Our position in the hierarchy governs our daily experiences as individuals. If we have high status, things go well, people are nice to us, and we’re relatively happier. If we lack status, we grow bitter and depressed. Sociological research
...more
“Each year the US population spends more money on diets than the amount needed to feed all the hungry people in the rest of the world.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
“As your perspective of the world increases not only is the pain it inflicts on you less but also its meaning. Understanding the world requires you to take a certain distance from it.”
― My Struggle: Book 1
― My Struggle: Book 1
“the moral narcissist’s extreme humility masked a dreadful pride. Ordinary people could accept that they had faults; the moral narcissist could not.”
― Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help
― Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help
“There is something improbably about the silence in the [subway] carriage, considering how naturally gregarious we are as a species. Still, how much kinder it is for the commuters to pretend to be absorbed in other things, rather than revealing the extent to which they are covertly evaluating, judging, condemning and desiring each other. A few venture a glance here and there, as furtively as birds pecking grain. But only if the train crashed would anyone know for sure who else had been in the carriage, what small parts of the nation's economy had been innocuously seated across the aisle just before the impact: employees of hotels, government ministries, plastic-surgery clinics, fruit nurseries and greetings-card companies.”
― The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
― The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
“We human beings are only part of something much larger. When we walk along we may crush a battle or simply cause a change in the air so that a fly ends up where it might not have gone otherwise. And if we think of the same example but with ourselves in the role of the insect, and the larger universe in the role we’ve just played, it’s perfectly clear that we’re affected every day by races over which we have no control than the poor beetle has over our gigantic foot as it descends upon it.”
―
―
Global Voices
— 49 members
— last activity Mar 27, 2009 08:00AM
A book club for authors, translators, and editors of Global Voices - https://globalvoices.org
Hewlett Foundation Nonfiction Book Club
— 1 member
— last activity Oct 03, 2016 02:29AM
A low-stakes quarterly book club for books related to the work of the Hewlett Foundation.
David’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at David’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by David
Lists liked by David


































