Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

- Lost Connections by Johann Hari (Life, Overcome depression) - 1946: The Making of the Modern World : Sebestyen, Victor (History, WWII) - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

If you like sapiens, try "Unstoppable Us." It's a kids book but it's surprising how insightful it is. Yuval Noah Harari is a great communicator. I wish there was someone like him for every subject under the sun.

“Sapiens” read it twice, wish I could go back in time and give it to 18yr old me. “The Dosadi Experiment”, probably 5 life-changing concepts just tossed in for flavor. “A Pattern Language” on how spaces inform life and life informs spaces.

In general the Incerto series by Nassim Taleb (Black Swan, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game) was worth it. The Selfish Gene, System thinking A primer, I am a strange loop, Sapiens are some books that I read recently that had a lasting impression.

I'd say so. I didn't dislike Sapiens, but found The Dawn of Everything to be deeper in many ways.

Grendel by Gardner (so playful and creative), Jane Eyre (a classic with wonderful language and intense story), Sapiens (extraordinarily interesting survey of human history)

Sapiens

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

I’d like to say - Factfulness or - Sapiens or - Richard Feynman’s various writings …but the most measurable impact was probably from something like - “Strunk and white The Elements of Style” or - “How to win friends and influence people” or - “Oh! Pascal!” Or - “the dictionary” or - some specific bus timetable that enabled a pivotal moment in my life

Not just religion but maybe Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

An excellent gauge for how good a book is can be found in how many times you catch yourself thinking back on it even after some time has passed. Through this, my favorite this entire year is The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank's diary). Without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read, just through how supremely human it is. Other books are: -The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson -Sapiens by Yuval Yuval Noah Harari -21 Lessons for the 21st Century -Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feyn man!: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman -Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson -Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is an obvious recommendation. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell will ruin fiction for you, from the classic myth up to modern storytelling.

This book is a bit like Guns, Germs and Steel or Sapiens. Very popular, very quotable, but tends to give the false impression that the theory contained within is uncontroversially correct.

I like to read a wide variety of genre from fiction to human psychology. For the mind: Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg - A great book on how to communcate more effectively with others. Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman -He is the only psychologist ever to recieve the Nobel Prize if I remember correctly. This book scientifically digests human biases and errors and how they influence our every day lives and decision making. Sometimes it a bit too technical for my taste and I like mostly the first part. (its not an easy read) I rarely had so many Aha-moments. A random walk down on wall street - For investing your income in stocks. What to do and what no to do. Simple, with facts. Sapiens by Harari -Interesting, I remember it was a great read and fun read. Connecting a lot of dots :) On programming: Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann - I am failry a junior web dev, so any material that is clear and explains well is a great source of information and inspiration. This is such a book.…

The following have all had a significant effect on my worldview. You can find more information at [1]. - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany - Thinking, Fast and Slow - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Crime and Punishment - The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity - Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - Franny and Zooey - Master of the Senate - Atlas Shrugged - Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed - Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics - The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't - Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones - Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow…

> why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. If that's the question you're after, you'd probably enjoy The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, and some parts of Sapiens by Harari, both of which approach this question from outside of religion (while I'd argue that reading the books on your list approach it much differently).

Seconded. This is the book I read in my thirties where I thought. “Damn, I wish I’d read this when I was 18”

Buy "Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari.

Thank you for sharing a counterpoint. IMO this act of skepticism is the most important trait of the HN culture. That being said, I read through the counterpoint article and found it pretty hollow. In fact it seems to strengthen my belief that Sapiens is a valuable book. I kept expecting the author to point out where Harari’s assertions were wrong, but each section more or less boiled down to Harari is either not funny or not clever. The author even contradicts his article’s own thesis partway through: “Nonetheless, his version of human history involves moral judgments that suggest he is not so thoroughly reductionist, or as cynical about the human condition, as he appears to be at first glance.“ +1 for Harari

- Sapiens - Thinking in Systems

Try "Sapiens: A brief history of human kind". It teaches you about human history and more important, how we get there. Sometimes the author gets smart, seems like he doesn't believe in anything and human are bad for this planet. But it's worth it. Bill Gates recommended the book too.

I'm reading Sapiens right now. I wouldn't say "mind blown" as I was at least a little familiar with a lot of it before, but the way that Harari writes really makes you think about things differently. Here are a couple of other books that have been pretty influential for me: Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis

Enlightenment Now - Steven Pinker (Also Sapiens :) Range - David Epstein

- Sapiens - The Lord of the Rings - Siddhartha - Chaos: Making a New Science - The Death Gate cycle books - Neuromancer - Head First Design Patterns - Valis - Dune - The name of the rose I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones off the top of my head.

- Sapiens - Richard Dawkin's books

> The most powerful lesson I learned here is what anthropologists call cultural relativism. This book also taught me that everyone is under the influence of Mother Culture and her stories. I think internalizing this can help a lot with understanding other people, building self awareness, understanding politics in general, and also history in general. Apart from that this appears to be the purpose of history, Sapiens contributed to that for me. However, it is clearly non-fiction.

Fantastic list, and thanks for the links. Personally, I would put "Sapiens - A brief History of Humankind"[0] in the list rather than it's successor "21 Lessons for the 21st Century". While some people have some gripes about The 48 Laws of Power and Robert Greene's other books, in my opinion, they serve as a really valuable tool for understanding how most medium and large companies work. And for anyone interested, a great way to dip your toes into it is by having a look at Derek Sivers' book notes - https://sivers.org/book/48LawsOfPower [0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari... (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0099590085)

* Information: A history, a theory, a flood - James Gleick * Sapiens - Yuval Harari * Thinking, fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman * Power of Habit - Charles Duhig

I really need to pick up Solaris. I felt like Sapiens rewired my brain in a way. Homo Deus only drove in the message that we are nothing but algorithms

Both sapiens and The art of happiness were great books I've read. Sapiens made history very interesting, I loved the idea behind our species being able to believe in the concept of a Created Myth( capitalism , companies, money, socialism, religion) as the main thing that made homo sapiens thrive. The view of empires as not something bad and how they shaped our world of today and we essentially living in a global empire as well was a great point. Buddhism is truly incredible and while I don't consider myself a Buddhist I have very similar approach to life. Having a western psychologist/ researcher having conversations on topics about suffering, happiness, death, loneliness with Dalai Lama and how their separate views of the world interacted was awesome.

Rationality: From AI to Zombies Sapiens

Sapiens (re-read) :) It's one of those books that gives you a different perspective every time you read it

I found “Sapiens” absolutely fascinating and incredibly dense in information.

- Rationality From AI to Zombies (huge collection of essays about (rationality,intelligence,quantum physics,bayesian probability,philosophy...) that can be read on lesswrong.com) -Intuition Pumps and other Thinking Tools -Sapiens -Edward.O Wilson Letters to a young scientist -Cédric Villani Birth of a Theorem -Emanuel Derman Models Behaving Badly -Letters From A Stoic by Seneca -Mathematics it's contents methods 3 Volumes (Aleksandrov et al.) -Nick Bostrom Superinteligence -The Moral Animal by Robert Wright

* The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough * Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City by Neal Bascomb * Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean * Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari * A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin * The Actor’s Life: A survival guide by Jenna Fischer * The Interstellar Age: The Story of the NASA Men and Women Who Flew the Forty-Year Voyager Mission by Jim Bell * The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein * Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994 by David Hepworth * Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, & Second Chances by Leland Melvin * The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough * Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty by John B. Boles

Some books I've enjoyed in the past year: Wish to laugh? * Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah * Yes please! by Amy Poehler Think? * Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell * Where Good Ideas Come from, by Steven Johnson * The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene: An Intimate History both by Mukherjee Siddhartha Learn (more) about great thinkers? * Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci or Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson * Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, by Phil Knight Yuval Noah Harari 3 good ones: * Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow * Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind * 21 lessons for the 21st century From time to time, I try to put some good ones over here: https://greenido.wordpress.com/?s=book

Sapiens

In no particular order: • Sapiens • Thinking Fast and Slow • The Mind Illuminated • A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

Sapiens is an okay book, but it’s all over the place. On one hand it kinda says that in many regards we have hypothesis at best (ie we don’t know) to follow it with [sometimes] wild theories. There is no way you can cover as much ground as the author wanted in a book this size. It got diluted and turned into the classic “X best seller” crap.

1. Sapiens - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens 2. The Gene: An Intimate History - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276428-the-gene 3. I Contain Multitudes - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29083367-i-contain-multi... (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29083367-i-contain-multitudes) 4. Stuff Matters - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19553030-stuff-matters 5. Rework - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6732019-rework

I recently read Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari and it nearly broke my mind. It was on Obama and Bill Gates' reading lists that year and it is phenomenal. It's like one of those books that took some ideas I had been kicking around for years and blew the whole thing wide open. If you want to get a taste, go look up 'The Legend of Peugot' from the book. There was also a sale on the ebook for $3 on Amazon this weekend -- not sure if it's still going.

I loved Sapiens. It has a couple of ideas that help explain so much of our world - really powerful ideas. Once you know them they seem so obvious and you feel like you should have thought of that yourself. For example, (spoilers for human history ahead), our civilations are based on agriculture and very few hunter gatherers remain. But that doesn't mean that people consciously chose one over the other. It's just that for various reasons, agriculture is a more "viral" idea that spread more efficiently than the alternative. Ditto with monotheistic vs polytheistic religions. Homo Deus... less so. It rehashes a lot of Sapiens and I found it a bit of a drag. The introduction is worth reading though. He recounts all the progress we've made as a species, which would surprise people who think our world is growing worse by the day. Chasing the Scream was amazing. Nothing more to be said.…

Some books that I recently read and enjoyed: Non-fiction a) Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari) b) Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon (Kim Zetter) c) Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution (Steven Levy) d) Masters of Doom (David Kushner) Fiction: e) The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy) f) Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)

Sapiens (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens) Gave words to describe my feelings for various ideas in my head. Another thing that happened (probably unrelated), after this I reestablished my reading habit that got lost for nearly 10 years.

Yuval Noah Harari's books, 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus' really changed the way I look at things.

Fahrenheit 451 Animal Farm The Gene: An Intimate History The Martian Currently reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. I would recommend all these books, if you're interested in the subjects they are written about.

Sapiens opened my eyes to social constructs and human behavior and forced me to think about the vast timeline of humanity and how small our time is within it. Personally it provoked a re-visit to the philosophical questioning of life.

A few of the best were: What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. A really profound and interesting look into what technology is. Technology evolves through the same sort of Darwinian process that life evolves. Technology is in some sense alive, and Kelly's perspective on it is wonderfully refreshing. I also read his book Out of Control, which is fantastic. Sapiens by Yuval Harari. Enough people are talking about this one that I don't have to say much, suffice it to say it's a fascinating look into human history a la Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. If you're a fan of Harari you'll love this one. It's an alternative scientific look at evil, and how evil appears to be encoded into our species. Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Kaku is an amazing popular science writer bar none and this is his exploration of modern physics and string theory. The most concise and understandable explanation of modern physics I've read, which is part for the course with Kaku. Red Queen by Matt Ridley. A fascinating look at sex, and why the human sex drive, and therefore human nature, is the way it is.

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 2. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) 3. The Loyal: The Story of Atwood and the Second Civil War (disclosure - my father wrote this book) 4. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business 5. Grit I thoroughly enjoyed all of these. It was interesting to see how Grit and The Power of Habit played off each other.

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari is the best book I've read in a while. It's like Guns, Germs and Steel but better argued and far greater in scope. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins was a great read too. A bit of a slog in some places but otherwise brilliant and insightful.

I felt like Homo Deus was largely a retread of Sapiens. Some of his speculations about the various forms of humanism that have arisen in the 20th century were interesting, but for most of the book it felt like he was treading very familiar ground. It seemed like Harari was in a rush to release another book after the runaway success of Sapiens, and because of that he didn't take his time writing it. Sapiens was very concise and felt like the product of years of careful thought. Homo Deus felt like it was rushed in comparison. Still a good read, don't get me wrong. For a similar type of book I would recommend Howard Bloom's Lucifer Principle and Global Brain. They both take a similarly broad scientific perspective on human history and behavior, and both are fun reads.

I didn't read Homo Deus but it is on my to-read-list. If you liked that one, you might also like "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by him.

It might not be read much only because it was recently released but Homo Deus by Yuval Harari is off the chain. This dude can explain grand ideas encompassing human civilization in (relatively) simple, brief, and entertaining language and I can't get enough of it. I think Homo Deus's forward focus will appeal to the HN crowd more than his more famous Sapiens.

Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam - Sapiens / Homo Deus

I am a big fan of it but do not take the book uncritically. Everything in the book is somewhere between simplified and incorrect. It is still very useful challenging of conventional wisdom for all of history. It ties everything together too neatly but neatness has some benefits. It makes your own think more solid and makes you question everything.

1. Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham 2. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker 3. Tribes by Seth Godin 4. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche 5. The Industries of the Future by Alex Ross 6. Bigger, Leaner, Stronger by Michael Matthews 7. The Science of Getting Rich: Financial Success Through Creative Thought by WALLACE D. WATTLES (The Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reads) 8. Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins 9. Principles by Ray Dalio 10. Como Ganar Amigas e Influir Sobre las Personas by Dale Carnegie 11. Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian 12. Tribe by Sebastian Junger 13. Sapiens A Brief History of Humanity by Yuval Noah Harari 14. This is Water by David Foster Wallace 15. How Not to Be Wrong. The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg 16. Walt Disney By Neal Gabler 17. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley 18. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger 19. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason 20. A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine Out of all these, I would recommend only a few: - Sapiens - The Rational Optimist - Walt Disney By Neal Gabler…

Here is my list of 2016: - The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory - The 48 Laws Of Power - Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Crossing the Chasm - The Richest Man in Babylon - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - Europe: A History - The Penguin History of Europe - The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Every of the books was awesome. The only thing is that I haven't finished Europe: A History from Norman and read The Penguin History of Europe instead because the Norman book was just too long for me. But It has way more details. I switch between business-related books and non-business related (it can be everything from philosophy to language history to hardcore science) but I don't read fiction (The Richest Man in Babylon is fictional, but still the focus is on self-development). Hope you could see some titles that might interest you.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Phenomenal read. It is the kind of book that I will read again several times.

zero to one - Peter thiel - good read old man and the sea - Hemingway - good read sapiens (currently reading) - Yuval Noah Harari - fantastic till now What if (still reading) - Randall Munroe - an interesting read

I will add a couple books I've read so far in 2016, both of which are not from 2016: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. This book was an unexpectedly amazing overview of the history, current status and possible future of human beings. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. I put this off because I'm not very interested in medicine. It was a mistake, this is one of the most well written non fiction books I've ever read.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari Very interesting though later chapters become less of history and more of philosophy.

I read Sapiens after seeing the same edge.org conversation, and while it was mostly good, I think it started off strong and then became less so as it went on. Especially towards the end it became almost a hot list of current events the author had read about in the newspaper, like browsing through a lot of TED talks, without a lot of coherence to a larger picture. My other complaint would be that some portions seemed less scholarly and heavily influenced by the author's opinions and personal worldview. Not a bad book by any means but somewhat less than the "history of humankind" I had hoped for. The first quarter focusing on prehistory through agriculture was very informative, though leaves me questioning if I'm just suffering from Gell-Mann amnesia. Rated it 4/5 on Goodreads when I was finished. I found Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond to be perhaps a better book of similar nature overall, and would add in The 10,000 Year Explosion by Cochran and Harpending as another good one for those who liked Sapiens.

Sapins[1] by Yuval Noah Harari. Currently 220 pages into it, I wholeheartedly recommend -- it's remarkably well written and is full of very interesting perspectives. Credit where it's due: learnt about this book in an edge.org conversation[2] between Dr. Harari and the eminent psycologist Daniel Kahneman. Speaking of professor Kahneman, I recently finished his "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (I did notice it's mentioned in the comments, but still), over a period of deliberate slow reading of 5 months. Much has been said and written (more than well deservedly!) about this book. Don't let the title invite you to dismiss it off as yet another over-simplifying popular psyocology book; it's anything but that. It is an account of about 30 years of collaboration with his late colleague Amos Tversky. Certainly not a breezy page-turner. It's well worth it to take your own time to assimilate the content. [1] http://www.ynharari.com/sapiens-the-book/short-overview/ [2] http://edge.org/conversation/yuval_noah_harari-daniel_kahneman-death-is-optional