"Beginning at birth, the self-directed individuation proceeds mostly outside conscious awareness. Our genotypes operate more like whispers than shouts, nudges than shoves, and their messages are hard to distinguish from the other influences on our behavior. Genetic propensities may typically provide only faint directional signals and seldom decide any of the single actions among the myriad constituting daily life. But no matter how faint they may seem at any single moment, those signals are the most constant and consistent directional force in our behavior and thereby become discernible by the patterns they create. Its emergent pattern of effects gradually makes our inner compass somewhat available to conscious reflection."

Linda S. Gottfredson