Book Review

Book Review: Sapiens

/ J.K. / 3 Comments

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Harari

My Rating – Put it on your list

Level – His style makes it moderate, but the book covers topics like biology, physics, philosophy, anthropology, economics, and of course, history. So, not everyone will be able to jump right into this book. Fairly long at almost 500 pages.

Summary
Harari splits the book into four parts (total of 20 chapters), The Cognitive Revolution, The Agricultural Revolution, The Unification of History, and The Scientific Revolution. You could also see this book as two books. The first two parts deal with the developmental historic and biological evolution of humans. The last two parts, deals more with philosophy, religion, end economics.

The first two parts are exactly what they sound like. Who were the Sapiens, and how many species were there? Why did we, homo, become dominant? Our cognition, broadly speaking, is the answer. He gets a little philosophical on wondering whether the agricultural revolution was  good thing. He is fairly critical, wondering if we would have been better off as hunter-gatherers.

The third, was the most fascinating. In ‘unification’ he means how cultural forces tied as together as a species. He points to money, empires, and religion as the greatest reasons. For pure learning/knowledge of society the two chapters on money and religion are probably the greatest in the book.

The final section is party what it seems, what has changed since the scientific revolutions, but Harari also offers great insight into science replacing religion, economics (especially capitalism), the industrial revolution and an interesting look into the future. Parts of this section were difficult to read, especially as he discusses human actions (like genocide) through the lenses of biology and evolution. He wraps up with a look at the future and the advancement of medicine. The implications of current advancements and the possibility of true immortality leads to great points on the philosophical issues of no death, and whom could attain it.

My Thoughts
I’m a pretty big history nerd and find pre-recorded history especially fascinating. What happened to spark the cognitive revolution 50,000 years ago or the agricultural one 10,000 years ago is extremely intriguing from a historical, religious, and biological standpoint. If you are in any way like this, this book is a must read for you.

As for the last two parts, if you are an economics or recent history nerd, this is also a must read. Particularly of interest is his definitions of money and religion. It’s a great over view of the basic economics of money. Even looking at the physical aspects of not having to carry wheat to pay for things, or having to know the value in weight of all commodities. Some people will probably not agree with his definitions of religion, but they are quite good from a sociological standpoint.

The last half of the book should bother a number of people. For the more conservative groups who may read it for the history and economics insights, his discussions of the problems of capitalism and the industrial revolutions may anger them. Likewise, liberals who cheer on those parts will likely disagree with the assessment that liberalism is, in fact, a religion. They may find it especially repulsive that he as he describes the world through purely secular and biological reasoning, he inevitably concludes that there is no universal truth.

With no universal truth, he argues, we can’t state for a fact that things like the Holocaust are wrong. He points out that there is no right and wrong in biology. Our goal is to perpetuate the species, whether or not it is better for us. He discusses evolutionary examples that are not the best winning out. Natural selection is misunderstood as the propagation of the best attributes, but this is simply not true. I’ve heard this type of thinking, especially the Holocaust example, from Christians before. Typically, I dismiss it as something taught in academically weak fundamentalist apologetic schools. It was startling to read it so blatantly stated, and even proved to be correct.

His writing is great and though the material could be a text book, it is written in a wonderful, almost narrative fashion. If either of the two broader section of the book are things that interest you, this is a must read. However, due to the depth and breadth of this book, I’ll put it as something to put on your list, if the topic are of interest to you, or if you are interesting in learning. The amount you will learn from this book is fairly astounding. For that reason alone, it would be helpful for many people to read.

Book Review – Thinking, Fast and Slow

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Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

My Rating – Put it on your list

Level – moderate to difficult read, it is well written but some of the concept are tough, fairly long, but ready a little quicker then the 400+ pages

Summary
Broadly speaking, this book is about thinking. More specifically, the two systems (fast and slow), basically how you suck at thinking, and finally ‘the two selves.’ Technically, the book is broken up into five parts – two systems, heuristics & biases, overconfidence, choices, and finally the two selves.

Page 20 starts off his quick definitions of the two systems. System 1 is automatic and works quickly with little to no effort. System 2 ‘allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it’ and this usually requires concentration and can be interrupted and disrupted.

The middle three sections could possibly be rearranged but essentially include research biases, design, and problems (fallacies, sample size issues, etc.). This part of the book will blow your mind. It is unbelievable some of the things that affect research, especially anchoring. It should make you terrified to ever go before a judge.

Finally, the two selves. This is basically the self that exists (or existed, experienced something) and the ‘remembering’ self, not necessarily what happened, but what you remember happening. The implications of these two differing selves have far reaching affects. As an example, researchers had two groups of people that underwent a procedure. One group experienced the procedure and long with a high peak of pain, and then slowly fading out. The other group had a shorter experience, but didn’t fade as much, but also didn’t peak as much.

The participants rated pain levels during the event. Later, researchers asked the participants about their experience. Whom had the worse experience? Well, plot twist, it was the shorter one with the lower peak pain. Why? Because all anyone remembered was the end. The ones in pain at the end, rating their procedure as worse than those whom had the longer more painful one. Those participants rated their experience as not that bad, as all they remember is the end, which was just some amount of discomfort, instead of pain.

My Thoughts
This book is crazy. There are so many mind bending things that you will reread some sections over and over again. Some thing you just will not believe. It confirms our worst fears, we really aren’t as smart as we think. We are incredibly susceptible to leading. Subliminal messages and marketing have a much, much greater impact than we think.

Even while reading it, I wanted to think of myself as smarter. Especially the sections about coin tosses and chance. As an experienced gambler, I knew most of these things, especially if you are familiar with probably and things like ‘pot odds’. However, I’m not, as clearly showed in later examples. It is unbelievable how open to suggestion your mind is. We like to all think we are special, unique, and different, however we all fall for the same thing.

If you are looking for a book to challenge your way of thinking, put this on your list. You’ll find yourself arguing with the author, even as he argues with himself, and even as you see the clear evidence. You can learn a great from this book, especially as it related to major life decisions. Additionally, Kahneman is a great writer. I found myself jealous at various points as his summaries of complex research can read almost as easy as a novel. He is also a Nobel Laureate and if you know anything about Richard Thalor (whom makes an appearance) or behavioral economics, this book is for you.

 

Book Review: Trout Bum

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Trout Bum – John Gierach

My Rating – Put it on the list (if you are a fishermen; if not, pass)

Level – Short, easy, requires some familiarity with fly fishing.

Summary
It is hard to summarize this book. Basically it’s just a guy writing a few short essays/stories, roughly grouped together in broad categories. It is a pre-internet blog, edited and published, roughly 30 years ago. Categories include things like: Bass Pond, Fly Collection, Cane Rods, Adams Hatch, etc.

My Thoughts
Gierach is an entertaining writer, who tells good stories and does so humorously. As a writer, he is essentially a full time fisherman/fly-tier and therefor seemingly has more good stories than I feel I will have in a lifetime. Anyone who has spent at least a moderate amount of time fly-fishing will enjoy this book, especially as he gives the types of people to avoid a fishing trip with or how to make the best camp coffee. If you’ve never fished or don’t intend to again, I’m not sure why you bought this book, but I doubt you’ll like it. Any other fishermen, fly-tiers, maybe even just people who great enjoy the outdoors and like well written, funny stories, this is a book you should put on your list.

Book Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

My Rating – If You Are Looking for Something

Level – Quick, easy read

Summary
Arthur Dent is trying to stop bulldozers from demolishing his house when his friend Ford Perfect stops by and convinces him to go to the pub instead. Perfect then finds out that the entire planet Earth is about to be destroyed. Turns out Perfect is a writer for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. This means he was able to save them two of them by catching a lift before the planet was destroyed. They then begin a journey of mishaps and characters, including the Galaxy President.

My Thoughts
This book is extremely popular, but I just couldn’t get quite into it. It is the opening book of a series, but I doubt I will continue on. Adams style is fast paced and laced with jokes and puns. It is entertaining enough, something just didn’t sit right with me. It’s gets a little trippy there towards the end, which belies it’s conception in the late 70s.

As a city planner, I did appreciate the first bulldozer crew telling Dent that there had been a meeting, he must have just missed it, that decided to demolish his home for a highway. The once on board the spaceship, Dent and Perfect are told that Earth is being destroyed for a highway and that there was a meeting they must have missed.

Also, all I could picture for Zaphod Beeblebrox was Zapp Brannigen. So much so that I assumed maybe the latter was based on the former, but apparently not. Perhaps that made it a little more entertaining for me. I’d say if you are looking for something to read, maybe on the beach for at the airport/on the plane, this is probably a good choice. It is short, simple and kind of goofy, and if you end up liking it more than I did, you can look forward to four or five more books.