Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Bellissimo libro pieno di spunti interessanti che fanno riflettere sul sapiens 9

Fascinating. I enjoyed reading this. It is interesting and even has a touch of humor.

This books is mandatory read.

This book is EXACTLY what I was looking for – a brief synopsis of humankind and how today's world came into being. I found myself increasingly engrossed in our story as I read, and it's concepts could be more directly applied to present society.

A must read for anyone looking for a fundamental understanding around history, economics, politics or the meaning of life.

Good informations are given and serious reflexions are made about humans and other living beings.

This book is an impressive tome, but it's also clearly biased in favor of a particular political view. I suppose it isn't possible for a human to write wholly without bias, but I found it distracting. The narrator sounded disgusted and dismayed while reading the bits that blame a reliance on government for the decay of the extended family and local communities.

Так я не люблю хвалить книги, которые и без меня все хвалят, но штош. Я еще не дочитал, осталось процентов 10, но книга действительно классная. Одна из лучших книг жанра нон-фикшен. В основном написано про историю и экономику. Я вижу ее как книгу, которая объясняет почему мы стали такими, какими стали.

Во время прочтения сам задаешься многими вопросами, что мне нравится в чтении книг. Это весьма ценно. На старости лет стал замечать, что думать о каких-то вещах приходится много, потому что непонятно как решить эти вопросы. По большей части в духе «Что делать?» и не имеющие нормального решения.

Воды практически нет, процентов 5 — не более того. И не смотря на большой объем, по сути не требует иллюстраций. Написано все о вещах, которые каждый себе может представить. Что делает книгу доступной для любого человека с высшим образованием.

Лет через 5-10 можно будет перечитать.

I was expecting something more from this book. I don't know exactly what but I was expecting more.

This one took me a while to read because Jacob and I started as a “read out loud on road trips” book, but I ended up finishing it solo. I also feel a weird and complicated attachment to it, because my dad read almost exclusively non-fiction, and this was the next book on his reading list when he died. Anyway! I loved the first half of the book much more than the second, completely related to content. Hariri summarizes the origins of humanity in sweeping early chapters that feel dazzling, the way you want the best intro courses in college to feel. He excels at synthesizing huge swaths of information punctuated by witty asides, and it's just a fun read. The second half of the book, especially the fourth part, however, has chapters on science and empire, capitalism, industry, etc., and thus the tour continues with the various ways we have more recently exploited each other, other animals, and the earth itself at a scale never before seen. I took some solace in Hariri's obvious distaste for the current situation: the book ends with the question, “Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?” I sometimes hear people talk about the challenges humanity faces now as just another iteration of the challenges humanity has always faced. If there's anything Sapiens makes clear, however, it's that our ability to wreak havoc quickly is unprecedented in our history, and our now-vastly-interconnected species means that such havoc can spin out exponentially quickly, likely far faster than our ability to reverse course (ahem see climate change and nuclear war). I think the importance of reflecting on this reality is more important than whether I “liked” the book.

A little late to the party here but it still holds up. A very strong start and interesting insight into early human and societal developments which unfortunately wanes in the final chapters as the target shifts to the present and future. While the conjecture of historical evidence provided interesting insight and opinion I found this to be slightly overbearing to the actual points being made.
Overall still a strong recommendation, “If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going.”

Makes a few of fatphobic, classist and lowkey racist remarks in some places and smart, interesting notations on history in others. Made it a rollercoaster of a read. Also failed to recognize the israeli/british invasion of palestine. And completely ignores immigration and refuges in his analysis of peace. Also completely ignores the threat of climate change. These deliberately ignored subjects would give a more naunced take on his conclusions about the modern world.

Binlerce yıllık dünya tarihini bilimsel veriler ışığında sürükleyici bir roman gibi okuyabileceğimi düşünemezdim. İnsanlığın değişimini anlatan, ülkelerin oluşumuna ve tarihine uzaktan bakan, çok şey öğreten, sık sık ‘Peki sonra ne olmuş?' dedirten, elimden düşmeyen, bitince ikincisini (Homo Deus) ve üçüncüsünü (21. Yüzyıl için 21 Ders) isteten, oldukça severek okuduğum bir kitaptı.

My rating is 3.5 ⭐. I had quite a few disagreements with Harari's opinion which was written here. Also sometimes I didn't understand which party is supported by Harari because of his confusing lines and just like he mentioned that it is not always possible to consider them purely good or bad.
Despite all of these I have to say that this book made me think about many instances more deeply? More like with a different perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed binging it. I also found some books that were at Harari's footnotes to be very interesting (more books on my tbr.. yay). I would love to reread the parts I've enjoyed especially the polytheism and the ethics of AI part

This book was left unopened on my shelf until now because someone told me it was a dry read. I HAVE BEEN LIED TO.

This is easily one of the best non-fiction I've ever read and it's a must-read for all homo-sapiens.

I always believed, knowing my history is knowing myself. Knowing my cultural history has helped me understand my social and cultural conditioning and helped me channel it or break out of it. This book does just that for all us humans as a collective. Knowing our collective history helps us zoom out and understand how myths and collective imagination bond us together to this day.

There were so many “how did I not think of that” moments. I can't recommend this book enough.

A must read! It is a heavy read but I assure you it is worth it. It will answer the questions about the history of humans you didn't even know you had.

Finally done with this one and all I can say is Brilliant!

Yuval Harari has become my favourite contemporary intellectual. I read Sapiens, listened to him in interviews and podcasts and I was a little afraid in being disappointed by his second book. It did not happen. The book has the same matter of fact tone as Sapiens, makes you think to myriad of aspects of contemporary life that I didn't necessarily consider, at least not explicitly and it is entertaining. The only issue I experienced is that, sometimes, the concepts are presented a little too fast for me to retain them. Maybe I should have taken notes, but it would have removed some enjoyment from the experience.

Stopped about halfway...

Contains some quite interesting thoughts. The approach author uses to illustrate his points IS IRRITATINGLY unprofessional. But since this book is not a textbook... so probably i shouldn't complain.

It's an interesting subject, but I'll admit, I found the book a grind. I persisted, on and off.
There's plenty to reflect on.

Somewhere between a 4 and a 5. I think I got a bit bored partway through, and it took me a couple of months to come back and finish it off. Most interesting part for me was how a lot of things in human society are imaginary (like money, the concept of a company, etc) but we all buy into them being real, and so that's what makes it “real”.

I feel like this book should be a required reading for every high school student – it humbles readers by presenting a captivating summary of the origins of our own species, explores how society has changed and evolved throughout millennia, and provides some excellent food for thought regarding the origins of readers' own beliefs and the many social constructs, from human rights to religion to economics, that are widely ingrained in our collective culture.

Definitely my new favorite book, rivaling the Design of Everyday Things, Garbology, and Creativity Inc.

This was recommended to me by guitar maker Rosie Heydenrych of Turnstone Guitars. She and her husband Karl both spoke very highly of this book, so I added it to my queue. I'm glad I did. I enjoyed every minute of it.

A history book with a huge task at hand: to explain most of humankind's history in less than 500 pages. I've read some reviews that point out some things either left out or not particularly accurate, and while that can surely detract the impact of the book, I believe it accomplishes what it intends, which is to give a general idea of where we come from and how our modern world was formed. 

It gave me a sense of understanding in a greater scale aspects of humanity and humanity itself and I value that a lot. I would consider going deeper in those areas that caught my attention to get a bigger angle on them, but in way shape or form takes away from this book in my opinion.

An international bestseller, hitting a lot of areas I'm interested in. I should have guessed this is going to be a disappointment.When it goes into details, it's often slightly wrong. When it goes into broad overviews, it repeats itself over and over, like a university teacher, trying to make sure his distracted students remember what he says. And when it starts to predict the future, oh damn, then it really shows the author does not read any decent futurologists or sci-fi authors.Looking for a broad strokes history? Read [b: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies 1842 Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies Jared Diamond https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453215833l/1842.SY75.jpg 2138852]Looking for an overview of how money and credit shaped human societies? Read [b: Debt: The First 5,000 Years 6617037 Debt The First 5,000 Years David Graeber https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390408633l/6617037.SY75.jpg 6811142]Looking for speculation on how technological changes feed and reinforce cultural and psychological changes? Read [a: Peter Watts 27167 Peter Watts https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] or [a: William Gibson 9226 William Gibson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg] or [a: Jacek Dukaj 681591 Jacek Dukaj https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254912251p2/681591.jpg] or [a: Charles Stross 8794 Charles Stross https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1355510574p2/8794.jpg]...