Sapiens
SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND
Author: Yuval Noah Harari, PhD
My Rating: 7.5/10
Length: 464 Pages
Description
From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?
Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.
Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?
The Book In 3 Sentences
Humans became the dominant species we currently are because of our ability to communicate stories and generate myths.
Unlike other powerful empires that conquered nations to acquire power and wealth, Europe conquered nations to gain knowledge. This enabled Europe to know other nations’ behavior, cultures, weak points, and strengths hence making it easy to colonize them.
Scientific knowledge came into existence when human beings accepted that they knew nothing. This willingness to accept ignorance resulted in humans looking for new knowledge through observations and experiments hence resulting in the birth of science.
Who Should Read It?
There’s a reason both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have Sapiens on their reading lists. It dives into the history of humans, how we got to where we are today, and our future. It the most engrossing history book you’ll ever read.
Anyone who has ever wondered why humans have managed to dominate the planet will enjoy this scientific account of human history.
I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in where humanity has been, came to be, and where it’s going.
How The Book Changed Me
Overall, Sapiens was a welcomed break from reading personal development and strategy books recommended by business moguls and influencers.
It's not often we stop to think about why babies can't fend for themselves (Harari says because we are born prematurely because women's hips started narrowing after humans started walking upright) or why humans binge-eat (he says because our forager forefathers were taught to eat as much as possible, whenever possible).
I also never really stopped to consider why so many of us choose to wear denim jeans (Harari writes that it's society's way of silently promoting equality, since they're worn by rich and poor alike).
Reading Sapiens felt like I was back in a college anthropology class, questioning the fundamentals of a global society.
Why do I give value to this paper dollar in my pocket? What is progress? What is happiness?
The book answers the “why” to almost every “how” we have ended up with as humans.
My Top 3 Quotes
“So why study history? Unlike physics of economics, history is not a means for making accurate predictions. We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.” - Yuval Noah Harari, PhD, Sapiens
“Like the elite of ancient Egypt, most people in most cultures dedicate their lives to building pyramids. Only the names, shapes and sizes of these pyramids change from one culture to the other. They may take the form, for example, of a suburban cottage with a swimming pool and an evergreen lawn, or a gleaming penthouse with an enviable view. Few question the myths that cause us to desire the pyramid in the first place.” - Yuval Noah Harari, PhD, Sapiens
“The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return. The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud.” - Yuval Noah Harari, PhD, Sapiens
Best Big Ideas
Please Note: The following is a collection of highlights taken straight from the book and online resources. Most of them are direct quotes. Some are paraphrases. Very few are my own words.
Humans Are Powerful Because We Can Tell Stories
If there's one major takeaway from Sapiens, it's that humans became the dominant species we are today because of our ability to create myths and tell stories.
But if we create myths and tell stories, we can form connections with people outside of our core group because we have a shared interest or knowledge in something, and trust can be formed.
No other animals can band together by the millions because no other animals can tell stories.
This is how nation-states were built and world religions were formed. It is also why people believe in economies and a paper money system. We tell stories, give value to things, and fight (often literally) to keep those traditions alive.
Trade Cannot Exist Without Trust
Trade exists because we trust our money, banks, and companies.
We trust that companies will deliver the products we want if we deposit money in their bank accounts, and companies trust the banks in which we deposit our money.
Besides modern trade, ancient trade existed because traders trusted each other. All traders believed that other traders had good intentions and for this reason, they went to market centers to trade with them.
Why People Eat Too Much High-Calorie Foods
Today, we wonder why we love high-calorie foods despite knowing that they are harmful to our health. Yuval Harari reveals in Sapiens that we do so because human beings were wired to eat large quantities of high-calorie foods since these foods were scarce in the ancient world.
In Sapiens, he provides an example of an ancient woman who stumbles upon a tree full of figs and consumes as many figs as possible because she knows that she might not eat a single fig if a troop of baboons finds the tree.
The Pursuit of An Easier Life Always Results in Hardships
Human beings experienced many hardships when they left a nomadic life for an ‘easy’ agricultural life. Agricultural life resulted in the spread of many diseases due to man’s closeness with animals.
Besides this, agricultural life increased child mortality because it resulted in overpopulation.
Similarly, many people today take demanding jobs with high salaries believing that they’ll have an easy life because they’ll save, invest and retire in their mid-30s.
However, by the time they are 30, they realize that they can’t leave their jobs because they have a family, a $100,000 mortgage, and a car to fuel. For this reason, they continue slaving away.
Most of us Think in a Way that was Forced upon Our Ancestors
Today, many people across the world believe in principles such as human rights, nationalism, and liberalism because these ideas were forced upon their ancestors during colonialism.
These ideas are not necessarily right because they came from people who imagined them and forced them upon our great-grandparents for the purpose of creating a structured culture.
The Importance of Studying History
Studying history enables us to realize that the world’s present situation was avoidable and man-made.
For instance, studying colonization enables us to realize that the current situation in Africa was man-made and avoidable. This situation could have been different if colonization could not have taken place.
The Value of Admitting That You Don’t Know
If you admit that you don’t know about a particular topic, you’ll gain new knowledge because you’ll have to research and think deeply about the topic.
Scientific knowledge came into existence when human beings accepted that they knew nothing. This willingness to accept ignorance resulted in humans looking for new knowledge through observations and experiments hence resulting in the birth of science.
Knowledge Enabled Europe to Colonize the Whole World
Unlike other powerful empires which conquered nations to acquire power and wealth, Europe conquered nations to gain knowledge. For instance, when Napoleon went to conquer Egypt, he took hundreds of researchers to study Egypt and its people.
Besides this, when Britain conquered India it studied India’s military, and its culture hence making it easy to colonize Indians because it knew all their weaknesses and strengths.
Therefore, gathering knowledge about other nations enabled Europe to know their behavior, cultures, weak points, and strengths hence making it easy to colonize them.
Were Early Humans Actually Happier Than We Are Today?
Harari's 200,000-year history exploration of humankind in Sapiens comes down to the main question of whether our progression as a species has made us any happier in the end. Back to the hunter-gather example — foragers worked fewer hours and lived in less isolation, spending more time with close friends and family
Harari thinks that just because human capabilities have increased, we shouldn't necessarily be happier as a species.
Instead, he writes that “happiness does not really depend on objective conditions of wealth, health or even community. Rather, it depends on the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations.”
