This is Harari’s third book — Sapiens looked at the past, Homo Deus explored the future and 21 Lessons discusses the present. My ranking of these three books is also in the same order.
This book is a collection of 21 essays divided in 5 sections with all of them neatly fitting into a cohesive narrative, perhaps fitting too neatly in some cases —the conclusion of each essay segues into the beginning of the next and that sometimes seems forced. What also seems forced are some of the essays which either hold no lessons for the reader or the lessons sound too glib — perhaps they were included to enable the alliterative title of the book!
In essence, Harari is a libertarian but still explores the current shortcomings of liberal democracy so that it can be improved and made more sustainable. Harari explores quite a few interesting ideas through the book. For example, in Work, he sees the need for combining a universal basic income with meaningful pursuits for humankind if AI makes most jobs redundant. He underscores the difference between intelligence and consciousness in Liberty. He explores the concept of the rich becoming a superhuman race, due to biotechnology, in the chapter on Equality. In Nationalism, he bemoans the fact that even as the increasing nuclear, ecological, and technology challenges need to be solved by a concerted global attempt, nationalism is on the rise. He explores racism versus culturism in Immigration. In Education, he makes the point that in 1018, we knew that the world would look the same in 1050 and could prepare for it. Today, we don’t know what the world will be like in 2050. The essay on Secularism was my favourite. With great clarity, Harari explains why it is not a simple negation of religion.
There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that Harari is a fantastic thinker with insightful views on multiple topics, and a 3/5 rating perhaps seems a bit unfair. But besides some essays being force-fitted, I found some of his arguments specious, such as the one about the irrelevance of a majority of humankind —in the new world fuelled by technology, this majority will ultimately be consumers (of advertising for example in the case of Google) or suppliers (of data). Another example is his underestimation of the power of revolutions if inequality widens. This may be of a different kind from earlier ones in the history of humankind but there will likely be one nevertheless. Harari also uses several examples to make each point. While that can be interesting at times, it also sometimes makes this book a tedious read.
Pros: Insightful views on varied topics
Cons: Some essays seem force-fitted, a bit tedious
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