List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
I wish I was more spare with the five star ratings on my Goodreads profile. It would certainly help me now in narrowing down the books that have had an impact on me. When I went there, I saw that my average rating is 4.29. If anything, it shows that I mostly read the books I knew beforehand I would like. But I managed to find three books that definitely deserve their five stars. To keep it simple, they are from the same author, Yuval Noah Harari.
Each one of them left me with that feeling of awe during and after reading them. It’s that kind of study that changes your perspective in an irreversible way. I saw the world in an entirely different manner after that.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
This book is simply brilliant. At each turn of page I learned something new. And understood the world better. Not only the world, but the human race itself.
One of the greatest takeaways was the concept of how we humans create myths. We tell stories to ourselves so that we can cooperate with each other. We normally think about traditional myths. These are like the feats of heroes of old. They give identity to a family, an ethnic group, or a nation. But what about the modern myths? Things like money, corporations, and countries are concepts we have agreed they exist. However, they exist only in our collective minds. They don’t exist in nature. We invented those because it’s easier for us to get things done through them.
It’s a little bit scary when we realize that. Everything that we work for is in our imagination only. What happens when those concepts loose their appeal? We have seen that happening before. Empires fall, monarchs are decapitated, societies are restructured. That happened in the past, that will happen again.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Not overstating it, another brilliant book. Sapiens was a look at the past. It explored how and why we got where we are. Homo Deus is a look at the future. It’s scary, but it’s also fascinating.
We are treading on uncharted territory here, we are experimenting with the climate, with evolution, with medicines. Until now we had natural disasters controlling the pace humanity proliferated. Famine, plagues, wars are being eradicated from the face of the earth. What will happen with the future of humanity? Are we going to change the rules of evolution? What will life be like in a world where algorithms take decisions? Are we going to get close to immortality? Are we going to become our own gods? Or will technology take that place?
Harari doesn’t predict doom—but he does ask hard questions, and he doesn’t let you off the hook.
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Last, but not least, another gem by Dr. Harari.
If the first two books are about where we came from and where we might be going, 21 Lessons is about where we are right now. It’s more grounded, more urgent. Harari tackles everything from fake news to terrorism, artificial intelligence to meditation.
What I love about this book is its clarity. Notably, it doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, but it insists that we ask better questions. It taught me to be more conscious about the information I consume. It also taught me to be aware of how I react to the chaos of the present. If Sapiens made me humble and Homo Deus made me wary, 21 Lessons made me attentive.
Have you read any of them? Do you agree with me in giving them five stars, or are you more critical than I am? I’d love to have your opinion and start a discussion on any of the topics covered on these three books. They undeniably changed the way I see the world.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.