The Coddling of the American Mind
“That was the book I gave away in our gift bag at the All-In Summit this year, because I thought it was such an important and prescient point of view.”
Why it is worth your time
The Coddling of the American Mind is a 2018 book by Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at NYU. It grew from a 2015 Atlantic essay. They argue that 3 untruths took hold in US schools and colleges after about 2013: what does not kill you makes you weaker, always trust your feelings, and life is a battle between good and evil people. They blame safetyism in parenting, social media and campus politics. Friedberg put it in the gift bag at the 2023 All-In Summit and explained why on the Sep 29, 2023 episode. It suits parents, teachers and anyone running a university. The caveats are that the Guardian's Moira Weigel read it as elite liberals turning rightward, and psychologist Candice Odgers argued in Nature that Haidt's smartphone and teen mental health evidence is mixed.
