The World's Best Book Summaries
Are you trying to motivate a group of people to partake in an activity? Do you struggle to get all the group members on board? If you’re trying to encourage group behavior, it’s important to realize that each individual in the group has their own levels of motivation. Some members of the group will join an activity right away while others will lack interest. Continue on to learn how to manage group behavior.
How can you live a harmonious life? Why can’t humanity live in harmony with the world? To live a harmonious life means to do what the universe requires of you and nothing more. Unfortunately, humanity has fallen out of harmony with nature because of its need to industrialize and consume. But you can still live a harmonious life within a corrupt world. Keep reading to learn how to live in harmony with the Tao.
Are we witnessing the death of liberalism? Why is liberalism becoming irrelevant as technology advances? According to Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli intellectual and the author of Homo Deus, advances in technology might make liberalism a thing of the past. He predicts the death of liberalism to be the result of three potential developments: 1) the loss of military and economic usefulness, 2) the rise of decision-making algorithms, and 3) the creation of the “superhuman.” Read about the projected death of liberalism.
What is the book Homo Deus about? What is the most likely course for the future of humanity? In his book Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari maps out the past, present, and future of humanity, drawing from the interdisciplinary synthesis of history, psychology, economics, and biology. Dissecting the concepts of religion, immortality, and technology, Harari argues that the world of the future may be run by advanced AI algorithms, not human beings. Here is a brief overview of Yuval Noah Harari’s book Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Is organized cooperation a uniquely human feature? What is the psychology behind mass human cooperation? Humanity has a much greater ability to communicate and cooperate than any other species. According to Yuval Noah Harari, the ability of humans to cooperate is the result of humanity’s knack for storytelling. Storytelling allowed us to create “imagined orders” which make mass cooperation possible. Keep reading to learn about the psychology of mass human cooperation.
What is price anchoring? Why is our idea of a reasonable price completely arbitrary? How can anchoring affect your future decisions? Price anchoring is the process of establishing a product’s price as “normal” and making it the benchmark by which you judge all other prices. These anchors are irrational and can stack up to more irrational decision-making in the future. Keep reading for more information about price anchoring.
What is dataism? What are the implications of an ideology based on the assumption that everything can be converted into data? The term dataism was first used by David Brooks to refer to the philosophical perspective that the universe consists of data streams and that everything—from music to human emotion—can be quantified. More recently, Yuval Noah Harari expanded the term to describe an ideology in which the value of everything is based on its data-processing capabilities. Keep reading to learn about dataism.
What is the tragedy of the commons? How can mistrust in corporations lead to the mistrust of our peers? How can we work on becoming more trusting in the future? The tragedy of the commons is the concept that everybody shares common resources and if we all respect them, then everybody can prosper. But, inevitably, a minority of the population will take advantage of the trust system and ruin the commons for everybody. Companies everywhere do this to us every day and it causes inherent mistrust of others. Keep reading to learn what causes trust issues and what we can
What is meant by an economic religion? Do you think capitalism can be considered a religion? According to Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli public intellectual and a historian, we are living in the era of the economic religion of free-market capitalism. Although we don’t explicitly call capitalism a religion, it informs many of our ethical judgments as much as (if not more than) traditional religions do. Keep reading to learn about the concept of economic religion.
What is liberal humanism? What are the central values of the liberal humanist ideology? Liberal humanism is a philosophy that values individual freedoms above all else. For a liberal humanist, every human perspective matters. Because of this, they run into problems when valid, but differing perspectives clash. Keep reading to learn about liberal humanism.