When I grow up, I don’t want to be an idiot. If it helps to know, I’m 33 and I still feel like I have insurmountable things to understand, my goal isn’t to be omniscient, but I don’t want to be a dummy. You feel me? That’s why I read books like Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I’ll admit, by nature, I am quite stupid, and there are lots I don’t know and am unsure of. But I want to know, I have a hunger, a yearning, a hankering — to know truth and knowledge. I want a broader understanding of life, culture and human history. I wish I could be better at explaining these things to other people, but some people don’t even care to listen. They want to believe in ghosts, gods, ufos, conspiracies and whatever other crocks of shit they can pour into their heads. They speak loudly and confidently about all these things that seem so obviously wrong and I feel too dumb and slow with my thoughts to explain why they are.
What’s the point of debating? I guess I want other people to know the joy of the truth and understanding. I encourage people to learn yet sometimes I try and adopt the philosophy and I figure to myself — whatever people want to believe let them be free to believe. Why not? I’m not going to start a crusade, but I’d love to somehow persuade. Because imagine if all that time we spend teaching and believing in religion or arguing about political nonsense or caring about celebrity gossip could be pushed towards the scientific way of thinking and the desire to unlock new knowledge. Imagine if humans by freedom of their own choice could unite in their way of thinking and figure out more solutions to best serve all life. Idealistic dreaming aside… Sapiens helps explain a lot of things about human history in a really simple and sound way that doesn’t come across as offensive or condescending. Yuval’s words are full of truth and help unlock new curiosities and ways of understanding. At times Sapiens was so profound and paradigm-shifting, it made me laugh at how upside-down our popular and mainstream thoughts are. His explanations unravel and reveal the often unseen mechanics of the human world. It’s a book so good, it should be in every hotel nightstand.
Here are 10 Big Ideas it Opened Up For Me:
Our Species
We are one species. If you look at our genes there are no traits or characteristics that definitively separate one group from another. We’ve mixed and mingled and none have been isolated long enough for a subspecies to exist. We’re all one fricken species and race is merely a constructed social idea. That said, it would help if everyone got on the same page about that. No matter what status level you’re at, knowing you’re a Homo Sapien, part of the same family, same universe, is key to forward progress. Let’s recognize that on a basic level we are an equal force of life. Yet, history shows we are a very violent and intolerant kind. From an ecological perspective, we have a rather awful past. We’ve wiped out other species of humans like the neanderthals, or annihilated animals like the giant kangaroos and marsupials in Australia, and of course, enslaved members of our own kind. On top of all that messiness, we’re actively destroying our habitat — we are short-sighted savages and ecological serial killers. We’re a despicable kind yet despite the madness, I am an optimist with many reasons for hope — one of which is, we’re learning to love.
Collective Myths
The myths and collective tales that we believe are some of the most powerful things created in human history — companies. religions, money, they aren’t real in the way that gravity is real. They don’t exist in the way atoms exist. They only exist because we collectively create and build these things and we agree on their existence and reality. The same can be true about our personal and internal narratives that we tell ourselves and our communities. The imagined order of our society creates our culture — human rights, money, diversity, the law, clock time it’s all just made up. The roots of these ideas run so deep, we can’t imagine the world without them. But they are fictions, products of human imagination. Think of it this way: Do flies or insects have any rights? Do kangaroos give a rats ass about the value of gold? Do birds worry about including other kinds of birds in their trees? What does a turtle care if it’s 12:45 pm? Without the shared belief in our cultural myths, the world would be in complete disunion and dysfunction. While these ideas are structures for humanity to function and flourish, sometimes it can be a happy thought and a mini-revelation to realize that things that can drive us crazy, like time or money are in fact meaningless myths. While other things like fundamental human rights, can cause a sane individual to have tumultuous and eyebrow-raising thoughts.
Ideologies
It’s fun to understand Hitler. I know that sounds like I’m pushing the crazy button a bit… but hear me out — it’s fascinating to me that this man was beloved in Germany. He rose to power and fame because he was charismatic and a master of deeply persuasive political rhetoric. But that story wasn’t taught in grade school, (at least not in my all catholic, all boys, all maniacs institution) now we just know him as the most evil villain human that ever lived… like a Disney villain without any backstory. But I don’t believe he believed he was evil. He probably thought his ideology was righteous and the best way forward for humanity. It’s useful to understand how his logic led to the attempted extermination and annihilation of a human race. Similar to how we cultivate and choose the fittest plants to create strong herds of crops. The Nazi’s logically believed that we should curate the fittest of what they deemed as the best of the human race. Their science was flawed and (for lack of better terms) fucked in a swamp pit. They failed to see race as a social illusion but rather a distinction of the human species. What’s scary is that if you allow yourself, in a way you can see this dark logic as sensible, we give human rights to every human and some may argue that certain things can drag down our progress. His idea was to protect the health of the herd, kill off the weak. In its ignorant simplicity — it’s seductive. Our philosophies which allow us success in agriculture are the exact opposite in the way we create the order for our culture. Corn that is susceptible to disease or has a lame cob, doesn’t have the glory of its seeds being replanted. But any male jackass can impregnate whomever female allows his penis to enter. And well, thankfully our human value system is vastly different from corn. It’s safe to say that’s a good thing. But if Hitler and the Nazi ideology won, we’d be living in a very different world. Maybe, just a slim may-be (pronounced with a heightened and tip-toeing inflection) on the bright side we’d all be genetically fit and physically beautiful, but what if a disease spread through a population of people who only had a specific type of genes? Just like a certain type of crop that would be ravaged and annihilated. Could a human race be easily wiped out by disease without genetic diversity? Plus, you don’t have to be handsome or pretty to be smart — in fact many smart humans have contributed glorious ideas to humanity even though they have been funny looking and frumpy creatures. Let’s just say, the world is better with all it’s funky neurodiversity, physical variation and the mess of beautiful craziness that is us humans.
Math
We have a math problem. Not enough people understand it. Math is a language that can explain, test, and reveal the nature of the universe. Math doesn’t get enough love and attention because it's a difficult language. But so is any language, I believe it’s just not taught well enough, on top of that, the long-term benefits for individuals to understand it isn’t advertised enough. Math is the universal language we should all care to know. It’s what enables science and humanity to keep moving forward. Math enables everything, and I flat out don’t understand it. I look at it and it looks like some otherworldly alien language. It’s nothing but a pile of symbols and shapes and marks. But the math is what makes things work. Again I go back to this idea, that while I study storytelling and creativity and dabble in drawing, maybe I would have been better off studying mathematics. Are we not teaching it well enough as a culture? Do we not put the emphasis of its importance or is it because we do not prize it enough in our culture? Mathletes should be superstars. More kids should understand that if you spend 15 years learning the foundations of math you can eventually keep building on that to have the power to unlock new mysteries of the universe and take your crack at solving some of the greatest problems in human history. It’s a dream we could sell and package for marketing mathematics to the masses. Instead, the greatest minds build social dating apps, work for banks and try and maximize profits. We need that stuff too, sure. But why are we not building more effective systems that reward things that truly advance our society? Of course, what qualifies as advancing our society is merely my own personal opinion… so maybe I should just shut up about it.
Memes
There’s more to this word than a thing on the internet. Memetics is a much bigger idea. It’s more about the study of the nature of ideas. What is an idea? Why do they exist? If it were a thing, do ideas use human minds as parasites to replicate and spread? Some people spread bad ideas, some spread great ones. They spread and spread and people live and die for these ideas and beliefs. Sometimes it’s just a funny perspective, or a joke perhaps, but some ideas people have killed other people over. Religion for one is an idea that has caused more murder than any other idea in our human history. Namely that Christian religion which is based on the foundation of Christ’s unconditional loving behavior and energy. Boy, they botched that up a few times. We live in the land of the free, where anybody is free to believe whatever they want. Sure it’s better than not being allowed to believe what you want, but it can be really distracting and confusing falling for other people’s bullshit. Especially if you’re like me and just want to know the truth about everything. Furthermore, ideas can have immense power. Getting other people to believe in your ideas gives you power. Selling your ideas is power. There’s a lot in the arena of ideas that I want to learn and think more about. I often wonder what ideas for me are worth spreading to other people, which ones do I personally value? While reading this section, I found myself tapping the book. In a weird way I couldn’t explain like a caveman having a feeling I couldn’t express. Mmm, me want to know. Me want to understand ideas. Why do some people believe in bad ideas, why do some ideas grip other people down weird rabbit holes of thought? Why do they believe in conspiracy theories? Why do people accept non-science? Why do people believe the poop? Please, don’t believe the poop. Don’t spread the poop.
Progress
Without science, there wouldn’t be progress. What we’ve done since 1500 is sheerly amazing. Humans started appearing about 300,000 years ago, but it’s only in the past 500 or so years that we’ve accelerated with technology and created this mind-blowing world we live in. In the grand scheme of humanity and the timeline of our universe — that’s a really minuscule amount of time. Revolutions are happening constantly because of science. There is always a sense of progress, that the future is getting better, that we’ll solve problems. We stopped thinking the best days were behind us, and we’ve shifted to the idea that we can constantly make it better — and then we go and do it. We bet on the future and we win. Hell yeah, humans. That’s how we do. Yet, why am I so close to so many people who believe in a book that was written from a time where most people didn’t even wear shoes? Why are so many people scared of vaccines? (or clowns) At least we can all agree that for the most part, wearing shoes is a good idea these days. (Clown shoes maybe not so much, it’s definitely a tripping hazard...) We’re pushing to create the world towards our best ideas, our ideology of what is better. Yet, we considered agriculture as progress, but our idea of progress was based on the maximization of the amount of humans. Was it really better? Yuval points out it may have been the biggest trap of human history... Are we really happier with more humans and more stuff?
Consumerism
We live in a world where the poor people buy stuff and the rich are smart and frugal. Where the poor people are fat and take on health costs and the rich people spend wisely on healthy food and eat less. It’s all ass-backward and causing a lot of fat asses. We buy buy buy. We make money, we buy things. It’s a vicious cycle. We celebrate and buy stuff. We toast to good times and good health by drinking alcohol. (which isn’t very good for anybody) Spending money, it’s what makes the economy grow, grow, grow. The debt is our belief and a big bet on the future, it’s fine so long as we keep growing and expanding our economy. So long as everything keeps growing and innovation keeps pushing things along, we can take on more debt because we’re using it to take on better structures for our society. Poor people spend. Rich people invest. In this whole money game, I don’t want to lose, I don’t want to fall in the trap of buying shit and giving away my money for things I don’t need. So I struggle, I cook my own food. I keep my shoes for way too long. Use shit until it breaks. Avoid too many nights out. What I’m going to need later in life is unfortunately more money. Not a new TV. I need food. I need a Mac to do my job. I need to learn. But I know that feeling of wanting more, I want a boat and to join a country club one day. A red Ferrari would be fun. There’s a whole list of things I’d love to buy, but I know it’s kinda dumb. What the hell am I going to do with a Ferrari? Drive around, beep the horn? With intelligence, you can fight for self-control and have better ideas to plan for a better life. A wise uncle once told me, boring is good. Think long term. Do boring things with your money. With that in mind, I also want to learn how to make more income…but do it in a way that provides value to other people. Somehow, some way. Not just for the sake of money. Money, spending, greed and selfishness, it all makes me feel dumb and sick. There should be more education of this stuff. Money and financial advice should be taught in schools from day one. It’s a must. Although the bright side is that it’s magical when you look into what you can do when you invest wisely and save money. Calculating compound interest is another reason to give me hope.
Happiness
Are we really any happier than humans 100,000 years ago? Does all this stuff and consumerism make us happier? Do our ideas of freedom make us happy? Are people in North Korea any happier than people in the United States? How could you tell?
What we do know is that happiness happens on a biological level, releasing the chemicals serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin into our brains. When we have an experience or our eyes take in something, like say a floating red balloon. A mini rush of these chemicals cause us to feel the sensation of joy.
There are many different approaches to happiness. We can measure it biologically, but we can also set expectations about external factors. Or we can try and live a meaningful life and align with the collective delusions of our culture, and lastly we can try and know ourselves by our true nature, and realize we are not our thoughts and feelings, and begin to stop chasing our cravings.
If I expect potatoes for dinner and I get potatoes. I am happy. If I send a text message expecting a response and I get ignored, I won’t be happy. We can align our expectations to better find happiness. Setting ourselves up to not be disappointed and delightfully surprised.
If we wanted to be happy on a biological level, we could simply take pills and be happy all the time. Perhaps like me, you’ve had some relative, close or distant, that was on said happy pills and you realize the absolute sheer mania of what it means to be constantly happy. If everyone in the world was constantly happy, it would be an unfathomable hell and we’d all blindly be suffering. If you’ve ever watched the Pixar movie Up you’d know, Sadness has value.
So perhaps you seek to pursue happiness by finding meaning? You want to make money and root it in an altruistic purpose. This is to believe in the collective delusions of our community and culture and align. We do it to make the world better, to solve problems we do it to create wealth for our families. While I would agree all of that is noble and worthwhile, is there really any meaning to it? The stark reality is that the earth could explode in a cosmic collision and would be gone, it would be nothing more than a missing spec in the infinitely gargantuan universe and it would continue on expanding without earth, every person with all of their passionate purposes would be gone and the universe, wouldn’t be any different just as it lost a moon, comet, or rock.
What is going to make me happy? A new car? A bigger condo? Career success? Sex with a beautiful lady? Creating a film? Writing a book? Collaborating and creating impactful projects with people I admire? Is it money? More hair on my head? Finishing this fucking blog post? Reading more books? Being smarter? Learning new things? Finally learning to juggle and go whale watching?
My mind, just like yours, constantly thinks and wants things. We are slaves to our genes. Our desires, temptations to reproduce. I want sex, sure. Sex with a woman might make me happy, but having a child which is a potential result and function of sex, could potentially set me up in a stressful situation where I’d have to dedicate time and resources I don’t have at the moment. A happy success could lead to long-term struggle.
What I’ve realized and what seems to make the most sense, is that happiness requires shifting strategies throughout the game of life. Sometimes you have to live in the moment, sometimes you need to plan for the future and go after what you want. Sometimes you need to just observe thoughts and feelings and waves of emotion and realize you’re one with the universe.
Defeating Death
We die. It kinda sucks right? It just ends. It’s such a dire thought, we just stop working and seize to exist. Ugh. Death. What a bummer. Such a drag that we’ve created the ideas of heaven and hell. The afterlife. And many many many still steadfast believe in this magical place or realm that we enter. And why not? It’s a happy thought. A wonderful imaginative solution to put a spin on the bittersweet end to life’s joy and struggle. But what if we could stop death? I’d put a bet most people would conveniently rather stay here and not bet on the existence of heaven. From a scientific perspective, death is a technical problem. We age, we get old, we get diseases, yet there might be a way to stop that. Perhaps soon. How would life change when we solve the problem of death? What would be the costs of being born? What would be the costs of staying alive? Would death be a volunteer activity? Would it be an act of sustainability and an honorable decision to stop overpopulation?
Future humans and what not
Bionic humans. Sex robots. Downloading our brains… Jennifer Doudna unlocked the ability for humans to make precise edits in the genetic sequence of any living organism. That was in 2012, and we’re off to the races with all sorts of new science tricks. The world is changing faster every day, with unimaginable things being unlocked at every new turn. It’s a lot to take in at the present moment. But I stand by optimism, that we’re learning to love, we’re able to access more truth and knowledge than ever before, and that we’ll get it right, we’ll figure out the climate thing, and we’ll evolve beyond these Sapien bodies and things will get better and better.
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