Brave New World

Sam Altman Partner & President/Y CombinatorRecommends this book

Yuval Noah Harari HistorianThe most prophetic book of the 20th century. Today many people would easily mistake it for a utopia. (Source)

John Quiggin The lesson I draw from this is that the purpose of utopia is not so much as an achieved state, as to give people the freedom to pursue their own projects. That freedom requires that people are free of the fear of unemployment, or of financial disaster through poor healthcare. They should be free to have access to the kind of resources they need for their education and we should maintain and extend access to things like the Internet. Then we would have a situation where everyone is free to participate in whatever way they choose – rather than aiming for the mindless state of contentment that... (Source)

Ellen Wayland-Smith It is a hilarious, and also very prescient, parody of utopias. Huxley goes back to the idea that coming together and forming a community of common interests is a great idea – it’s the basis of civil society. At the same time, when communities of common interests are taken to utopian degrees the self starts to dissolve into the larger community, you lose privacy and interiority; that becomes frightening. In Huxley’s parody, the people are convinced that they are melding together and that they are completely happy, but in the end it is utterly empty. (Source)

Catherine Mayer It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us. (Source)

Chan Koonchung Brave New World was written in the 1930s, and the book portrays a happy dystopia. There is an abundance of sex. People have a good time. (Source)

Igor Debatur Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche The Castle by Franz Kafka 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Source)

Sol Orwell Question: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path. Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 (though Huxley's Brave New World is a better reflection of today's society). (Source)

Andra Zaharia These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. (Source)

Tristan Harris Recommends this book

Jordan B Peterson Brave New World by Aldous Huxley https://t.co/a6K8tI8FrF, a book from my great books list https://t.co/AxBNX3QpMb (Source)

P J O’Rourke Huxley posits the idea that the political system actually does perfect things for people and it turns out to be nearly as scary as the horror shows actually created in the 20th century in the attempt to create the new man, whether as Aryan super-German or Marxist and whatever Mussolini and Franco were up to. So Huxley was showing us that this is a rum goal however ‘well’ it turns out. (Source)