August 2020: H A R A R I
Rebel Book: #64
Book: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Meetup: Hop In – Virtual Event Space
Fuel: Imagined Order (Cocktails From Your Cupboard by Mix + Muddle)
Knowing that many members have had a Harari book sat waiting on their kindles for the last few years, this month we set ourselves the mega challenge of finishing a Harari book in one month. Members could choose any book from the Harari Trilogy, but it was 21 Lessons for the 21st Century that won the popular vote.
We kicked off the theme with a blockbuster trailer for this seminal collection of non-fiction titles – a little bit of fun to get us all in the zone!
Next up, we set out our targets for reading Harari in a month. Something we always do with our books, but this time they’re worth sharing for anyone looking to take on the challenge…
We’re big on impact at RBC, so we sent out a little Q+A to our members to see what sort of effect these reads were having on them.
Here are a couple of highlights…
"Homo Sapiens are not the human species that existed the longest time, that there was a time when more than one human species lived at the same time, that incredible huge animals lived on earth not too long ago and humans have already eradicated so many animal species and so quickly…. The legend of Peugeot; ‘biology enables, culture forbids"
- Reflecting on Sapiens
"I think the elite superhumans is a pretty scary thought. I thought the overarching need to reinvent ourselves as we change how we interact with the world (first learn, then work… then what?) is interesting and so true. All of the disturbing information about the meat and dairy industries really made an impact on me and left me feeling incredibly sad and guilty of ignorance."
- Reflecting on Homo Deus + 21 Lessons
After the first two chapters I lost my will to read more (but I did eventually) and thought seriously if I want to bring my kids to the future described. Also, I will be offline more often, my phone and social media screen time decreased rapidly since reading the book.
- Reflecting on 21 Lessons
One WTF moment was the chess anecdote – learning how AlphaZero demonstrated superiority to Stockfish 8 after teaching itself for a mere four hours, by playing itself and with no historical chess input regarding strategy, etc. Really brought home just how much faster the brains of computers are than all of our collective human intelligence. Quite frightening in some respects!
- Reflecting on 21 Lessons
Followed by some profound Harari one (or two!) liners to take away with you, all chosen by RBC members. Feel free to download + put them on your fridge! From us to you…
Finally, our end of month event focused on trading the Harari WTF!! moments that had blown our collective minds, whilst turbo-boosting the opportunities to make new member connections both locally and globally. We had a lovely lineup of RBC Harari Super Fans up on stage who spoke beautifully about what the books had inspired in them. You can check out their wise words below…
If you're new here, welcome!
If you’d like to be part of our community of Rebels, head over to RebelBook.Club to check out our membership options, or drop Membership Manager, Anca, a note at hello@rebelbookclub.co.uk
