The expression "what makes us tick" refers to the underlying motivations, desires, and principles that drive a person's behaviour and decisions. It explores the core of human nature and the universal desires that influence our actions. It's about understanding the "why" behind our behaviours.
After eighty years, I still don't know what makes me tick. Maybe it's because, as British author W Somerset Maugham reflects in "A Writer’s Notebook", "I recognise that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?"
As you can tell, Hugh Mackay is not the world's greatest orators but he writes a good book in "What Makes Us Tick - The Ten Desires That Drive Us", and I'm only too happy to learn from him what makes others tick.
The pages of my copy of the book are well annotated by a "Jason Hankinson 3186", the "3186" presumably being the postcode for Brighton in Victoria. I don't mind. It tells me that the book has already been well-read and, in any case, it only cost me a couple of dollars at Vinnies.
