Episode · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020-10-28
Books mentioned on #477: Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens, Forging the Skill of Awareness, and The Power of Disguised Books
Prof. Yuval Noah Harari (@harari_yuval) is a historian and bestselling author who is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals today.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Sapiens
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is a sweeping exploration of how Homo sapiens evolved, dominated the planet, and constructed complex imaginary orders like religion, money, and nations.
Discussed“what was the title of the original english version of sapience and how many copies did it sell yeah it was a long story i mean the original english version was titled from animals into gods and it sold it was a self-publication on amazon”
Where to get it
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Zero to One
Zero to One by Peter A.
Discussed“because i've seen in some books that i've quite enjoyed like zero to one by peter thiel and his his co-writer also came from lecture notes originally at stanford”
Where to get it
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Brave New World
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a chilling dystopian masterpiece depicting a futuristic society engineered through genetic manipulation, conditioning, and pharmacological distraction to maintain total stability at the cost of individual freedom.
Discussed“i mean the aldous huxley and brave new world yeah brave the world i i it really had really really deep impact on me”
Where to get it
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a comedic science fiction classic that follows the absurd interstellar adventures of an ordinary human named Arthur Dent.
Discussed“hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy i also great i also list it as a philosophy book um you know i think that and it had an impact on not just on on my thinking but on my on on how i write or work”
Where to get it
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Exhalation
Exhalation by Ted Chiang is a critically acclaimed collection of philosophical science fiction short stories.
Recommended“if you haven't read any of ted chang's work c-h-i-a-n-g he has a he has a a compilation of short stories called exhalation”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (5) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“and it's it's a paragraph from your wonderful profile i should say answers to questions in tribe of mentors which is my last book from a few years ago”
“without the focus and clarity provided by this practice i could not have written sapiens and homo deus”
“without the focus and clarity provided by this practice i could not have written sapiens and homo deus”
“i don't think as i wrote in this that passage you read i don't think i could have written sapiens or homo deus or any of these other books without the practice of meditation”
“i don't think as i wrote in this that passage you read i don't think i could have written sapiens or homo deus or any of these other books without the practice of meditation”