The Second Mountain

Chapter 10, “The Annunciation Moment,” opens with the childhood story of nature writer and entomologist E. O. Wilson and his “annunciation moment” (95). Brooks explains that an annunciation moment is “when something sparks an interest, or casts a spell and arouses a desire that somehow prefigures much of what comes after in a life, both the delights and the challenges” (95). Being embedded in the annunciation, for Brooks, is a feeling of reverence enmeshed with zealous excitement. He describes annunciation moments for Van Gogh and Einstein too. Einstein believed his annunciation moment occurred when he received a compass as a young boy and subsequently learned that strange, unseen forces drove the natural world. Brooks recounts his own commitment to becoming a writer.

In this chapter, Brooks turns to the question of mentorship. Mentors, Brooks argues, provide a practical kind of knowledge (regardless of the craft or trade) that cannot be translated autodidactically through books. “A textbook can teach you the principles of biology,” he writes, “but a mentor shows you how to think like a biologist” (102). He notes that good mentors are not overly friendly or easygoing—they can have exactingly high standards, and they demand the best of young people and seek to inspire in them an intensity for their vocation in life. He cites Iris Murdoch, William James, and others on the infinite task of gaining mastery at a skill and the human impetus to engage in struggle. Relaxation and comfort may be nice respites occasionally, but they are not what we most deeply want.

Chapter 12 is on “Vampire Problems,” or, more specifically, the attempt to determine who one will be after making a transformative choice. The essential problem here is that transformative choices are, by necessity, transformative of the self, so knowledge of one’s future self is off the table. Since transformative choice is so key for Brooks and the commitments to the second-mountain life, he struggles with understanding how to approach the problem: “You can’t rationally think through this problem, because you have no data about the desires of the transformed you” (107). In short, we do not have reliable intuitions or sufficient wisdom to understand our transformed future selves. The upshot, for Brooks, is that logic, a useful tool in everyday situations, is not of much assistance when making fundamental decisions about “ultimate questions” (110). The problem occurs when one seeks out a vocation, which entails a confrontation with a “daemon” (111). This, according to Brooks, is an unconscious source of obsessive energy. Confronting the daemon is related to reawakening one’s soul toward the pursuit of the transcendent (116). Brooks adopts advice from several different sources to detail paths of action to determine one’s vocation. He also makes use of various life stories, such as that of John Stuart Mill and Fred Swaniker, the latter of whom is the creator of the African Leadership Academy. Brooks argues that finding a vocation is about finding something that will endlessly capture one’s attention and that one is in a good position to do something about.

The final chapter of Part 2, “Mastery,” is about mastering the skill set that comes with a chosen vocation. Anyone in a vocation is called to master the skills necessary for engagement in that vocation. Among other things, this requires, for Brooks, a determination to slug through the boring and difficult aspects of the work. This requires deliberate practice consistently undertaken, which will hack the brain’s over-eagerness to automatize skills with which a person has become reasonably competent (125). Brooks advocates for well-structured routines for skill development and believes that degree of structure should be heightened as a function of degree of creativity required. He uses examples of artists to make this point. Brooks believes that a person is transformed through this disciplined work in pursuit of a vocation, and the result is heightened insight (129). Among other examples, he discusses Bruce Springsteen’s rise in the music business, a result of consistent dedication to a craft. He quotes Springsteen saying that “real freedom” is very different than giving one permission to do whatever one feels like in the moment (133). Brooks believes identity is better formed by hard and fast commitments than by soft commitments eclectically toyed with.