21 Lessons for the 21st Century

“We are now living in an age of information explosion ... the last thing people need is more information. What they really need is somebody to arrange all of the bits of information into a meaningful picture – and this is what I try to do.”

Another great book from Mr Harari. While I appreciated Homo Deus a bit less than Sapiens, this one is, to me, equivalent to Sapiens. This is full of wisdom as always, and show us what has to be done in this century full of changes and challenges. A great read.

Enjoyed this. Nowhere near as polished, complete, and seminal as Sapiens. But great for hearing more of Yuval's perspectives on how 21st century social, economic and political systems work, and how he expects they might change with the rise of data and AI. Particularly enjoyed the Liberty, Community and Science Fiction chapters.

I don't agree with some of his points, and am certain a number are wrong (e.g. his over the top expectations for AI based on progress in solving games like chess), but he's quick to set expectations that he's not going to accurately predict every detail about the future. It's great that he published such a raw collection of his thoughts, as his historical perspective and ability to explain complex systems is so unique.

It's not really a book of “lessons”, more “considerations”.

Everyone should read this book. Is so full of knowledge that I can't even know where I start this.
One thing is for sure. If you want to deconstruct all the things you believe about humans, how we see the world, religions, capitalism, socialism and other stories that we tell ourselves, you should read it.

Great book and strongly recommended. This book is the third in the series of Yuval Noah Harari, after Sapiens and Homo Deus. Within Sapiens Harari covers the history of humanity and how we get here in nutshell, in Homo Deus he try to predict where we are heading in future and within 21st Lessons of 21st Century he mainly focus on current time.

Harari within this book cover so much ground which caused some criticism. However in my eyes, this book is one of a kind despite of brief and incomplete coverage on serval topics. No doubt each chapter could cover libraries of books and yet he managed to summaries everything in one book. He elaborate further within this era the real art is reduce the noise and be selective of overabundance of data rather than get lost in the details.

Harari within the introduction of the book reveal that he could go for self-censorship or speak his mind, he decided to go for the latter and request the reader to study this book with open mind. People that cannot or do not want to question some topics such as belief, faith and religion might not be able to hear the message Harari what to convey.

Harari tried to make this book an eye opener and yet didn't provide crystal clear answers; since there are none. He bring up the fact always questions that can't be answered is better that the answers which cannot be questioned.

I recommend going through the book more than one time. For this sort of books one could fall pray of confirmation/availability biases and miss the holistic point.

3.5 stars. Not so much lessons as in perspectives, I feel. Appreciated the questions he raised about the need for our “fictions”, whether we really have free will (no), and whether we know our own minds (negative) but didn't find them as insightful as his arguments within the first two parts on technology and politics. Much prefer his earlier books.

I blasted through this too fast, because I had to return it to the library, to fully appreciate it all. Harari is obviously good at this. Here he does a great job dissecting the many ways we humans run on stories and belief systems - from nationalistic pride to religious faith. 21 topics might have maybe been too many, but his analytic thoughts are always interesting.

The chapters singling out Israel and Judaism gave the impression of being (entertaining) payback for nagging critiques he had received for his earlier works from his own countrymen lol.

Удивило, что эта книга не менее интересная, чем Сапиенс. Обычно издатели пихают следующие книги автора какого-то бестселлера и такие книги бывают неочень. А здесь приятно удивлен. Основное отличие в том, что здесь много разных тем, а Сапиенс как-то более плавно идет в течение всей книги.

Короче говоря, если вам понравился Сапиенс, то 21 урок тоже понравится.

After reading Yuval Noah Harari's other work, Sapiens, I knew I had to read more. Thankfully, I was gifted this book. At first I thought it was Harari's attempt at a self-help book, which I was OK with, but I was very pleased to learn that it was not such a thing. It turned out to be way better than I had thought (the title deceived me).

The book is broken into 5 broad topics, with each topic encompassing a range of “lessons” relating to that topic's theme. Each lesson is more of a conversational essay designed to give the reader a broad understanding of the issue, and leaving the reader to go away in their own time and ponder it's implications. A more appropriate title for the book would perhaps be: 21 Things to Think about in the 21st Century (/s). Kidding aside, it is a very good book for the modern day person, and I would recommend it to almost anyone. Just don't expect Harari to be giving you answers on these topics; that's your job, he's just the conversation starter.

I think it's the most okay book I have read this year. Sapiens was nice and tolerable but maybe I was more naive (less judgemental) then. This book is great until you start realizing that everything Hariri is portraying, is through their own lopsided, sometimes needlessly negative view of the world so they can show you a slightly pretty picture in the outro of the chapter. The book was a slog once I started reading it through this lens.

Still, rated 3 since there are some interesting and novel ideas but all in all I kinda regrest wasting my time on it.

another harari's another banger for sure !!!

creo q este fue mi fav d la trilogía sapiens

las 21 savage lessons hitting harder and harder with each one that passes, m dio la impresión en q están ordenadas x importancia (si lo queremos es buscar la felicidad)

i might start meditating I don't promise anything (talking to my mind rn)