Yuval Noah Harari

Israeli historian and a tenured professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and a tenured professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the international bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014) and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2015). His writings examine concepts of free will, consciousness and definitions of intelligence.

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21 Lessons for the 21st Century

by Yuval Noah Harari

This is Yuval Noah Harari's third book (and our third Note). His first two focused on the past (Sapiens) and the future (Homo Deus). In this one, we "zoom in on the here and now" as we take a look at 21 of the most important things to be thinking about in the 21st century. Like all of his books, this is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at some globally Big Ideas. Although obviously outside the scope of our normal Optimizing, I think it's important stuff. In the Note we explore dealing with "Disillusionment" (the title of chapter #1) by switching from "panic to bewilderment"), the future of health care and driving (and jobs!), making sure we match our investment in developing AI with an equivalent investment in developing "human consciousness," what we should be teaching our kids (basically, how to Optimize!!), and Yuval's #1 practice: meditation.

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Leadership

leadership meditation

Homo Deus

A Brief History of Tomorrow

by Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari is a brilliant historian and thinker. He has a PhD in history from Oxford and is a tenured professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After finishing my Note on his first bestselling book Sapiens I immediately picked up this one. While Sapiens features a “A Brief History of Humankind,” Homo Deus gives us “A Brief History of Tomorrow.” Wonder what the future might look like and how artificial intelligence and biotechnology will fundamentally change the world and our species? Well, this is the book for you. It’s incredibly well-written and thoughtful and thought provoking. I HIGHLY recommend it. Big Ideas we explore include how Harari developed such an extraordinary mind (hint: 10,000+ hours of meditation and no smartphone), why we should study history (hint: to reimagine a better future), the 21st century's Big 3: Immortality + Happiness + Divinity (which results in an upgrade from Homo sapiens to Homo deus!), and algorithms--"arguably the single most important concept of the 21st century.

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Sapiens

A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari has a PhD in history from Oxford and now lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also has popular online classes and his books have sold over 12 million (!) copies while being translated into dozens of languages. This book is an incredibly smart, well-written, astonishing look at, as per the sub-title, “A Brief History of Humankind.” The breadth and depth and wisdom of Harari's thinking is jaw-dropping. Distilling this 443-page mini-treatise on 70,000 years of Homo Sapien history is, obviously, impossible but we'll have fun taking a quick look at Homo sapiens' family tree (including our parents and brothers and sisters) plus the three revolutions that have shaped our history: The Cognitive Revolution + The Agricultural Revolution + The Scientific Revolution.

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Nutrition

History Nutrition science

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Iconoclastically Expanding our Horizon of Possibilities

Yuval Noah Harari is a very smart man. He got his PhD in history from Oxford and he’s written a couple of bestselling books: one called Sapiens

+1 inspired by Note: Homo Deus

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Hint: Become an Ignoramus

In our last +1, we talked about Yuval Noah Harari and the fact that studying history allows us to reimagine a better future by seeing that a lot of the things we take for granted are neither natural, inevitable nor immutable. … ...

+1 inspired by Note: Sapiens

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Which One Are You Using?

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that, as per the brilliant Professor Harari, The Scientific Revolution that kicked off 500 years ago and so profoundly changed the world was started by a bunch of ignoramuses who were wil...

+1 inspired by Note: Sapiens

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Running Experiments
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Like Good Scientific Sapiens

In our last +1, we talked about Professor Harari’s two world maps—one before The Scientific Revolution that was all filled in (including areas they knew NOTHING about) and one after that had plenty of empty spaces (...

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The Quest for Immortality

Continuing our exploration of wisdom gleaned from Yuval Noah Harari’s big brain and two bestselling books, let’s talk about how to live forever. (This one will be more like a +11 as it’ll run on the longer side…)...

+1 inspired by Note: Sapiens

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<- It's “Arguably the Single Most Important Concept in Our World”

Continuing our tour through Professor Harari’s big brain and its vision of our future, let’s talk about what he considers “arguably the single most important concept in our world.” What would you guess? Given what we’ve discussed about the past and the future, what would you th...

+1 inspired by Note: Sapiens

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Algorithms & Habits

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Getting to the Bottom of Things
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Vis-a-Vis Staying on Top of Things

In our last +1, we talked about the humble algorithm and Professor Harari’s point that it is, arguably, the single most important concept in our world today. We also did ...

+1 inspired by Note: Sapiens

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Hint: Train It for 10,000+ Hours

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that Yuval Noah Harari doesn’t have a smartphone. He’s basically written an algorithm that helps him get to the bottom of things rathe...

+1 inspired by Note: Sapiens

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Meditation & Peak Performance

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Memento Minima (+ Infinitus)
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Remember: We’re Tiny (+ Infinite!)

Yuval Noah Harari’s new book recently came out. It’s called 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. I got it the day it was...

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Love Kryptonite
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Strikes 8 Billion Times Per Day (in the US Alone)

In our last +1, we talked about Love. Specifically, we talked about Love 0.0. Love 1.0. Love 2.0. And, Love 3.0. Today, we’re going to talk about what I think is the #1 thing that gets in the way of ALL of those forms of Love. Can you guess what it is?...

+1 inspired by Note: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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You, Horseshoes & Autonomous Cars
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Elon Musk and Yuval Noah Harari on Your Future

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that Americans check their phones 8 BILLION times every day. (Wow.) We also talked about the fact that (at least 5 billion of) those 8 billion checks are essentially kryptonite for the love in your life. Today I want to talk about some more

+1 inspired by Note: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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Meet Mrs. Kristie Kuehnast

A couple of +1s ago, we talked about the fact that we can TEACH willpower. We also talked about the fact that, unfortunately, very few school administrators and/or teachers are actually thinking about the importance of this. Today I want to talk about one teacher I know who IS teaching this stu...

+1 inspired by Note: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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Byron Katie’s Investment Strategy

In our last +1, we met one of my heroes, Mrs. Kristie Kuehnast. I smile with joy (and in awe) every time I imagine her fifth-grade students coming back into the classroom after their mile run to sit down and watch a new +1 or PNTV. Hig...

+1 inspired by Note: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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A Quick Accounting

In our last +1, we talked about Byron Katie’s investment strategy and putting your focus on the most important stock market out there: Your own consciousness. Today, I want to go back to some wisdom we briefly touched on from

+1 inspired by Note: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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Yuval Noah Harari

Israeli historian and a tenured professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

PhilosophersNotes on Yuval Noah Harari's Books All PhilosophersNotes

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A Brief History of Lawns
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How to Revolutionize Your Life
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The Two Maps of Your Life
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Running Experiments
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How to Live Forever
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“Algorithm”
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Getting to the Bottom of Things
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How to Create a World-Class Mind
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Memento Minima (+ Infinitus)
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Love Kryptonite
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You, Horseshoes & Autonomous Cars
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The Optimize Teacher
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The Greatest Stock Market
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