Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Life is tough, but I'd say life now is much better than being a hunter gatherer. Slaving away at a mundane, low-paying job could be seen as a personal hell, but self awareness is possible with some luck. Harari talks about a modern Chinese citizen working at a sweatshop, and compares it to life as a hunter gatherer, saying that the hunter gatherer's life is more fulfilling. How would it be possible to know how that life is better without having the perspective that we do now as a modern society? I mean, I'm typing this as a citizen in one of the most powerful and prosperous nations to ever exist, and I can thank my farming ancestors for allowing me to do this. “We didn't domesticate wheat, wheat domesticated us.”

I liked the first chapters of the book and the ideas of our development as the top dog, but it just felt so redundant and preachy toward the end. It didn't feel super insightful and as I kept reading I only felt like I wanted to read more in depth works (which is a good thing the book has brought me). It didn't feel like there were any new ideas and it felt very watered down. I guess what can I expect from a 400 page book on all of human history.

I feel like the last section could be summed:“Capitalism and imperialism bad, but without it there are no scientific improvements”. He teeters back and forth between if we are really happy in our day and age or not, constantly retracting his main thesis of our revolutions being bad for the individual human. I agree that we are more complicated individually, but I believe that we can have a more fulfilling life if we so choose.

Overall, it was a good book to refresh my memory about parts of human history and why we are the way we are currently. It's always good to think about our species objectively as I don't think we get enough of that day to day when we're constantly in our bubbles and stuck in our stimulation loops. Hunter gatherers couldn't afford to lay in bed for 6 hours doom scrolling on instagram shorts...