10 Books to Help You Answer WHY? in 2017
If the start of 2017 has left you asking why? more times than not then perhaps we share something in common and there is help.
The world appears paradoxically entangled and it’s not clear whether our advancements as a society will lead us to our pinnacle or collapse.
The paradoxical state of the world in 2017:
- the inflation of technology as a solution and the inflammation of man as a problem
- the decreasing ability of governments to profit and increasing ability of corporations to govern
- the compounded economic instability from decades of middle class consumption and upperclass savings
- the juxtaposition of the decreasing value of work and the increasing price of assets
- the leftist political incompetence and the rightist social ignorance
- the fleeting nature of humanity and the permanence of humanity on nature.
- the recognition of human progress and forgetfulness of our path
Luckily, these conundrums are neither new nor unique to one writer or one time period. As I have looked for ways to comprehend where we are as a society and where I am as a person, 10 books have stood out.
Below is a list of the top books for how to process 2017, starting with our biological beginnings, evolution of self, progress as a species, and future scenarios….
1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Humanity, despite its visual diversities, is the same species — so what makes us “human” and what is actually natural to our nature?
“I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a fun, engaging look at early human history…you’ll have a hard time putting it down.” — Bill Gates
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude
Explore the depths of the human conscience with this masterpiece of fiction. One Hundred Years of Solitude explores the full life-cycle of the town of Macondo through one family, showing the personalities and characteristics that exist as the city is born, thriving, surviving, and finally, no more. There are few books that capture the creative diversity of humanity in such a memorable way.
3. Crime and Punishment
The most famous book on this list and for good reason, Crime & Punishment is one of supreme masterpieces of literature.
Dostoyevsky uses his personal experiences from his own time in prison to tell the story of an impoverished student, Raskolnikov, who is tormented by his own nihilism, and his struggle to differentiate good and evil. Believing that he is above the law, and that humanitarian ends justify brutal means, he violently murders an old women who is “good for nothing”. Afterwards, he is overwhelmed by his feelings of guilt & fear, & confesses his crime & is sent to prison. It is here that he realizes that happiness & human redemption can only be achieved through suffering.
Crime & Punishment is infused with religious, social, & philosophical questions that grip you as a reader for the rest of your life. There are few more challenging, haunting, and worthwhile pieces of literature in the world.
4. The Lessons of History
Post the heavy social & philosophical questions of Dostoyevsky, it is perhaps time for more comforting answers from the worlds most famous modern historian. Durants takes us through the journey of history, exploring the great individuals, ideas, and accomplishments against the cycles of war, limitations, & conquest.
A short book and a quick read, it is remarkable the insights Durants reveals about the common themes of human civilisation and it’s relevant meaning today.
5. The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life
The Company of Strangers teaches the remarkable fragility of our everyday lives. It explores how the rise and fall of social trust can explain the exponential growth & financial collapse of the start of this century.
Seabright uses learnings from history, anthology, psychology, and even biology to explore how our ability to comprehend abstract concepts such as money, financial markets, and urban cities provide the foundations of social trust that govern our everyday lives.
If you’ve ever wondered how humanity has developed the ability to trust total strangers with providing us our basic needs for survival, and what the implications of this social trust are for the future, this is the book to read.
6. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
In this modern enthralling masterpiece, Jared Diamond argues that geographical and environmental factors have been the core forces that have shaped the modern world. Societies who had an abundance of food where able to advance beyond hunter-gathers, and gradually developed religion, germs, & war.
Guns, Germs, & Steel chronicles the way the modern world came crashing into existence and dismembers historical theories who focus on exterior factors such as race. A winner of the Pulitzer prize and a clear must read for 2017.
7. 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism
23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism uses twenty-three short essays to provide background on how the global capitalist system does and doesn’t function, and offers a vision for how we can shape the future of capitalism as to prevent us from becoming slaves of the market.
8. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
A revolutionary book that will forever change how you view the world, Taleb explores the concept of “antifragility”, which is a category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to flourish.
Just as the bones in our bodies get stronger when subjected to continual stress and tension, this fascinating concept pushes the intellectual cost/benefit analysis of stress, volatility and turmoil.
There is perhaps no better book for understanding why the chaos of 2017 may perhaps be just the disorder we need.
9. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
The larger the growth in technological progress, the larger the frontier available for new ideas. However, these ideas don’t exist in the current world of competition, they exist in the monopolistic future where large organizations struggle to exist.
In Zero to One, the legendary and at times controversial entrepreneur/investor Peter Thiel walks through how we can find singular ways to create new things.
Whether you see yourself as an entrepreneur or not, there are few better thought provoking books on how to create new ideas and expand value.
10. Godel, Esher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Gödel, Esher, Bach is focused on the concept of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it.
The most fascinating if not disturbing concept is perhaps that if life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, and if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too can computers attain human intelligence.
Gödel, Escher, Bach provides a fascinating glimpse into the ideas of the future and how this relates to how we apply meaning today.
