We Used to Call It Wisdom

You have no doubt encountered the deluge of "brain science" or neuroscience findings flooding the media these days. These findings are often "counterintuitive" and tell us surprising things about the often mistaken ways we see the world, lead our lives, interact with others, seek happiness, deal with death, etc.

For me this begs the question: Before brain science how did we manage to build good lives? Well, we reflected on our experiences and learned from our mistakes and successes. This was called wisdom. Rarely will you see a brain science finding that a wise person has not already intuited for him- or herself and tried to impart to others. I enjoy reading the brain science findings, but suspect that most of us will still have to learn things the hard way -- in the course of vigorously participating in life -- for many of these insights to stick.