Why Sheep,cows, pigs, and dogs have never had a conflict with humans?
Do you know think Agriculture was a boon to mankind?
There are only a few books, that will stand through the times, and, keeping that in mind Yuval Noah Harari has given us the book SAPIENS – A Brief History of Mankind, which will hold value even after the mankind cease to exist.
This book by Yuval Noah is a great source of information on humankind.
It takes you on a ride from the beginning of Humankind as historians know and if an earth invading alien gets to read this book, we are doomed, such is the information available in the book.
If you think that Homo sapiens are the only human species that existed in this world, then you will have to change your thought, there were various other human species that existed along with Homo sapiens, only Sapiens continue to exist.
Yuval Noah has given a brief description of almost everything that has shaped the mankind. None of the essential parts of mankind has he omitted, be it the stone age, money, language, science or politics.
Usually, we have an opinion that history books are meant to be boring, but this book of the history of mankind is a thriller, You won’t skip a page.
Author Yuval Noah Harari has shaken the foundation of our beliefs about everything that exists today.
Foundation of religion, Money,economy, agriculture and Science and it is quite different from what we have told or taught.
One of shocking revelation is about agriculture,and meat industry,your thoughts about agriculture will take a turn after reading this book.
Next time,when you gorge on desserts and sweets,remember that is one character of an animal that we still aren’t able to get rid off!
The interesting point that he says is -curiosity is has brought us to the modern day we live in.
In the ancient world, India and China controlled 80% of the world economy, but what has changed!
It was the curiosity of Europeans to explore the unknown world that has made them superpowers today.
Sapiens – A Brief history of Humans is a book that will take you through history with biology,science,economy,and politics.
Sheep,cows, pigs, and dogs have never had a conflict with humans,because they were the few animals,that humans domesticated,and Dog is the first domesticated animal.
It was because of Agriculture,that humans had to camp at a fixed place and work,whereas without agriculture humans were always moving in search of food.
Great philosophy are said in simple words. After reading Haruki Murakami and some regional short stories,I was burdened with emotions. I was looking to read a light heart book that is when I came upon The Little Prince.
The Little Prince is the only book I have read more than twice. Every time I read it, I want to read more. It is not a simple book as I thought; it is one of the greatest books for parents.
It helped me understand my child better, and it is my objective that every parent understand their kids.
We are expecting our children to be mentally mature as our age. We fail to see the child from their sense. Whatever makes sense to adults is absolutely nonsense to the child.
Writing a book review comes to me easily . After I put a book down the the feeling is straight and that is what I write.
But Little Prince gave me a mixed feeling. And every time I re-read it gave me a different feeling and meaning.
I wonder if this book is for the kids or parents. Or is it for someone who can bridge a parent and their child.
The Little Prince is a bridge that connects the emotional feeling of a child with parents.
After the birth of my daughter, I have emotionally mellowed, much like a whiskey that improves with age, a reason I could read this book again and again.
We think adult life is complicated, the truth is, a child’s life is more complicated and difficult.
As an adult it is easy show our emotion as a reaction. Kids don’t know their emotion they are too delicate to understand emotions and reactions.
They don’t know to intercept our reaction. That is why it is important to understand the psychology of kids. We need to understand their mental needs.
The little Prince helped me understand how kids think, it helped me understand kids deeper.
We take our kids for granted, forgetting the bitter feeling we had as a child when we weren’t heard by our parents.
Before you read this further, I have an exercise for you. What do you think of the image. You can choose any of the options given below
1.Hat 2.Rock 3.Ancient Axe 4.A space craft
If you had answered any of the options mentioned. I’m sorry it is none of that . It is actually an image image of a Boa constrictor digesting an elephant. A child drew this image and an adult disagreed so the child had to do another sketch to prove it. The first image is a drawing of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. The second image is inside of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.
This drawing was made made by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry the author of The Little Prince. I don’t know if that is true or not, but imagine the scar the author had that he had reproduced something he had drawn in his childhood.
Most of us, especially parent of kids are like that. We are used to logic and relevance. Kids aren’t like that they are spontaneous their imagination doesn’t have any limits.
This book is about a deserted pilot in the the Sahara and a little prince who travels from planet to planet in search of meaning and understanding. The little prince is actually little a size of thumb.
For a story he might be the little prince, but after reading the book several times I understand the The little prince as our kids. The reason the author has mentioned him as coming from outer planet is because we don’t consider having a conversation with our kid. We need a reason to have a conversation to talk with strangers. Consider the little prince as our child who has left his child mentality and innocence to understand Adults.
While, the little prince in the book is referred to as a person from other planet. I see him as a usual child who has kept his innocence away to understand parents.
After a brief introduction between the author and the Little Prince, the story moves forward about the experience of the little prince meeting people from different planets.
Matters of Consequence
The Little Prince first meets a red faced gentle who has never smelled a flower, looked at a star yet he is always busy with matters of consequence.
This reminds of the difference between the pre occupied thinking of parents and the spontaneous nature of children.
As a parent we are always pre occupied with matters of consequence as finances, careers and responsibilities,but,children are free to explore and enjoy life in the moment.
Authority as a King
Little Prince next encounter is with a lonely king in the lonely planet who is desperate to be acknowledged as a king from an outsider.
Like the King, parents fall into the trap of trying to exert control over their children and ordering them to do what the parent desires.
No children is bound to be controlled by any one, as a parent we can guide, but it is not right to dictate them on the activity ,we never know to assess the mood of a child.
Imagine, when you don’t feel like doing anything and your boss wants you to do a tedious task
This can manifest in various ways, such as dictating what activities the child should engage in, what career path they should pursue, or what values they should hold.
The Conceited Man
The journey leads to a The Conceited Man who is obsessed with his own image and reputation.
Like the conceited man, parents are more concerned about their image,putting pressure on their children to meet their expectations and standards.
Every child has different needs and desires,encourage to develop their own sense of happiness and worth.
No kids should be forced to please their parents
Imagine, your spouse wanting you to wear a jeans for a beach party.
The Tippler
The next planet is inhabited by a tippler,who is ashamed of his drinking.
The Little prince realizes the tippler’s focus on drinking has made him neglect important aspects of life.
While tippler here is addicted to alcohol, addiction of any sort material or virtual Addictions can have similar effects as alcoholism
Every child deserves to have a present and engaged parent, who is emotionally available and prioritizes their needs over any addiction or distraction.”
The Business Man
The businessman is obsessed with counting the stars and owning them, and he fails to appreciate the beauty and wonder of the stars themselves.
He values only what can be measured and quantified, and he neglects the emotional and spiritual aspects of life.
Children are unaware of quantity and quality of life, what is important to them is availability of their parent- wholly or half heartedly.
Any sacrifice that parents make today to secure their child’s future is meaningless for the child,for they live in the present.
LampLighter
On the next planet, there lives a Lamplighter, whose duty is to light lamp when it is dark and put out the lamp when there is light.
The Lamplighter takes great pride in his work, and finds meaning and fulfilment in fulfilling his duties and contributing to the functioning of his planet.
But then, since the planet is tiny, there is totally 1440 sunset in a day, and without questioning the purpose or usefulness of his work he does his work.
Children don’t understand the purpose or the usefulness of any work, what they need is joy of simple things
Geographer
Next encounter is with a Geographer, excited to welcome the little prince mistaking him for a explorer.
The Geographer spends his time creating maps and studying the locations of various landmarks and territories.
We can become too focused on abstract knowledge and worldly pursuits, and neglect the important work of understanding and nurturing our children.
It’s true that what excites children can often be different from what excites parents. Children are often fascinated by the small things in life, such as flowers, bugs, and other small creatures, while adults may find these things less interesting.
However, it’s important to remember that these small things can hold great significance for children, and that as parents, we should make an effort to understand and appreciate our children’s interests, even if they don’t necessarily align with our own.
Earth
The Little Prince finally arrives in Earth where there are 111 kings,7000 geographers,900000 businessmen – 7,500,000 tipplers,311,000,000 conceited men- that is to say about 2,000,000,000 grown-ups.
Luckily he lands in a desert of earth,where he meets a snake,fox and rose and some professionals
The fox is worried about not being tamed by humans. The fox requests the little prince to tame him.
The Little Prince unaware of taming,learns from the fox. On the day of departure, the fox says “You become responsible,forever, for what you have tamed”
It is a reminder for the parents.
Final Words
If you have read this patiently, chances are there you have a child at your home and trying to be a better parent.
If you think you aren’t any of the above mentioned characters, we become all of those character in a day.
Everything is important to us,work, money, entertainment, but most important is our children.
Children are very delicate, their feelings are pure. Don’t make them victims of our emotions and reactions.
What you consider important today is what your child will consider important tomorrow.
It is a great comfort for a child when their parents are available anytime.
Leaving child on others responsibility is the worst punishment.
Parents are solely responsible for how their children lives. Kids are responsible for how a parent dies.
We live in a materialistic world. All our emotions are either attached to materials or money. Kids emotions are attached only to their parents
Kids emotions are pure and spontaneous don’t ruin it with your emotions and problems.
Grandparents are the most distracted now, they are not able to get out of the awe of technology with phone and internet.
They no longer churn out their emotions to raise grand child.
As a parent we need to be available for our kids to throughout for stable mental health.
We are only worried about their physical well being totally neglecting their mental well being.
Children world is different from adult. In Adult world we are always bound to give logic and reasoning, whereas in kids world there is nothing called logic.
My love for reading is undeniable. Previously I searched for books to read next.
It was like an addiction that I have to be continuously reading.Over the years,I realised it is not the amount of books you read it is the content of the book that resonates with mind and life.
Few books are just to fill the void, few books create a void.
There are two things I expect from a good book,Information and Application of the information. Some books have ample information but practically applying those to life is difficult. The least I expect is using the information in conversation.
After certain years I realised I don’t have to find books,The books find me.
One such book is The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant.
This book is compiled mostly out of transcripts,Tweets,and talks Naval has shared.There are few points presented in Naval’s own words.
This book isn’t the usual read,where you read continously in a linear fashion. You need to decipher between tweets,quotes,references and explanations.
Self Help genre are my last choice,I happened to know Naval Ravikanth through one of the tweets.
Few books resonate with your mind,most of the quotes by Naval Ravikanth somehow resonated with my thoughts.
One quote that completely changed my life is “Calm the Monkey Mind”
To me, the mind should be a servant and a tool, not a master. My monkey mind should not control and drive me 24/7.
I always had the tendency to look at things in all aspects,result of trying to make better decisions.This trait of mine was a pain in deciding small things. Over the years, It has got me into trouble deciding even small things.
But this one quote has made me realize that it is not necessary to work your brain on small things.And it has helped me reduce noise in my life.Now I’m at peace. I use my energy only for better work.
Most self help books are instruction manuals to change a few habits and thoughts in our life. The quotes of naval ravikant are short but powerful. For me,who has read many books ( I have avoided self help books mostly)
I don’t recommend this book if you are new to reading and I don’t want this to be your first book.
First time readers will be quite disappointed with this kind of book. I recommend you read at least three self help books and then come to this so that you realise the power of this book.
Through this book Naval Ravikanth has solutions for modern days issues and solutions are practically modern. He doesn’t give a solution referring to any of the age old wisdom,except for Buddha.
Not everyone has the same perspective towards a book,I have different needs to read the book.
I had different questions in my mind and I got different answers. There are only a few insights I get from the book . As far as this book is concerned the different views of Naval Ravikanth might not be acceptable for all,but still you can find at least one.
It is very easy to keep upgrading your lifestyle as you make money.If you can hold your lifestyle fixed and hopefully make your money in giant lumpsums,you won’t have time to upgrade your lifestyle,but you may actually become financially free.
Money is discussed in this book, while the author propagates to learn coding,to build something,I feel it is too late for me to build or learn coding,but the emphasis is on establishing something on own is the take away for me.
There is an interesting aspect I read through “Status”.It is true that most people are stuck in the status game. The author has clearly mentioned the difference between money and wealth. Most people are confused with these two. Money is what we earn and wealth is what earns for us. Fundamentally,work of money is to multiply,in this consumer driven world we are drawn towards materials. If you understand the difference between Money and Wealth your relationship with money changes.
Children are happy because: 1) They’re not self conscious 2) They lack a sense of time pressure 3) They’ve no goals. The bottom line is they are living from moment to moment, and the mind is not there to interfere in their bliss.
The above quote has helped me to spend fruitful time with my daughter. Not that I wasn’t spending time with her. I wasn’t 100% .Once I removed the time pressure.I’m 1000% present with my daughter.
If you are not ready to spend on this book, You can follow Naval on Twitter, or visit his website https://www.navalmanack.com/
I have a liking to books that helps in productivity. And the recent book that have enhanced my productivity is Building a Second Brain.
This book is my last piece of puzzle that solved my problem of focused productivity. Personally, this book is an extension of other books like Deepwork by Cal Newport and Indistractable by Nir Eyal.
Previously mentioned books give us a glimpse of the benefits of being focused and increased productivity. But the information contained to do that kind of work isn’t much effective.
Building a second brain is not a magic book that no one else has told,it doesn’t have any secret formula. It contains common information that is shared on social media and the internet.
We have so much information like no other generation has. What we are doing with the information is indistinct.
I always had a feeling that mobile is our second brain.Our thoughts and actions are predetermined by mobile phones. And managing a mobile phone is important to keep our thoughts focussed.
But then this book has revealed that it is not only the mobile phone,but the digital information that we are consuming is the second brain.
The author has taken effort to organise our digital information. We are consuming information,reading,listening and watching other people’s opinions about what we should do,how we think and how we should live,but make very little effort to apply.
Before getting into actual concept of the book,the first chapter exposes the reader to understand the importance of organising digital information. We are bookmarking,saving articles,videos,and podcasts thinking of using it in future. Most of the times we don’t have time to recall or revisit the saved information.
An interesting information I found to be useful was mention of Commonplace Books. Commonplace books was more than a diary or journal that most educated people carried around to record interesting ideas.
Commonplace books were a portal through which educated people interacted with the world. They drew on their notebooks in conversation and used them to connect bits of knowledge from different sources and to inspire their own thinking.
The author has drawn influence from this commonplace books,and encourages readers to create commonplace book for the digital era.
The purpose of the book according to the author is that everyone should have an extended mind not just to remember more and be more productive,but to lead more fulfilling lives.
All of the above mentioned is possible only if you take effort. Note taking apps are the neural centre of creating this second brain.
The fundamental idea of the book is the four steps 1.Capture 2.Organise 3.Distil 4.Express. Each topic has a chapter dedicated to it.
Every chapter has detailed explanation and methodology to achieve maximum productivity.
It is recommended to make use of note taking apps,not necessarily paid apps. If you are looking to create or build something out of the informations saved,I’m sure you will succeed.
pawankumar 