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Aniruddha Rege

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Aniruddha Rege is currently reading

Joy in the Morning (Jeeves, #8)

by P.G. Wodehouse

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Oct 22, 2025 09:11PM

Aniruddha Rege is currently reading

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2019

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Aniruddha Rege said: " There are a few books which take an extremely complicated topic and attempt to present it in a way, flow and language which makes it easier for the naive masses to access. While this has the advantage of popularising the rather heavy topic and rousin There are a few books which take an extremely complicated topic and attempt to present it in a way, flow and language which makes it easier for the naive masses to access. While this has the advantage of popularising the rather heavy topic and rousing and interest in it beyond the scientific community, it also has the unfortunate by-product of allowing people to think they know the topic. In reality, all they know is the surface of it and are still ignorant of the terrifying depths underneath the surface.

Sapiens is one such book. It is not a book on evolution. Well, not biological evolution anyway. Rather, it is a book on the cultural, political, social and economic evolution of...well, us. The homo sapiens. It is a book, not on our genetic evolution, but our memtic evolution. It is a well written, free flowing text attempting to explain the very complex question of how we got here, in 2018, with the sort of structures we have in society, be it money, industries, governments or even our tendancy to shop. It attempts to draw our attention to the various invisible strings that tie the political system to the economic one which in turn affects and is affected by the culture which enables it and the social structures which sustains it. Yuval Harari attempts to do this across our 70000 year old history, through the 4 milestones he has created - The Cognitive Revolution, The Agricultural Revolution, The Industrial Revolution and finally the Scientific Revolution.

The book is a lovely read and not very difficult at all. The author has a style of writing which makes it read more like a novel than a historical document. To be honest, while the initial parts of the book and quite a few in the middle which cite historical events and evolutionary stages are facts, much of the "Why it happened" might be put down to Mr. Harari's empirical research and resultant opinions on the subject. While he does bring a lot of fresh and sometimes shocking perspective to the events, why they took place and why the exact choices were made which led to us today, they are strictly opinions and definitely debatable. For example, why did sapiens feel the need to create myths and fantasies in the first place as well as the origins of religion can definitely have a different perspective and theory compared to what the author gives. Similarly, we can debate to eternity on whether we have, as a species, outgrown or outpaced evolution.

Ultimately, I think that's the goal of the book. It isn't to lay down with Darwinian absolutism the path of Human Beings over the past 70000 years, but to open our minds to a newer perspective on how economics, evolution, politics, theology, religion, society and individuals have been tied together so intricately throughout history and how pulling one thread on even one of these aspects creates a butterfly effect affecting generations across the next millennia. If that's the goal of this book, Mr. Harari has achieved it admirably.

I did find some parts of the book too sensational, where it felt like the author was trying to create shock value. The last chapter feels altogether like his personal musings on the way forward for our species and rings false with respect to the theme and flow of the rest of the book. The second to last chapter, where he lays down his thoughts on the concept of happiness and how we manage it feels incomplete and perhaps outside of his field of expertise. Using this as a base, I'd definitely want to read more books on the evolutionary and biological imperative of happiness.

Overall, the book is definitely worth a read to understand a lot about human history and draw our conclusions about why thing's happened the way they did. In my opinion, basing our conclusion on this book would be premature. Instead, this book is intended to be used as a stepping stone to deeper books on some of the aspects dealt with in it, and spend some time truly grasping them.

Ultimately, it's a good book which may turn some potent minds to great books. It's a book which gives 10 answers, 100 explainations and invites you to raise a 1000 questions. ...more "

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— Jan 13, 2019 01:24AM

Jan 13, 2019 10:47AM · see review

Aniruddha’s Notes & Highlights

Book cover for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5) by J.K. Rowling

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Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be ...more