Book 246 - A Year of Magical Learning (Part 4/5)

Reflection Title: Culture is our Biggest Weapon!

Book – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (Part 4/5)

Book Description: From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Reflection:

If our imagination is our superpower, culture just might be our ultimate weapon.

Culture is a uniquely human invention which has the power to change the world, both for good and bad.

Culture is the manifestation of humans leveraging our imaginations to its fullest potential by dreaming up new ideas to bring into this world, creating language to help get out what is in an individual’s head so someone else can understand, and then organizing the masses into action around this idea to turn this thought into a thing. What that idea becomes is out of our control once it leaves our minds and successfully is translated and absorbed by those around us.

Culture’s randomness of where it goes and how it grows once unleashed on the world is something that none of us can predict or understand which is why it is so powerful. Once we’ve translated our thoughts into words and shared them with others, what comes next is out of control to a large extent. Culture can take us to the moon, it can take us to WWII, or it can take us nowhere.

Culture deserves our utmost respect as it is not some game to be played with or taken lightly. Remember what we’ve learned, always be impeccable with your word. When you put some idea out into this universe that you hope to grow, you damn well better understand it and believe it to your core. If you don’t, you are tempting fate and not respecting the power of culture to its fullest.

I respect culture immensely, and I fear at the same time. In a lot of ways, the reverence for the power of culture is what this Year of Magical Learning is about at its core - finding, understanding, and refining the answers to the beautiful idea of building a culture around meaningful work and meaningful relationships for the infinite game Trieu and I call ClubAny. We’re not playing around. We’re not taking this lightly. We’re showing culture the respect it deserves by making sure that we take the time needed to refine and perfect this idea to the best of our abilities before unleashing it onto the world.

When we do…watch out!

Question: In what ways has culture impacted your direction in life?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari