Sapiens: How a mind virus sold 40 million books

It's the story of an enigmatic vegan nerd who sets himself the banal task of summarizing... the entire history of mankind in 400 pages.

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00:00 : Intro
02:49 : 1 - The making of the “Science Populist”
09:54 : 2 - "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?”
12:18 : 3 - Hacking the zeitgeist with a story
21:14 : 4 - Guru expansion theory
25:16 : Outro

#Sapiens

[jd]

wtf is buzzing it gave me heart attack twice

[mindfulskills]

Thanks for this very able defense of Harari, one of my very favorite public intellectuals. He is, in my view, an exemplar of the lucidity and insight that come from regular and deep meditation practice. Some of his detractors are no doubt sincere in pointing out mistakes that they believe are important, but I think that many others are just jealous of his success and trying to bum a ride on his coat tails.

[saffron-js]

Fair and interesting commentary, and you hit the nail on the head with: "A fundamental principle in entrepreneurship: great execution always beats great ideas. A brilliant idea that is never acted on is worth nothing, but a decent idea with outstanding execution can create empires." Aside from all the academic criticism of Sapiens, it was a pleasure to read, with much food for thought for us "average" folks. Harari is also a pleasure to listen to. He is like that smart, nerdy intellectual friend whose opinions you seek out when something big happens, no doubt the same "guru expansion" theory that gave rise to news/comedy shows like the Daily Show and comedians becoming valuable commentators on society.

[charlesd]

Sorry but the problem is that he passes his work off as serious, reputable science - it isn't! He's a grifter. If you're going to pass your work off as non-fiction it's sorta expected you get the facts right both large and small. It's not nit-picking to point that out. Did Hawkins conflate neutron stars with blackholes in his work? No because he took his readers seriously. Harari doesn't coz he knows most are easily fooled when you flatter them by making them feel as if they're engaging with the serious world of science (when really it's infotainment/fiction). And yes, Harari likes to use imprecise language because it gives him more leeway to get things wrong either technically or just to make a more interesting read - that's fiction!

His predictions he's made in the past were made by many, many others in the 1950s, 60s... Again there is nothing new, nothing impressive yet the presenter seems amazed.

[nayR]

I never got the impression from the book that it was trying to come across as definitive in any way. It was just one anthropologist's opinion, albeit a very well communicated one. Perhaps that's because I went into it already understanding that nobody can ever be an expert at everything.

[theseanwardshow]

Mayne this so coming up but im at the part with the question about "if yourw so smart why, arent you rich?" Isnt Mr Harari 2nd in command of the WEF? Isnt he the guy who has popularised the phrase "useless eaters" do describe people?

[hisdudeness]

Never read his book but I heard about it a lot from my peers. The book is not supposed to be a fact-based anthropology of humans, but rather the history of humans. We have to realize that he is a historian, not a scientist. The field of science changes constantly, through fact-checking using the peer review process so that wrong knowledge won't be perpetuated. Many of my peers who read his book told me it was life-changing and thought-provoking. So, at least it made people think. I hope that through his book, he does not mean to perpetuate his personal philosophy through the disguise of science. I have seen his talks and interviews though, and he seems somewhat disconnected from people.
Edit: Sorry, I commented before completing the video. I didn't know about the guru expansion theory, that's really interesting!

[youssefbensoltane]

Great job, nuanced analysis, clickbaity title does the job. On en oublierait presque le buzz strident et l’accent. The reference to Bourdieu was on point. Keep it up.

[theultimateartist]

I've read a CRAPLOAD of books and heard a CRAPTON of jokes but that Native American tale is the FUNNIEST thing I've heard on youtube LOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Anouargama]

Gaining Youtube subscribers is clearly not an easy job. The few things I have seen on your channel are so well done that I can say it easily matches other content of Youtubers with many thousands or even millions of subscribers. Keep up the good work. Who knows how many people you will be to reach within a few years. By the way the french accent is actually charming 😂

[Jack-n-da-BeanStalk]

I like your style. Great work. Keep going!

[augustuslxiii]

4:39 (do not click, gentle Sapien)

As a human being myself, this - for a few seconds - made me hate to be conscious. Why are you like this? Shame on you.

[mawrashah]

He's genius enough to cash capitalism and populism. Yet, I'd say, he's not that bad. That's how literature is: full of metaphors and intriguing diction so as to keep the reader engaged.

[victordoroshin]

Your video is well done. Good luck down the line.
That being said, Yuval Harari's books are the Beer Yoga of History and Anthropology. To call his class easy is an understatement; it teaches nothing. Reframing facts to make them more interesting and palatable at the expense of precision is an exercise in dishonesty, and is a slippery slope.

[DanielNiemann-jd]

The book is obviously meant to change the mind of lesser intellectuals as according to his words

[wolfy]

As a history lover, i could never brought myself to read that book despite it been a bestseller for a long time. Just had a feeling after flipping the book open in the book store couple of time, that it would be a waste of time...
i guess my instinct was correct.

[jamesbunch]

The concept of "Guru expansion" is great. It explains why scientists and other specialists have problems with Harari. And why for generations, intelligent creative people who invented and discovered (rather than marketed) the world we live in today would have been instantly allergic to the kind of hubristic overconfidence that the likes of Harari and Peterson (and I'll add Obama, Bill Gates, etc) have developed. Disastrous and misguided.

I can appreciate Harari's writing. I enjoyed reading Sapiens. But people like Harari get taken more seriously than people who actually have a first-hand knowledge of what they are talking about.

Bill Gates has no business presenting himself as a guru knowledgeable about education, vaccines, climate science, etc. He doesn't even have grounds to represent himself as knowledgeable about computer software. He's a manager.

[amac]

nice storytelling... subscribed. you'll definitely grow very big if you keep this up.

[marcoangiulo]

This video is maybe more captivating than Harari's book... Well done man, really appreciated!

[luis-alvarez-z]

Thanks for another very insightful video. I really like the part where you highlight how these people set the problems and position themselves to be the solution providers.

You might want to check the audio of the small clips you used as support. There is a very annoying beep that comes along with them.