Name: The Second Mountain
ISBN: 9780812993264

The Second Mountain

David Brooks is one of the nation’s leading writers and commentators. He is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, a writer for The Atlantic, and appears regularly on PBS Newshour. He is the bestselling author of The Second Mountain, The Road to Character, The Social Animal, Bobos in Paradise, and On Paradise Drive. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Everybody tells you to live for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? The author of The Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world. Every so often, you meet people who radiate joy—who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. They get out of school, they start a career, and they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to climb. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses: to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and find the view... unsatisfying. They realize: This wasn’t my mountain after all. There’s another, bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain. And so they embark on a new journey. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want.

What Hacker News says

cl42Jul 2026

Have you considered consulting? Could be a good way to explore other industries and geographies while making use of the skills you have today. I'm sure many people would want to hire you or work with you.

You might appreciate this book, too: https://www.amazon.ca/Second-Mountain-David-Brooks/dp/081299...

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bumbyJan 2025

David Brooks has a good book called “The Second Mountain” where he details the shift of priorities later in one’s life. The “first mountain” is what this guy achieved, monumental material success and freedom in pursuit of the “aesthetic life” that is overly portrayed in social media as the ultimate goal. But Brooks’ position is there is a “second mountain” to climb focused on commitment to a purpose beyond ourselves. Somewhat paradoxically, the second mountain is defined by a constraining of the freedom we pursue originally because it requires dogged commitment.

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bumbyNov 2022

How far does this attitude extend?

Do you not expect anything out of your teammates? Do you have no expectations from customers? From politicians?

At a certain point, how you manage interpersonal relationships can limit your path. Sure, you can just devolve everything down to a transaction (even a marriage) and maybe that works for you. And you can create a life free from any obligations or commitments, outside what you want for the aesthetic life of your choosing.* But it doesn't seem like it would be the type of existence many people envy.

* David Brooks book "The Second Mountain" does a good job explaining the downsides of this approach.

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ryeguy_24Jun 2019

Just picked up a book called "The Second Mountain" by David Brooks. It's a shot in the dark but may actually help with the struggling you are having with your next opportunity. I'm 13 years in my job (same company!) and feel exactly the same as you. I feel like it's time for my next "trick" so hoping to find it soon.

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bumbyApr 2024

>I see the second half of my life now as predominantly about “service”.

David Brooks articulates this sentiment well in his book “The Second Mountain.”

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teamwork007Dec 2019

If you like Rilke, you'd also really like James Hollis' The Middle Passage (1993). As for as books from the past decade go David Brooks' The Road to Character was pretty good. His follow-up The Second Mountain would have been better if he didn't recycle so much from the previous work. Sam Harris' Waking Up was pretty eye opening as Harris is a very lucid thinker.

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