Rastin Mehr – Page 11

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Sapiens A brief history of humankind

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that was hard to put down. I enjoyed every page of this book and was longing for more once I finished it. Harari is an Oxford historian and globally known intellectual who does a good job of connecting the dots. In this book, he talks about how Sapiens managed to accomplish a lot and do a lot of damage at the same time.

Sapiens covers the history of money, religion, corporations, war, technological revolution, and different ideologies. I particularly liked how he studies homo sapiens as an alien anthropologist would. Considering the current political atmosphere in the world, Sapiens answered a lot of my questions and brought clarity about how we managed to get here.

This book is an easy and engaging read. I’ve heard that Yuval has gained quite a following in Silicon Valley, especially for his next book after this called Homo Deus, which is a meditation on the future of humanity.

An Unquiet Mind – A memoir of moods and madness

This is an autobiography of Kay Redfield Jamison, a well accomplished clinical psychologist who has done plenty of research on bipolar disorder and manic depression as well as her own challenges of dealing with this type of mental illness. I have loved ones who suffer from bipolar disorder so this book was a bit emotionally intense to read for me. In the meantime, it is the best description I’ve read about the day-to-day experiences of someone suffering from BP. She also has a great sense of humor and her writing is engaging.

Order Out Of Chaos by Ilya Prigogine

I found this book in our hallway. One of the neighbors had done a book purge so I dug in and took a few books for myself. This one was from the mid-80s, but I decided to read it anyway because Ilya Prigogine is a physics Nobel prize winner. Scientific books don’t become obsolete as fast. This wasn’t an easy read and it took me a while to finish it. I didn’t understand half of it, but the half that I understood was amazing.

I met a fellow from Georgia

A fellow from Georgia ask me for direction to get to Stanley Park. He looked like a polite and nice looking George Bush. I really liked his accent. Incredibly nice guy and he told me all about Georgia and New Orleans. I told him all about Vancouver. That’s not the impression I had from that area in states. I hope I left a positive impression on him about Vancouver and Canada. Part of me wishes we haven’t had this much hatred and divisive politics in the world. I wish someday I get to visit Georgia and New Orleans and meet a stranger who’d show me directions and feel just a bit better knowing me. I wish this fellow a happy stay in Vancouver.

Why are introverts the quiet ones in social gatherings?

One big difference I’ve noticed between introverted and extroverted people is that extroverted people tend to share their experiences while introverts would rather discuss a topic or a concept. That makes sense; when someone doesn’t get out much to have experiences and invests a lot in activities that include reading, writing, and creating, then they don’t have many experiences to share and end up being quiet all the time in social gatherings. What do you think?