Brooks has spent a decade grappling with this topic, from the inciting event aboard the airplane, to his research as a social scientist, to his resignation as head of a think tank so that he could better manage his own decline in later years. After focusing on inevitability, Brooks offers hope: One can enjoy fulfillment and continued relevance if following a second path later in life. The book offers a road map, as well as an explanation for resisting change.

This is a book for people at the top of their game: business leaders, cutting-edge researchers, and professionals drawing on intellectual resources rather than physical gifts. Brooks identifies the “striver’s curse.” He writes, “[P]eople who strive to be excellent at what they do often wind up finding their inevitable decline terrifying, their successes increasingly unsatisfying, and their relationships lacking” (xiv). Brooks knows it’s a battle to convince such people that they should abandon the course they are on for another path.

Brooks develops his ideas through a mix of research, biography, and philosophy. He cites the Harvard Business Review, which reported that most entrepreneurs backed by $1 billion or more in venture capital are 20-34 years old. Perhaps imagining that many high achievers will think that decline won’t befall them, Brooks provides examples of icons and Nobel Prize laureates who enjoyed success early in life and felt stymied or worse in later years.