Thought Bouquet

I shall just begin from where I left so none shall be of knowledge bereft! and tell all that there is to say making up stories on the way! Picking up from my last blog, let me jump to the second book that I would like to remember this year by and that is Sapiens by Harari. Harari is not really interested in the evolutionary chain that preceded the humankind. His quest is not biological but rather historical. On a genetic level we have not much changed from about seventy thousand years to now. But between then and now, we have transformed from being any other ordinary animal into the ultimate masters of the planet. Harari argues that this reality was made possible in large part due to fiction. Story-making or myth-creation is one of the main reasons homo sapiens leaped ahead of the rest of the animal kind. Our ability to invent myths and convincing stories which could be believed and shared by a large number of people helped us to cross the "critical threshold" of an...

As every year recedes, memories tend to be captured in neat little packages with years cello-taped on them and placed on dusted shelves. It's that time of the year again and a maddening rush of memories are strewn all over my shelf, each clamoring to be the defining and decisive one for the year, one that would encapsulate and epitomize the whole of 365 days. The best memories I would like to take away from this year unto all the remaining years of my life are the learning I have acquired through 2 gems of books: "Thinking, Fast and Slow'' and "Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind". They have forever changed the way I look at life, world and everything else. Thinking, Fast and Slow is primarily concerned with decision making. We have been told since we were born about how perfectly efficient our brains are, about how our minds are the best computers ever made. Well, as it turns out, we are not nearly as perfect or as efficient as we would delude ourselv...