Summary: Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

I read the book and bought this summary after a good discussion for a friend that does not like to read,

One of the best books I've ever read!

So this is just a summary and I’m glad I read this first. The author seems entrenched with postmodernism by calling all our institutions a work of fiction. And he seems infatuated with Buddhism. It gave me a good understanding of modern scientific findings of our species. I haven’t been in school for two decades so a lot has changed. I agree that there will be a lot of changes that might make us all a-mortal, which means we can’t die from natural causes.

I finished it today and have some thoughts. He pretty well has what actually happened down pat in relation as to the future of lands and other living creatures when homo sapiens appeared on the scene. We did pretty well sweep everything clean in our attempt to make the place to sustain us and promote what we were looking for in comfort and security. We are the bad guys.He did not mention the world being overpopulated or how science will help or even offer resolution of the problem when we have standing room in the fields where our food is produced..Everything dies. Cattle,chickens and all things in the ocean with the exception of one sea creature,which I believe to be a squid, that regenerates itself. In the wild, animals die a violent death with few exceptions so our using animals for food or elimination for our safety does not wash. With our overpopulating the earth the idea of engineering foodstuffs for our use is required. He failed to mention overpopulation.This is our biggest mistake ,but religion takes precedence. What will we do when we are standing room only in our fields on top of our engineered crops?Happiness resides within ,and that is controlled by the mind of the person.Buddha and many others have found this peace but the world will never be a Shangri La until the majority of people find this state of mind. It will not come at the direction of others,only the one who experiences the illumination and that one will not have the language to describe it.

I've always been a bit skeptical of unauthorized summaries (i believe this one is unauthorized) not because of any ethical debate but more so because of the quality. However I found this summary very well polished and did exactly what it advertised. It summarized the whole Sapiens book and included the main learning points in each chapter. I thought the 30 day plan was a bit of a stretch (how was I going to include these historic points to better my life?) but to my surprise it was well crafted and also put me to think. Hence, my five star rating. I'll be looking to see if other summaries by ExecutiveGrowth have the same level of quality but so far I'm pleased.

There's an immense amount of hidden gems in this summary. I am going to buy the full book soon but by the looks of it the summary did a great job summarizing each chapter and bringing to life the major discussion points. I like the structure of the book, breaking down our history in three major revolutions (the cognitive, agricultural and the scientific) each advancing our race in very particular ways. I like the main thesis, that our evolution as a human species is predicated on our evolution of ideas rather than our biological evolution (which has more or less stagnated while our ideas are in constant evolution and dispute).

To the author of the book, I would have used this book as the main textbook for my World History and mostly my Sociology classes. Easy to read and the concepts are simple enough to understand. Upon completing this book, I purchased the other two the author has written. I highly recommend “ 21Questions for the 21st Century” as the next book of his to read

On transAtlantic flights I usually take one book that I never get to read and just watch movies. And now I was finally able to finish a whole book on the flight and still watch two movies. Even though it was a summary it still felt great to finish a whole book and I learned a lot that I wouldn't otherwise have. I will be looking for other books by Executive Growth for any future flights.