Sapiens

An interesting and thought-provoking work on the history and possible future of humanity. The scholarship is broad, which makes me (perhaps unfairly) skeptical of its depth. Sapiens covers a number of complex topics in an accessible way, so I assume some tiny percentage of what I learned from this book is misinformation.

Lots to think about... I loved some of it, and many of the ideas presented made me question my outlook of the world! He also, however, threw a few curved balls, and let myth sit as fact in places. One of my favourite stories from the book, the one about Buzz Aldrin and the Native American, looks to be a myth for example. Other sections just didn't come to much (the chapter on gender for example, although it was written 2011 and these debates develop quickly). It is interesting to see how the book has aged... sometimes well, sometimes not so much. Overall worth the read, and helpful for reflecting on these things.

This books tries to talk about everything but ends up talking about nothing.

It takes the sweetest bits, the sensational bits, from the most popular disciplines, smash them together to make a very provocative and fascinating book. Going through chapter after chapter felt like brainlessly scrolling through TikTok style videos, the obnoxious particular kind that start with the phrase "Did you knogw that...".

I think that Harari wanted to be impersonal while expounding his favourite scientific facts, nonetheless I found him to be tendentious and biased, even if only in a small number of occasions, particularly when adding to the fact.

Was an excellent book except for the part about the agricultural revolution

Nice historical factoids, then a head-scratching over-simplification, followed by an assumption, etc. Sometimes felt like reading a puffed-up Wikipedia article.

It's very convincing and I really appreciate the ideas and perspective on religion especially. I learned long after reading it about the complete disregard for evidence and accuracy.

Bon llibre que fa un repàs, evidentment succint, a la història de la humanitat des de l'inici fins, més o menys, ara, des d'un punt de vista molt crític al capitalisme, al liberalisme i a la forma de gestionar-ho tot que tenim els humans en general. Una molt bona, a estones densa, lectura.

Sapiens (2011, Harper) 4 stars

(Audiobook) I already knew a lot of the content but I enjoy having it from a new perspective with a variety of new anecdotes. At some points I distinctly felt like the author's biases were coming through--in fact at some points I really questioned his ideas--but otherwise an enjoyable and informative book.