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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I am blown away by the brilliance of this man. He captures so many compelling ideas in a way that is entirely understandable. I especially loved the parts about humility. Yuval Noah Harari pushes me to explore my own assumptions about myself and the world, and I appreciate this so much. Yes, it is uncomfortable at times, but worth doing. The importance of self-knowledge has never been a greater need than it is today. Many disruptions are happening and will continue to do so at an alarming rate. Are you ready for the future? Read this book and find out.
challenging
informative
reflective
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
If you are seeking some practical answers to myriad social problems we are facing, you might be totally disappointed in this book. I would say it's already a wrong approach to seek answers.
However Harari poses most important questions in the present time and explains why so with broad perspectives extending to future and past.
As a meditation practitioner, it was a surprise that the last chapter was about meditation and the author's viewpoints on this. Even though Harari makes it clear that meditation is not a solution for the problems we are facing, and I agree on that, I believe it will definitely have more roles to play in the coming years. Why? It is because we still have no idea how our mind works and be in term with it.
In the very beginning of the book, Harari put our current relationship with our mind is akin to that with nature. We didn't know what will happen if we accumulate too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or bring random foreign species to the ecosystems. Do you really know how your brain is being shaped when you are mindlessly scrolling Instagram, which is constantly updated based on machine learning (or AI) to get your attention as much as possible?
As AI keeps evolving their capacities, we have to invest more on how our mind works to figure out what human can do differently from AI. Creativity and even art might not be a safe place if it's just for evoking certain type of mood experiences (pleasant, uplifting etc), which can be mathematically analyzed by monitoring a few physiological markers.
Human has its psychological limitations and characteristics such as innate preference to simpleness and stories. As you might find as well as you read this book, it seems to me that many present problems originate from them or at least are some part of its causes. If so, we can't solve current problems just by engineering external physical worlds or creating new business for customers or keep advocating music to ear abstract stories that might be exactly so because of our own very nature which is creating problems. It might mean loss of your identity or your physiological safe place. How can we embark such a harsh journey? Maybe that's why Harari talks about meditation in the last chapter.
Anyhow, Harari is a brilliant thinker and the book is highly recommended to anyone. You might disagree some his viewpoints but I think it's perfectly ok or preferable to do so as we live in complex social worlds.
However Harari poses most important questions in the present time and explains why so with broad perspectives extending to future and past.
As a meditation practitioner, it was a surprise that the last chapter was about meditation and the author's viewpoints on this. Even though Harari makes it clear that meditation is not a solution for the problems we are facing, and I agree on that, I believe it will definitely have more roles to play in the coming years. Why? It is because we still have no idea how our mind works and be in term with it.
In the very beginning of the book, Harari put our current relationship with our mind is akin to that with nature. We didn't know what will happen if we accumulate too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or bring random foreign species to the ecosystems. Do you really know how your brain is being shaped when you are mindlessly scrolling Instagram, which is constantly updated based on machine learning (or AI) to get your attention as much as possible?
As AI keeps evolving their capacities, we have to invest more on how our mind works to figure out what human can do differently from AI. Creativity and even art might not be a safe place if it's just for evoking certain type of mood experiences (pleasant, uplifting etc), which can be mathematically analyzed by monitoring a few physiological markers.
Human has its psychological limitations and characteristics such as innate preference to simpleness and stories. As you might find as well as you read this book, it seems to me that many present problems originate from them or at least are some part of its causes. If so, we can't solve current problems just by engineering external physical worlds or creating new business for customers or keep advocating music to ear abstract stories that might be exactly so because of our own very nature which is creating problems. It might mean loss of your identity or your physiological safe place. How can we embark such a harsh journey? Maybe that's why Harari talks about meditation in the last chapter.
Anyhow, Harari is a brilliant thinker and the book is highly recommended to anyone. You might disagree some his viewpoints but I think it's perfectly ok or preferable to do so as we live in complex social worlds.
I found parts 1 and 2 mildly interesting, but I got weighed down in part 3 and gave up. I tried skipping ahead to part 4, but my TBR pile was more tempting.
informative
reflective
medium-paced