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A review by applekern
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
3.0
What is the core message of this book? It certainly is not giving 21 lessons to keep in mind for the coming century. Rather, the author is dissecting many of the dynamics and questionmarks we are currently facing, without any lessons or clear line of logic. Starting with, how did he come up with the exact number of 21 - merely abritrary to make a nice title? - this book is rather a collection of thought provoking observations and a discussion of what might be possible.
And while it does a good job at providing food for thought, it also seems to contradict itself. I loved reading Sapiens, as it seemed to me a rather unbiased view on how humanity developed. However, Harari now seemed inherently biased and looking at the topics solely through western-ish glasses. It's easy to be pessimistic and see all the possible ways things can go wrong, and thus I did not see why writing this book contributed to the legacies of Sapiens and Homo Deus.
Other things that bothered me where how he used Disney movies to describe complex situations - don't get me wrong, I love Disney movies - and how he routinely focussed on elaborating how monumentally different developments now are from 1000 years ago. Ex-post, this is always easy to see and say that it's "clear" how things would develop. However back then, like now, the future is ambigious and assuming anything else is naive.
Overall I probably just got taken aback by the amount of praise this book has gotten, which is why this review is harsher than I usually would critique a book. I still consider some parts valuable and learned about dynamics that were not as obvious to me before. 3.5 stars.
And while it does a good job at providing food for thought, it also seems to contradict itself. I loved reading Sapiens, as it seemed to me a rather unbiased view on how humanity developed. However, Harari now seemed inherently biased and looking at the topics solely through western-ish glasses. It's easy to be pessimistic and see all the possible ways things can go wrong, and thus I did not see why writing this book contributed to the legacies of Sapiens and Homo Deus.
Other things that bothered me where how he used Disney movies to describe complex situations - don't get me wrong, I love Disney movies - and how he routinely focussed on elaborating how monumentally different developments now are from 1000 years ago. Ex-post, this is always easy to see and say that it's "clear" how things would develop. However back then, like now, the future is ambigious and assuming anything else is naive.
Overall I probably just got taken aback by the amount of praise this book has gotten, which is why this review is harsher than I usually would critique a book. I still consider some parts valuable and learned about dynamics that were not as obvious to me before. 3.5 stars.