Play Book Tag discussion

This was written by the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which reviewers tended to prefer. Parts of this book were brilliant, but some topics toward the end seemed to be filler. I really liked most of the first half of the book. The chapters on terrorism and nationalism were particularly interesting. I also liked the chapters on work and politics. In his chapter on immigration, he seemed to be verbalizing an interesting thought experiment. I know I'll want to reread it and think more about it. I would recommend reading this book slowly, allowing time in between chapters. (Or just browse through this book in the library.)

Later chapters seemed to be padded with random musings, opinions, and criticisms that didn't really serve the topics at hand. Perhaps he ran out of time to make them meatier. While some topics were worth 4-5 stars, my average ratings is 3-3.5.

I was most disappointed with his discussion of fake news, which barely skimmed the surface of the topic. He focused on historical examples of lying politicians. He seemed to put the onus on the receivers of information to do their own empirical research, and blamed them for their lack of critical thinking. (How many people know how to do empirical research?!) It didn't address the scope and challenge of the issue today. Similarly, his section on resilience and education was vague and out of touch with reality.

The chapter on Science Fiction might be fun for some. I think he actually recommended that scientists write science fiction. He rambled about The Truman Show and The Matrix (20 year old fantasy movies), as though the characters were real people who made errors in judgement. I suspect that this was a favorite story he used when he first starting teaching 20 years ago. The students liked it then, so it became a habitual story he repeated with certain topics. (I confess that I had some favorite stories when I was teaching too.) But it didn't really fit this book and this audience. And he really missed the point on the film Inside Out, which might have been a useful example in the the section on resilience (emotional intelligence).

I have Sapiens on my Trim list, and based on the reviews, I expect to find that more worthwhile.