Thoughts on: “The Third Chimpanzee” by Jared Diamond

There is a 1.2 percent difference in DNA between humans and chimpanzees. But what is it that makes humans able to fly into space and create weapons so powerful that they can annihilate the earth as a whole? When did we separate into our own species and what triggered our evolutionary leap forward to become the rulers of he world?

—————————————-

This is another book I picked out from Charlie Mungers list of book recommendations. And that list is a gift that keeps giving. This book is amazing. It covers a wide range from fields like anthropology, history and linguistics to evolutionary biology but it still feels like a coherent.

—————————————-

The book is split up into 5 parts. The relationship between man and chimp, “sexual selection”, “world conquest” and “environmental impacts and extinction”. Here are some outtakes from my notes:

—————————————-

“An alien zoologist from outer space. would easily guess that humans are a mildly polygamists species. It turns out that harem size corresponds to female vs male body size ratio. ”

—————————————-

“From a study made on people growing up in a kibbutz; we learn not to have sex with people we are intimately associated with up to a age of six. ”

—————————————-

“There is no correlation between linguistic and social complexity. Primitive societies have as complex languages as advanced ones.”

—————————————-

There is a lot fascinating things to learn from this book, like, why human men have medium sized balls compared to chimps and gorillas. 😀 But is gets a darker tone towards its conclusion when we have to face the facts that we have some really huge obstacle ahead of us if we want the human species to continue to thrive in the future given the limited resources of the earth. J.D sees that the continuos homogenization of societies as the chief hope in our survival as a species. Creating the conditions to globally solve environmental issues together.

Loss of cultural diversity might be the price we have to pay for survival.

————————

5/5

Check out my reading lists for more great books!

Thoughts on: “”The River of Doubt” by Candice Millard

In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by some crazy saloonkeeper on his way to deliver a speech on his third term election campaign. The bullet was slowed by his spectacle case and speech manuscript in his inner pocket, which kept it from reaching his lungs or heart. With blood dripping from his shirt and the bullet hole clearly visible through his notes he spoke the now famous line,

“It takes more than that to

Kill a bull moose!”, before delivering a 90 minute speech I front of a awestruck crowd. Not long after that he suffered a great defeat in the president election. Defeat was never easy for Theodore.

——————————————

He took to physical exhaustion and the wilderness to think sharp, fight depression and recover from loss. Roosevelt was not getting younger and wanted a last big adventure.

Together with Brazilian explorer Rondon he set out to an extraordinary journey to map an uncharted river in the most inhospitable parts of the amazon rainforests. It was going in to be a rough ride. Even for a “rough rider”.

——————————————

This book reads like fiction and I’m ones again amazed by Theodore Roosevelt’s character.

——————————————

Im also amazed by the Amazons, but I don’t want to set my foot there myself. Hearing about penis entering fishes, malaria, the skull crushing fall of the Brazil nuts from their trees and cannibalistic tribes (maybe not so much anymore..) make me suffice with reading about it.

——————————————

On a side note: TD brought “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius on the expedition. He said he took great comfort in reading it during the worst parts of the journey. Great packing advice for dangerous adventures. 😀

——————————————

“The River of Doubt” by Candice Millard (Get Book)

5/5

 

Check out my reading lists for more great books!

Thoughts on: “Wherever You Go There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn

What does the expression “Wherever you go, there you are” point towards?

————-

Wherever you travel you always bring yourself with you. It’s easy to think that with a new job at a new company will finally make you happy. A few months later, after scoring that new job, you start to think: “if only I could escape this small town and move to a big city, then I will be happy.

————-

Believing that external circumstances will bring inner peace is a trap. You will re-live the same pattern over and over again til you die. OR you start to appreciate where you are right now, come to terms with yourself, and surrender to the present moment. When we are fully present, the world in which we live becomes extraordinary.

————-

I’m have definitely not mastered this myself, but I think I have caught glimpses of it, and I believe these yogi people might be on to something!

————-

📝 “So at the beginning, you might want to stay with your breath, or use it as an anchor to bring you back when you are carried away. Try it for a few years and see what happens”

Quite a different timeline from the “10-min abs” and “get rich quick”-schemes you see everywhere! 😎

————-

📝 In ancient times, when it got dark people gathered by the fires. There was not enough light to continue doing stuff and we got a natural break for stillness. Today we don’t have to be limited by daylight and we can be kept busy 24-7.

————-

📝 “The joy of non-doing is that nothing else needs to happen for this moment to be complete”

————-

⭐️ TAKEAWAY:

“Going to 10 day meditation retreats might not be a big deal for some, but when you decide to start a family it gets harder.”

See the children as your practice and teachers! They will test your mindfulness and selflessness and push all your limits. It’s like a 18 year retreat!

————-

This is a great book for inspiring the already initiated, but there are better alternatives for people not yet familiar with the topic of mindfulness and meditation . Eckhart Tolles “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth” will teach you the same concepts, but in a more powerful way in my opinion.

———-

3/5

Check out my reading lists for more great books!

Best Books of the Year: #1

#1 “Levels of Energy” by Frederick E. Dodson

—-—

Here is something they didn’t teach you in school! The premise of the book is that there are clearly defined levels of consciousness. Basically, people experience reality differently – and act and think in a certain ways -depending on their energy “level”. Dodson lays out his whole spectral energy scale, from 0 – 1000, from the hellish to joy and bliss. It’s quite a ride!

——- WHY THIS BOOK? ———

It’s fascinating! I don’t think it’s possible to read through this book without discovering something new about yourself or the people and environment around you.

————— IMPACT —————

The key to enjoying this book is to not expect to resonate with or believe everything it says. That’s also what open-mindedness is for me – to be able to listen to arguments and ideas that goes against ones believes, then experiment with that new information and see what works – and change views accordingly. You don’t have to believe the content and still you get huge benefits from reading it. Which is really cool! This book was the most interesting book I read this year. It’s super weird, but I think you can handle it! 😀👌🏻

Find more over here: Favorite Books of 2017

Best Books of the Year – #2

#2 “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains” by Nicolas Carr

—-—

Having anxiety about how the Internet is changing us? As we enjoy new ways of consuming information, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

——- WHY THIS BOOK? ———

The book is incredibly interesting and explains a lot of behavioral changes I’ve noticed in myself in recent years. It discusses the science around how internet browsing affects the way we think and learn. We also get a fascinating history of how, throughout time, the introduction of new media have changed the human perspective. Well researched and eye-opening! “To be everywhere is to be nowhere”

-Seneca

————— IMPACT —————

Most of all it has helped me keep and expand good learning habits and to notice – and discard – bad ones. One notion I’ve had for a while is that the length time you are exposed to an idea matters. Learning about 30 different topics for 30 min each (by reading articles and blogs for instance) is less effective for accumulating knowledge, than learning about one topic for 15 hours by reading a book. Something that research seems to support.

We also have to make some room here to consider the confirmation bias; of course I will appreciate a book that says that reading books is a great for deep learning and retaining knowledge. 🤥

——— 🤔QUESTIONS🤔——-

How do you go about creating as much retention as possible when learning new thing?

#2 “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains” by Nicolas Carr

Find more favorites here: Favorite Books of 2017

 

Best Books of the Year: #3

#3 “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse

—-—

Hesse influential book about a wealthy Brahmin son that casts off a life of privilege to find spiritual fulfillment. A short read and profound read!

——- WHY THIS BOOK? ———

“This book is scripture posing as literature and is best read after getting what you thought you wanted.” – Gary (Goodreads). I think this sentence really captures why this book is important.

————— IMPACT —————

It ended up in my possession by coincidence. It was not on my radar at all. I met the mysterious man behind @booksonthetub in the subway one autumn morning at 5am. He had brought a stack of books for me that he thought might be of interest and “Siddhartha” was one of them. I’m happy I read it! It’s not every day you find a book that you know you will go back to over and over again throughout life. This book also spawned my first fiction review on my page. There will be more of that going forward!

——— 🤔QUESTIONS🤔——-

What book was surprising for you last year?

——————MORE——————

This book got me so inspired that I made a fool of myself and wrote the review of it in verse.

Find more over here: Favorite Books of 2017

Thoughts on: “At the Existentialists Café” by Sarah Bakewell

Time for a small break from the Top- 10 countdown before it reaches its crescendo. 😎

——

This became my first encounter with the modern existentialists thanks to a recommendation by @inside_brians_brain . In this book we get to know Sartre and de Beauvoir primarily – but also Camus, Heidegger, Merleau Ponty to name a few! And we are taken on a journey where we get to familiarize with their concerns about being human, freedom and above all; authenticity.

——

📝 Remnants of existentialist ideas in modern culture: “The vague longing for a more “real” way of living leads some people for example to sign up for weekend retreats in which their smartphones are taken away, like toys from children, so that they can spend two days walking in the country landscape and reconnect to each other and their forgotten selfs.” Did I mention that I wished for a “silent retreat” for Christmas?! 🤣

———

📝 Phenomenology:

A philosophy of describing reality in detail, exactly how it’s experienced in the moment. An example of phenomenology in action would be wine tasting.

———

📝 Sartre wrote a lot. Averaging 20 pages a day during his lifetime.

———

📝 Sartre gave money away as fast as it came – and books after he read them. The only things he kept was his pipe and his pen. ”Nothing was to be kept in place of the money. Just memories.”

———

📝 About the pre-war rise of the nazis: ”Sometimes the most educated people where the least inclined to take the nazis seriously, dismissing them as too absurd to last.”

———

The books is complex and so are the persons it portrays. It was slow to hone me in – but now I’m excited to learn more! I’m already committing to further studies of the existentialists and to embrace the density of existence, it’s anxiety and contingencies.

——-

4/5

“At the Existentialists Café” by Sarah Bakewell

Photo credit: @punkass_bookjockeys on Instagram

Check out my reading lists for more great books!

Thoughts on: “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance

I was not the only one that woke up confused with Donald Trump installed as president of the United States.

————————————————-

This book has helped me understand how this could happen and why it came a such a surprise for a lot of people.

————————————————-

The book is part memoir and part sociocultural analysis. J. D Vance tells the true story of what it like to live in community in decline. He grew up in a rust belt town in a family that struggled with addiction and abuse but escaped it. Seeing his own community from from an outside perspective made him write this book.

————————————————

The white working class is the one social group in America that has the darkest outlook on life. Learned helplessness, believing that ones choices don’t have any impact on ones life, is widespread and belief in upward mobility and opportunities to come is fading.

————————————————-

I don’t have a certain key takeaway from this book, but it help understand where the messaging of Trumps presidential campaign was aimed at and how in some circles it came as such a surprise that he won.

————————————————

This is not a book about politics, but a very honest and personal story that attempts to understand reasons behind the recent decline in the “hillbilly” way of life. It doesn’t mention Trump but it makes it clear that there are a lot of desperate people in the US that feel overlooked and want to end the status quo no matter the price.

——————————————–

4/5

“Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance

Check out my complete reading lists for more great books!

 

Best Books of the Year – #4

#4 “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson

—-—

The gripping biography of the most prominent innovator of out time.

——- WHY THIS BOOK? ———

Parts goes to Isaacson for being able to write a 600 page book without any real low points, and parts goes to Steve for being such an interesting fella! Anyhow – it’s just an excellent biography!

————— IMPACT —————

These is something with the intensity and focus with which Steve engaged with the world that I find truly fascinating. That’s what I’m taking away from this book.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

⁃ Steve Jobs

——— 🤔QUESTIONS🤔——-

What’s your favorite biography you read last year??

Find more over here: Favorite Books of 2017

Best Books of the Year – #5

#5 “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer

—-—

Christopher McCandles was found dead in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. He had left society and family behind, burned his money (literary) and set off on a journey to find the true essence of life, far away from job security, conformity and a monotonous middle class existence.

——- WHY THIS BOOK? ———

It’s a incredible story that stays with you long after you turned the last page.

————— IMPACT —————

Apart from forcing me to ask myself a lot of questions about how life ought to be lived, it also introduced me to the author Jon Krakauer. I have now started my third book by him, “Under the Banner of Heaven”, and earlier this year I read his Everest-book “Into Thin Air”. Good stuff!

——— 🤔QUESTIONS🤔——-

Have you read any Krakauer books?

Find more over here: Favorite Books of 2017