Sapiens

I just finished one of the best books I have ever read: “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, written by Yuval Harari in 2011. It was recommended to me by a friend and I also read about it on Albert Wenger’s blog. As the title suggests, the book gives readers a very compact and coherent overview about how humanity and civilization came to be, and why it ended up where it is today.

Most importantly, the book helps to better get the big picture. To understand how and why certain movements, ideologies, religions and memes have evolved; why individuals, groups and societies act in their sometimes strange and even destructive ways.

Sapiens is not a history book, even though it follows a chronological order, from the first life on earth until the present, eventually offering an outlook of what might come in the future. Rather, it is a book about humanity and life itself. Continue Reading