Yuval Noah Harari Writes for young people

Yuval Noah Harari feels the world will not change unless young people are part of the movement.  What you learn as a youngster is hard to shake as you age.  Understanding history is critical to appreciate the current situation.  Essentially his two books aimed at children (so far), "Unstoppable Us" explain evolution physically and civilization.  How to talk to youngsters requires understanding their perspective and respecting their intelligence.

The first volume subtitled "How Humans Took over the World",  starts with prehistoric man.  A hard concept to realize is that humans were weak compared to other animals.  Our distant ancestors were fearful of predators, even of scavengers.  Harari speculates early humans may have discovered bone  marrow by cracking bones that had been abandoned and from this developed a love of meat eating.

Another key step was learning to control and initiate fire.  Cooking not only improved digestion, but paved the way for brain development.  see http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2025/04/hooked-how-big-food-draws-you-in.html

The ability to tell stories was essential for humans to co-operate.  Some stories were of a religious nature and others told of business structures.  Telling stories has proved to be an effective way of communicating  see http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2011/06/tell-to-win-offers-winning-formula.html

Humans started in Africa and then spread to Europe, Asia and Australia.  After the development of needles that could be used to stitch furs together they made it to North America and then South America.  Along the way groups of people co-operating were able to make some large animals become extinct.  Our ancestors also forced out other human rivals, namely Neanderthals and Denisovans.

The second volume is sub-titled "Why the World Isn't Fair".

Agriculture developed very gradually, but eventually humans learned to plant wheat and other cereals and to store it.  Early humans learned how to turn wild animals into providers of human needs.  They didn't have to move like gatherers did and eventually learned to build walls and even hire guards to keep out intruders.

The farmers developed more permanent structures, but had a monotonous diet.  Gatherers had a more diverse diet and were thought to be more anxious than village dwellers.

Sumer was credited with inventing writing which was really to keep track of properties and taxes.  By this time slaves were considered property.  The Egyptians took tracking information to a higher level developing a type of writing for more than just numbers, but more important improved organization that amounted to bureaucracy.  

There were so many Egyptians that they developed a leadership backed by a religious story allowing the Pharaoh enormous power, so much so we can see the magnificent pyramids.  In the gathering stage there really were no such leaders as all the humans were relatively equal.  See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2014/07/selected.html

Harari towards the end reiterates the importance of stories, admitting that they are still necessary even today as people obeyed the rules because they believed the stories.  But there are bad stories.  The Crusades were started by priests proclaiming that God did not want the Muslims to control Jerusalem.  He chooses two more examples, women and gays.  In both cases changing stories have been developed to give both groups more freedom that in turns benefits us all.  

He leaves the thought that if a story is causing suffering maybe we should change the story and furthermore such change will come from kids.

In his acknowledgements, a part of the education process he explains the author gets their name on the cover, but require the help of many other people to produce the book.  Harari is an excellent explainer and he realizes children represent the future of humankind

Earlier blog posts about other books by Yuval Noah Harari

 http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2015/12/sapiens-brief-history-of-humankind.html

 http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2017/04/homo-deus.html

http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2018/12/21-lessons-for-21st-century.html

http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2024/10/nexus.html 

DANIEL GOLEMAN'S LOOK AT FOCUS IS RIVETING.

Daniel Goleman helped us become more aware of Emotional Intelligence, even though we always suspected there was something more critical than intelligence to being successful.  Goleman constantly pursues social psychological factors for our success and happiness.

Focus is a problem for me and the author proved it on page 16.  He also wrote about the increasing distractions offered by our internet world that weaken society as a whole.  Multi tasking is not the best way to extract the most out of this book.

Focus is an old concept, but not necessarily fully understood.  Most of us think of it as a substitute for concentration, but you always have a focus, although you might not be conscious of it.  The automatic part of your brain evolved to help you survive.

He starts with what might be called the wandering mind.  You know, where your mind drifts to one idea and then to another seemingly unrelated.  Goleman explains this is normal--your automatic brain has an enormous number of details stored in it.  Creativity is the result of linking all these minutiae in unique ways and often these links come with little effort. Many of those with ADD (attention deficit disorder) are in fact more creative.

Goleman differentiates between automatic control and executive control.  Executive control is where you make conscious decisions.  Automatic control requires less energy

Video games are often argued as bad, but in reality they have potential to develop attention.  They become bad when  they encourage obsessive behavior.  Obsessed youngsters do worse in school and improve when cut off.  Video games can encourage violence or calming.

Everything is part of a bigger system.  While you are focusing on some small (maybe important) detail you will need to be aware of how that detail fits into a greater whole. An example given is the efforts to develop electric cars overlooking the fact that for the most part the energy often still comes from coal utilities and can eventually lead to more road construction.  Looking at the overall energy system can lead to better solutions.  Understanding a system requires enough time for feedback loops to be witnessed.

In a New Zealand study done in Dunedin it was concluded that no mental skills matter as much in life success as executive control.  By that they mean the ability to ignore impulses, filter out irrelevant facts and stay focused on goals.  Impulse/executive control can be developed.

In Singapore they have few natural resources and have realized people are critical to economic success.  They have embarked on a program to develop emotional intelligence which they have found also boosts health and reduces crime.  The strategies a person develops (or is guided to) can help develop attention.  Mindfulness helps develop attention

Strategy boils down to what should be focused on.  Involves deciding what not to do as well as what to do.  Exploitative strategies focus on established patterns and are focused on improving efficiencies.  Exploratory strategies are aimed at discovering new information and new patterns.

Goleman spends quite a few pages on leadership.  Leaders need to balance focuses on their inner self, the outer circumstances and other people.  Ideally they will be empathic, but have self-control.  Leaders know how to get to the point that needs focus by a group.  One effective method is to tell stories.  A really good book on that is "Tell to Win" and you can learn about it and how I used it to develop a story at:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2011/06/tell-to-win-offers-winning-formula.html

I am also reminded of another blog about a wonderful Bollywood movie that explains how a story teller discovered his talent:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2016/02/tamasha-wonderful-story.html

An interesting quote from Greystone Bakery,"We don't hire people to bake brownies.  We bake brownies to hire people."  They are noted for hiring ex convicts and believe in giving people a chance.

The author concludes "We must ask ourselves in the service of why exactly are we using whatever talents we might have."

Daniel Goleman has lots of interesting perspectives on psychology you might find beneficial.  Check his website:  http://www.danielgoleman.info

TAMASHA, A WONDERFUL STORY ABOUT STORY TELLING

After almost forty movies this year, including many very good ones such as "Birdman",  this is the first I felt compelled to review.  You might think that a Bollywood movie only reflects my bias, but honestly this has universal themes that will hit most of you.  Like many it has a touching romance and like a few others it has appeal to the intellect, but most of all it a great story about story telling.

It is very confusing at the beginning with elements that may not fit in with your first preconceptions.  Eventually the little streams will join together and make a lot of sense.  Flashbacks help bring the present into context.  Tells the story very well after getting your attention.

Most romance movies depend heavily on misunderstandings.  Most finding oneself stories depend on conflict within the self.  "Tamasha" illustrates both of these dynamics uniquely because it also encompasses the dynamics of story telling.

Imtiaz Ali, the director writer has done a lot of excellent movies such as "Jab We Met" "Rockstar" and "Highway."  It seems likely there are elements of autobiography.  Directing and writing are the two most creative jobs in a movie which is really a story with special effects.  In his commentary Imitaz tells us that one of the mechanisms of the story comes from his brother Arif, also a movie director who had a friend visiting a foreign holiday destination and to have more fun didn't want to give his name or learn the name of a romantic partner.

Ranbir Kapoor, son of Rishi Kapoor got off to a pretty good start in his movie career, but has run a few flops.  This movie should set him back on the right path.  Deepika Padukone has been doing very well and has even deviated off commercial movies to more artistic challenges with success.  The two were a couple a few years ago, but broke up.  Deepika once insulted Ranbir on a tv talk show in a very delicate manner.  However they really fit together very well--both loving and hurting each other.

One other actor deserves mention, Javed Sheikh who plays Ranbir's father.  He displays some subtle emotion when it makes a big difference.

A common thread throughout is story telling.  There is some sort of theatrical presentation at the beginning, but before long the camera switched to a scene with a young boy being enthralled by an older reluctant story teller who he pays.  At first the story teller recounts a tale from Hindu mythology and later of the ancient Greeks.  Later we hear references to Biblical stories.

In the romance Deepika is imagined as a bold thief with access to a fortune in gold.  Ranbir pictures himself as a spy chasing her.  Much later this plays into another connecting mechanism.

A. R. Rahman, known to North Americans for the Oscar winning music in "Slumdog Millionaire"wrote the music. He has written some of the best music ever written for movies.  The music in "Tamasha" is good, but not his best.  I did add one song to my iTunes collection.

Interesting locations.  A major part is in Corsica where the two main characters meet and enjoy the land and seascape.  Other scenes included Kolkotta, Delhi, Simla and Tokyo (where rain cut down the scenery they wanted).  Overall the cinematography is excellent.

The book "Catch 22" was the mechanism to allow them to reconnect.  The man brought a copy to Corsica with a book store mark and  he commented on where he got it.  A few years later it enabled the woman to find our hero in a different city.

This is a very visual movie with lots of ingenuous settings.  Many details are used to make a point, some of which you will catch easily, but others you will appreciate more with a subsequent viewing.

In Bollywood stories are told with scenery, music, dance and of course words.  The viewer will see that based on his story telling talents the hero gains more tools over time.

Story telling is important to us all.  I remember writing about how important stories are to selling products and ideas:  see  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2011/06/tell-to-win-offers-winning-formula.html People don't buy statistics at least not until after they hear the story.  The best story tellers use all sorts of tools when they get the opportunity.

The Art of Doing

Like many of us, the authors, Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield were trying to figure out the way to success.  They were able to contact a number of successful people and convince them to tell us how they did it. A wide variety of success stories in such fields as tennis, baseball, business, wine growing, music.  Going off standard success stories they also included marijuana, erotic movies for women, dog training, television game shows, blog writing, big game hunting.  The variety chosen illustrates there is more than one way to succeed.  Many of the subjects were allowed to express themselves in crude, but easily understandable ways.

Success can be measured in many ways, most easily in terms of money or ranking.  In this book success meant being at the top, or near the top for a chosen endeavor.  For me a lot of the fields would not be of strong interest, but the critical factor is that each field was important to the teller and how they got to the top or near the top had significant common denominators as well as a strong effort.

Given a different set of successful contributors you would have gotten different details, but I suspect the general themes would be similar.  The underlying factor was that each person felt a unique calling to conquer a particular field.  Monetary profit was not the primary driving factor.  A motivating spur was just to do it better.

In order to do that the authors use the phrase that they all had" intelligent persistence."  That doesn't mean that you need to keep banging your head on the proverbial wall, but when an obstacle is insurmountable you are ready to pivot to a new and strategic effort.  There are sure to be setbacks, but they help to redirect efforts.

The successful ones are all good listeners.  Other people have made similar efforts or are able to take an objective view of the challenges and can help steer someone in a more practical direction.  Taking the time to really listen is an important key to understanding the choices to be made.

They are able to compact their strategies into story form.  A lot of statistics and facts can overwhelm someone you are trying to explain yourself too, but a well thought out story can make a point much more quickly and understandably.  A lot of the stories are very interesting, maybe especially in fields not commonly written about.

Nobody succeeded all by themselves, despite what Mitt Romney supporters might tell you.  Each of the success stories involved support from family, friends and colleagues.

One quote I want to remember is from E. L Doctorow (not one of the subjects).  "Writing is like driving a car at night.  You only see as far as the headlights go, but you can make the whole trip that way."  It seems that we can not always see the end of our efforts, but if we keep going we get a better vision as we go forward.

The chapters are all short and to the point.  The variety means you will likely identify with some more than others, but if you pay close attention you will realize there are many niches out there that you can strive in to not only be successful, but also to give your life more meaning.