Creativity, communication, copying, and cooperation​—​four of the five Cs​—​arose with genetic changes that gave our species a big, complex brain. But large brain size and high complexity are not enough to make and maintain social reality. You also need the fifth C, compression, an intricate ability that humans have to a degree not found in any

Sometimes we’re responsible for things not because they’re our fault, but because we’re the only ones who can change them.

If you’ve heard that the left side of your brain is logical and the right side is creative, that’s just a metaphor. So

Why do the words you encounter have such wide-ranging effects inside you? Because many brain regions that process language also control the insides of your body, including major organs and systems that support your body budget.

Little brains are also wired by what caregivers don’t do.

Metaphors provide the illusion of knowledge, so they must be used with care.

Hub damage is associated with depression, schizophrenia, dyslexia, chronic pain, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other disorders.

short: The wiring of your cerebral cortex makes compression possible. Compression enables sensory integration. Sensory integration enables abstraction. Abstraction permits your highly complex brain to issue flexible predictions based on the functions of things rather than on their physical form. That is creativity. And you can share these

Sometimes we’re responsible for things not because they’re our fault, but because we’re the only ones who can change them.