellman, Robbie Wilson, Matti Wilks, and Brendan Zietsch. This book is much better because of them.
I am very fortunate to be part of a superb group of scholars at the University of Queensland, most notably in the Centre for Psychology and Evolution. The ideas on which this book is based have largely been formed in discussions, presentations, and debates in the Centre, and I’m very grateful to all the members and visitors over the past decade, particularly Thomas Suddendorf and Brendan Zietsch. Finally, I owe a big debt to my collaborators on the academic work that forms the basis of most of this book (see the papers listed in the reference section). Without them, the book wouldn’t exist.