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A review by josie_owl
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
2.0
Maybe I just don't like such books, I found it not very informative.
First of, where were the lessons? Maybe I should have read his other two books first, but this one felt like an afterthought, like a collection of ideas and opinions that didn't quite make the cut for 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus'. I was expecting some profound suggestions on how to navigate the challenges of the present, but apart from 'Meditate for 2 hours each day' there was nothing of any practical use in there.
What bugged me most, though, was the writing style, but again, this might be a general problem that I have with such books. Although Harari gives extensive references to articles, books or speeches and even includes an index, for me it is not a scitific book but a bunch of opinions based on anecdotal examples for which he provides his sources. I felt like he was presenting his own wisdom as universal truths without bothering to at least define what he is talking about first. A good example is the first part of the book where he talks about 'artificial intelligence' and 'machine learning', complaining that often people (e.g. at TED talks) use those terms without explanation and the 'common people' will not be able to understand what they mean anyway. So is Harari one of us, one of the common people and doesn't understand them? Then maybe he shouldn't be talking about the dangers of AI and machine learning? Or is he one of the wise few who are able to understand what is meant by these concepts, but doesn't feel it necessray to properly explain, either? I fear the former is the case. Most of his perceived dangers of AI are so far on the horizon, that it is not even clear whether they are physically possible. Should we get scared now? If yes, I would like to propose to include the equally likely thread of an alien invasion from Mars.
To summarise: I now know that Harari is a very intelligent man who has it all figured out, unluckily he was not able to impart his wisdom on this particular common person.
First of, where were the lessons? Maybe I should have read his other two books first, but this one felt like an afterthought, like a collection of ideas and opinions that didn't quite make the cut for 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus'. I was expecting some profound suggestions on how to navigate the challenges of the present, but apart from 'Meditate for 2 hours each day' there was nothing of any practical use in there.
What bugged me most, though, was the writing style, but again, this might be a general problem that I have with such books. Although Harari gives extensive references to articles, books or speeches and even includes an index, for me it is not a scitific book but a bunch of opinions based on anecdotal examples for which he provides his sources. I felt like he was presenting his own wisdom as universal truths without bothering to at least define what he is talking about first. A good example is the first part of the book where he talks about 'artificial intelligence' and 'machine learning', complaining that often people (e.g. at TED talks) use those terms without explanation and the 'common people' will not be able to understand what they mean anyway. So is Harari one of us, one of the common people and doesn't understand them? Then maybe he shouldn't be talking about the dangers of AI and machine learning? Or is he one of the wise few who are able to understand what is meant by these concepts, but doesn't feel it necessray to properly explain, either? I fear the former is the case. Most of his perceived dangers of AI are so far on the horizon, that it is not even clear whether they are physically possible. Should we get scared now? If yes, I would like to propose to include the equally likely thread of an alien invasion from Mars.
To summarise: I now know that Harari is a very intelligent man who has it all figured out, unluckily he was not able to impart his wisdom on this particular common person.