Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick is the Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He writes compellingly in your book about his different identities and his journey. How do you see these different selves kind of reflected back to you, and how does it affect your journey? I love that question. Because I don't think my experience is unique, so I hope that people can see this in their own lives.
You are not autonomous. You are not an island unto yourself. You, my friend, are a social construct. The “self” you haul around — that yammering voice in your head — was entirely shaped by your relationships and social interactions. That may be upsetting for "you" to hear. But our guest today, Brian Lowery, prefers to see it as pleasantly humbling because if you can learn to let go of the idea that you have an essential self, you can embrace a more expansive view of who you are and who you can be.
Brian Lowery is a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His new book is “Selfless: The Social Creation of ‘You.’”
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