
Is Sapiens Worth Reading? - mattswainblog
https://www.mattswain.co.uk/blog/is-sapiens-worth-reading
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Pretty much everyone recommends reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
Tim Ferris's podcast interviewee's often say that Sapiens is the book they
gift the most and Amazon's 20,000 ratings give it 4.6 stars. But, with over
400 pages of dense content, is it actually worth reading? Or is it just 400
pages of boring, unenlightened, irrelevant history? Lets find out.

Early on in the book, it became clear to me that I didn't know much about the
history of humans. It isn't studied in classrooms or discussed in modern day
conversations or popular content. Most people seem to shrug off how we got
here and do not seem too bothered to understand. You are therefore working off
a bit of a blank slate. Yuval Noah Harari does an excellent job of building up
the story and scenes with visual language depicting what an average day looked
like hundreds of thousands of years ago. Essentially, a detailed, visual
timeline is created in your mind showing the transformation of early humans to
where we are now.

In summary, this book condenses lots of research, ideas and the whole of human
history into a logical, easy to read and understand, visual way that gives you
an overview into a topic in which simply doesn't get taught elsewhere. I think
it is definitely worth reading, although this is is not a life-changing book,
in the sense you won't become enlightened or change the direction of your
life. But, importantly, it does give an appreciation into how we got here. Be
prepared for a slow patch in the middle and go into the book knowing that you
probably have very limited knowledge of the topic and you will learn lots.

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prawn_c_racker
I really enjoy books that span over human civilisation as it's a nice reminder
how much we've achieved as a species as well as the destruction we've caused
along the way. Have you ever read Bill Brysons a short history of nearly
everything?

If you enjoyed that then I would say you would definitely enjoy Sapiens as I
found it more interesting and less "text booky". I'm currently reading Homo
Deus and enjoying it.

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dunk010
The first half of Homo Deus is basically a rehash of everything but the last
chapter of Sapiens. And the last half is basically an expansion of the last
chapter. It's still great, though.

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dunk010
Guns, Germs, and Steel, which is once of Noel's heavy influences, is
absolutely worth reading, too.

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aaronjil
No one can decide for you. I prefer to read business books, so to me it's a
big NO. But if your interest aligns, you may read.

