Monday, May 11, 2020

My five quarantine re-read list

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
2. Homo Deus - Yuval Harari
3. The Wisest One in the Room -Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross
4. god is not Great - Christopher Hitchens
5. Mind and Brain - Angus Gellatly and Oscar Zarate

I usually do not read books that I have read before. But owing to this long quarantine, I found myself picking up past books that I have read and the above list are those which I found myself picking up rereading the most. 

Yuval Noah Harari is currently my favorite writer. His insights on humanity, our prospect and our future are not just thought provoking but for me, they are a useful guide to living a meaningful life at our specific stage of evolution.

With the disturbing  rise of leaders with autocratic, even despotic tendencies aided by fake news, there is Harari's observation which I would like to quote and share: In the past, censorship works by blocking the flow of information. In the twenty-first century censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information....In the past, having power means having access to data. Today, having power means knowing what to ignore".

I do not know what other people will make of this, but I completely agree with him.

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