The World's Best Book Summaries
What is a black swan? What is black swan theory? What does the term “black swan” mean? A black swan is an extremely unpredictable event that has a massive impact on human society. The Black Swan is named after a classic error of induction, the black swan fallacy. We’ll cover the meaning of “black swan,” what black swan theory is, and what “black swan” means in economics.
What were the battle strategies of the Zhou dynasty armies? Were they successful? What can we learn from the successes and failures of the Zhou dynasty? We’ll cover two lessons from the battles of the Zhou dynasty against the Jin and Qi about how to conduct yourself in war and in life.
What is stage 9 of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey? What is the significance of the “atonement with the father”? The atonement with the father is the stage of the hero’s journey in which the hero meets the figure of a fearsome father-god whom the hero must either overcome or reconcile with. The atonement with the father is stage 9 of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, from The Hero with a Thousand Faces. We’ll cover what the atonement with the father entails and look at two examples of this stage of the hero’s journey.
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu advocated for the use of spies. What role do Sun Tzu’s spies play in battle? What are the different types? We’ll cover the 5 types of Sun Tzu’s spies and how Sun Tzu suggests warriors use them to be victorious in battle.
Who is Muchukunda? What did he want more than anything else, and what does this Hindu story have to do with Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey? We’ll cover the story of King Muchukunda and his desire to sleep forever, and we’ll look at how King Muchukunda’s journey follows the mythological template of the hero’s journey.
Is there a difference between “sex” and “gender”? What is it? What is the “sex vs. gender” debate? Sex is determined by a person’s genes, whereas gender is determined by whether you fit society’s mold of “man” or “woman.” Although related to sex, gender isn’t determined by your genes. We’ll cover the sex vs. gender debate and why this distinction has been so hard to grasp throughout history.
How did Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the new world revolutionize the world? How did it contribute to the rise of capitalism and our attitude toward our own ignorance? We’ll cover how Christopher Columbus’s first voyage and “discovery” of America forced people to confront their own ignorance. Then, we’ll look at how it spawned the marriage of capitalism and imperialism, forces that have defined our modern world.
How did our current global empire form? What factors unified disparate cultures, and how were money and empires involved? We’ll cover how the monetary order and imperialism, though they came with many disadvantages, shaped our world into the global empire that it is today. Money and empire were ultimately unifying forces.
What were the social impacts of the Industrial Revolution? What effects of the Industrial Revolution remain in our society today? We’ll cover the Industrial Revolution and its consequences: artificial time, the rise of the state and market, and relative peace. We’ll also look at how the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the idea of individualism.
In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari uses concepts from physics, chemistry, biology, and history to tell the story of us, Homo sapiens, and the history of human evolution. The history of early human evolution is punctuated by advances in language and technology, and the evolution has been both biological and social. Some social advantages started out as biological disadvantages. We’ll look at each revolution and how it dramatically redirected the course of human history.