Is “The 48 Laws of Power” Evil?
Is The 48 Laws of Power evil? Yes and no. Reading the book isn’t evil. The laws themselves aren’t evil. But the book is kind of evil.
Tag: sociology
Book Summary: Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Evicted takes place in Milwaukee during 2008 and 2009. The author, Desmond, follows 8 different tenant families, their landlords, and the events in their lives related to housing. Their stories are interspersed with facts and statistics about housing and evictions more generally.
Book Summary: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
A very detailed summary of the book Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Around 70,000 years ago, homo sapiens developed superior cognitive functions and wiped out other human species. Harari then describes our species’ changes throughout the Agricultural Revolution (around 12,000 years ago) and Scientific Revolution (500 years ago). He finishes by looking into the future, which may soon see the end of Sapiens as we know it.
Book Summary: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
In Guns, Germs and Steel, Diamond sets out to answer a question posed by one of his New Guinean friends: why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents? This is a detailed summary of the 20th anniversary edition of the book published in 2017.
Criticisms of “Bullshit Jobs” by David Graeber
Graeber got 4 things wrong in his book, Bullshit Jobs. (1) That the rise of the information economy is bad. (2) That there has been a “bullshitization” of work. (3) That bullshit jobs are almost always demoralising. (4) The reasons for the inverse relationship between social value and economic value.
What I think Graeber got right in “Bullshit Jobs”
In this post I outline what I think David Graeber got right in his book, Bullshit Jobs. Other
My 7 categories of “bullshit jobs”
In the book Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber suggested 5 categories of bullshit jobs. However, I found it more useful to look at […]
Book Summary: Bullshit Jobs – A Theory by David Graeber
In 2013, David Graeber published an article On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant. The article went viral. It got a lot of attention in social media and the mainstream press. Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, is Graeber’s attempt to flesh out some of the ideas in his 2013 article.
Book Summary: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Talking to Strangers is about how difficult it is to understand other people. It is well-written and contains many engaging examples. Unfortunately, the examples do not illustrate Gladwell’s points well and his analysis is not very rigorous.
Book Summary: Tribe by Sebastian Junger
Humans are tribal creatures. Much of modern life makes us less social and tribal and therefore less happy. Outside threats such as wars tend to strengthen social bonds.