“What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.”

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

“You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.”

“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”

“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

“Truth is what stands the test of experience.”

“Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”

“There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

“Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.”

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, require creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

“I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself.”

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.”

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” ~

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

Albert Einstein Quotes. Here is the collection of most insightful Einstein quotes that will change your mind-set about life and success

philosophy

Philosophy

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

problemsolving

Problem Solving

creativity

Creativity

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

110 Albert Einstein Quotes that will inspire and motivate you

In this book, Dr. Amen explains how brain imaging technology can affect our health and wellness, along with the principles of brain health and different brain systems.

Brain imaging technology, SPECT or Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, enables us to understand blood flow and activity patterns in the brain. This information is associated with various mental health conditions. According to Dr. Amen, this imaging brain will enable targeted treatments that could make a difference.

How brain imaging can changes everything

Dr. Amen lives with 12 brain-health principles, and this 4 is a standout. <ul><li>First: The brain is malleable, which eases cognitive function.</li><li>Second: It’s involved in everything we do and central to our overall health. </li><li>Third: It’s self-directed, meaning it has a degree of control over its function. </li><li>Fourth: It can bounce back from injuries or diseases with proper intervention.</li></ul>

Key formulas for brain health 

This four circles approach to brain health will boost the performance holistically, through biological health, mental health, social connections, and spiritual fulfillment.<ul><li>Optimal exercise, nutrition, and sleep will improve your brain power.</li><li>15.000 steps daily will improve blood flow, reduce inflammation, and stimulate new brain cells.</li><li>A healthy diet and good sleep can add to your glow.</li></ul>

From the psychological circle, we need to see stress management, cognitive stimulation, and mental health support. Social circle, like building and maintaining strong connection, is crucial for brain health. From a spiritual circle, it involves having a purpose and meaning in life. So, every time you meditate, pray, or do some good deeds, it supports your brain health.

There are three main brain systems: the limbic, the basal ganglia, and the prefrontal cortex.<ul><li>The Limbic is responsible for emotional responses. When w experience fear or pleasure, the hippocampus and amygdala activate our emotional experience.</li><li>The basal ganglia are responsible to learn new skills and how we can move. This system helps us develop the muscle memory necessary to perform the task automatically later.</li></ul>

Know your brain

<ul><li>The prefrontal cortex is the CEO of all brain functions. This part governs higher-order cognitive functions like decision-making, problem-solving, and planning. Our cognitive abilities decline when the prefrontal cortex is exposed to stress and aging.</li><li>There’s also the anterior cingulate gyrus and the temporal lobes. One part keeps you adaptable, while the other rules your long-term memories, language, and social cues. With ACG imbalance, obsessive thoughts can emerge and wreak havoc on your peace of mind. Meanwhile, unbalanced temporal lobes can lead to emotional instability.</li></ul>

Your brain is the organ of your personality, character, andintelligence and is heavily involved in making you who you are

The right diet can improve brain performance while striving for overall cognitive balance. Wonder why the right healthy diet is so important for brain health? It’s because of the unbreakable connection between the gut and the brain. Also, pay attention to any injuries you have ever had.

Hack your brainpower

Have you admired someone else’s success and wished you had their brains? This “brain envy” is the idea that we can aspire to brain health and work toward achieving it for ourselves.

Brain Envy: Good fuel

Eating better, developing more coordination-based exercises, making hobbies out of mind-stimulating, and enjoying positive and meaningful social connections are all among the important steps to increase your brain health.

Highly important note

How brains work still remains a mystery. That small size in our body can produce beautiful architecture and even explain the mystery of our galaxy. That’s why we need to take care of our brain health. 

BRAIN PRESCRIPTIONS THAT REALLY WORK In this breakthrough bestseller, you'll see scientific evidence that your anxiety, depression, anger, obsessiveness, or impulsiveness could be related to how specific structures in your brain work. You're not stuck with the brain you're born with. Here are just a few of neuropsychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen's surprising--and effective--"brain prescriptions" that can help heal your brain and change your life: To Quell Anxiety and Panic: ¸  Use simple breathing techniques to immediately calm inner turmoil To Fight Depression: ¸  Learn how to kill ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) To Curb Anger: ¸  Follow the Amen anti-anger diet and learn the nutrients that calm rage To Conquer Impulsiveness and Learn to Focus: ¸  Develop total focus with the "One-Page Miracle" To Stop Obsessive Worrying: ¸  Follow the "get unstuck" writing exercise and learn other problem-solving exercises

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

health

Health

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

books

Books

Daniel G. Amen, M.D.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

"Into the Wild" is a non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer that tells the captivating story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who embarked on a solitary journey into the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless's story is a powerful exploration of freedom, self-discovery, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. Here are seven life lessons that can be gleaned from the book:

7 Life Lessons from "Into the Wild"

McCandless's journey reflects the importance of embracing the spirit of adventure in life. Taking risks, exploring the unknown, and pushing our boundaries can lead to personal growth and transformative experiences.What risks are you willing to take in order to pursue a life filled with adventure and new experiences?

1. Embrace the Spirit of Adventure

McCandless sought to escape societal expectations and discover his true self. His story reminds us of the significance of introspection, self-reflection, and the pursuit of authenticity in order to live a fulfilling life.

2. Seek Authenticity and Self-Discovery

While McCandless valued self-reliance, his journey also underscores the importance of human connection and the need for meaningful relationships. We should strive to strike a balance between self-sufficiency and the support and companionship of others.In what ways can you foster meaningful relationships while still maintaining your independence and self-reliance?

3. Balance Self-reliance with Human Connection

Nature served as McCandless's teacher and sanctuary. The book highlights the transformative power of the natural world and the lessons it can teach us about ourselves, resilience, and the interconnectedness of all living beings.

4. Learn from Nature

McCandless's rejection of societal norms and materialistic pursuits encourages us to critically examine the values and expectations imposed upon us. It encourages us to question the meaning of success, happiness, and the pursuit of wealth.

5. Question Societal Norms and Materialism

McCandless's minimalist lifestyle in the wilderness reflects the beauty and freedom found in simplicity. The book reminds us to appreciate the little things, detach ourselves from material possessions, and find contentment in the essentials.

6. Embrace the Beauty of Simplicity

McCandless's story compels us to live with purpose and passion. It reminds us to pursue our dreams, follow our passions, and live life to the fullest, while recognizing the consequences and responsibilities that come with our choices.

7. Live with Purpose and Passion

I hope these life lessons, inspired by "Into the Wild," serve as a guide to navigating your own journey and finding meaning in your life.

Conclusion 

As someone who enjoys nature and dreams of escaping the confines of today's society, the book Into the Wild resonates with me.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die. "It may be nonfiction, but Into the Wild is a mystery of the highest order." —Entertainment Weekly McCandess had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Not long after, he was dead. Into the Wild is the mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story captured the world’s attention.  Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless.  When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding—and not an ounce of sentimentality. Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

travel

Travel

Jon Krakauer

Into the Wild

The brain controls us and defines our behavior.It's responsible not only for thinking, learning, and mental abilities; the brain reacts to every tiny stimulus inside the body and in the outer world.

Brain

Women and men can feel changes in their brains right after the pregnancy period starts.In male bodies: The testosterone level decreases, making them more caring.In female bodies: Prolactin provokes the desire for nesting.For mothers: These changes are permanent. The bond between a child and its mother is a biological necessity for survival, prompted by oxytocin (the love hormone).

Brains During Pregnancy

The mother's habits and the environment are crucial for the baby's development.The bad habits cause damage to the baby's brain, as they may lead to depression or schizophrenia.Dieting and fasting are as harmful to a baby as drinking alcohol and smoking, as they may lead to brain disorders.

Habits & Environment

Young Picasso could barely read and write.Einstein spoke slower than others.Daniel Tammet knows by heart PI to 22 514 decimal places.These brain disorders are genetic, and numerous reasons can cause them.

Brain Disorders

Even though many feminists claim that gender is a social construct, numerous studies show that a baby determines its gender, sexual orientation, and the extent of aggression before birth.It's more likely to be caused genetically rather than by the influence of the outer world.

Gender & Sexual Orientation

What does it mean to be in a coma?A coma results from brain damage and makes a patient unresponsive to external stimulations.Doctors often say, "A coma patient is like a vegetable." They are still alive, but their brain is dead.

Coma

In contrast to coma, locked-in syndrome means that the patient's brain is still working and conscious of itself but completely paralyzed.In most cases, they can only move with their eyes, and that's the method of communication for them.

Locked-in Syndrome

95% of Americans believe in God.This belief is also fully processed in our brains.Our family and environment left information in the brain during the early years, and we adjusted to it the same way as a mother tongue.Richard Dawkins (a famous evolutionary biologist) claims that kids are affected by their religious parents because they can't think critically.

Religion

If life is a gradual development process, then Alzheimer's is a disease that causes a reverse: a person slowly loses the ability to live normally and care for themselves.Moreover, step by step, they lose their personality.The first symptoms include loss of memory or inappropriate behavior.How to prevent Alzheimer's?You can minimize your chances by maximizing brain activity, such as:<ul><li>Speaking foreign languages.</li><li>Obtaining an education.</li><li>Working a challenging job.</li><li>Stimulating your thinking and physical activities.</li></ul>

Alzheimer

People often believe that our feelings, desires, and love are in our hearts.However, they are wrong!Your personality, with its fears, dreams, ambitions, and passions, is based on your brain, while the heart only pumps blood to keep your body functioning.

Love is In Our Brain, not the Heart

The brain is the very essence of our personality and abilities. Unraveling the brain will help us understand the basis of human behavior and actions.

A vivid account of what makes us human.   Based groundbreaking new research, We Are Our Brains is a sweeping biography of the human brain, from infancy to adulthood to old age. Renowned neuroscientist D. F. Swaab takes us on a guided tour of the intricate inner workings that determine our potential, our limitations, and our desires, with each chapter serving as an eye-opening window on a different stage of brain development: the gender differences that develop in the embryonic brain, what goes on in the heads of adolescents, how parenthood permanently changes the brain.   Moving beyond pure biological understanding, Swaab presents a controversial and multilayered ethical argument surrounding the brain. Far from possessing true free will, Swaab argues, we have very little control over our everyday decisions, or who we will become, because our brains predetermine everything about us, long before we are born, from our moral character to our religious leanings to whom we fall in love with. And he challenges many of our prevailing assumptions about what makes us human, decoding the intricate “moral networks” that allow us to experience emotion, revealing maternal instinct to be the result of hormonal changes in the pregnant brain, and exploring the way that religious “imprinting” shapes the brain during childhood. Rife with memorable case studies, We Are Our Brains is already a bestselling international phenomenon. It aims to demystify the chemical and genetic workings of our most mysterious organ, in the process helping us to see who we are through an entirely new lens.   Did you know?   • The father’s brain is affected in pregnancy as well as the mother’s. • The withdrawal symptoms we experience at the end of a love affair mirror chemical addiction. • Growing up bilingual reduces the likelihood of Alzheimer’s. • Parental religion is imprinted on our brains during early development, much as our native language is. Praise for We Are Our Brains   “Swaab’s ‘neurobiography’ is witty, opinionated, passionate, and, above all, cerebral.”—Booklist (starred review)   “A fascinating survey . . . Swaab employs both personal and scientific observation in near-equal measure.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)   “A cogent, provocative account of how twenty-first-century ‘neuroculture’ has the potential to effect profound medical and social change.”—Kirkus Reviews

habits

Habits

D. F. Swaab

We Are Our Brains

“I encourage all of us, whatever our beliefs, to question the basic narratives of our world, to connect past developments with present concerns and not to be afraid of controversial issues"

<ul><li>The best thing fire did was cook.</li><li>Cooking killed germs and parasites that infested food.</li><li>The advent of cooking enabled humans to eat more kinds of food, to devote less time to eating, and to make do with smaller teeth and shorter intestines.</li><li>Whereas chimpanzees spend five hours a day chewing raw food, a single hour suffices for people eating cooked food.</li></ul>

A Race Of Cooks

<ul><li>You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.</li><li>But why is it important? After all, fiction can be dangerously misleading or distracting.</li><li>People who go to the forest looking for fairies and unicorns would seem to have less chance of survival than people who go looking for mushrooms and deer.</li><li>And if you spend hours praying to non-existing guardian spirits, aren’t you wasting precious time, time better spent foraging, fighting and fornicating?</li></ul>

The Tree Of Knowledge 

<ul><li>Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths.</li><li>Yet none of these things exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings. </li></ul>

An Imagined Order

<ul><li>Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens has thus been living in a dual reality.</li><li>On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations.</li><li>When two strangers in a tribal society want to trade, they will often establish trust by appealing to a common god, mythical ancestor or totem animal.</li></ul>

Dual Reality 

<ul><li>A natural order is a stable order. There is no chance that gravity will cease to function tomorrow, even if people stop believing in it.</li><li>In contrast, an imagined order is always in danger of collapse, because it depends upon myths, and myths vanish once people stop believing in them.</li></ul>

Natural Order Vs Imagined Order

<ul><li>In the savannahs and forests they inhabited, high-calorie sweets were extremely rare and food in general was in short supply.</li><li>The instinct to gorge on high-calorie food was hard-wired into our genes.</li><li>Today we may be living in high-rise apartments with over-stuffed refrigerators, but our DNA still thinks we are in the savannah.</li></ul>

Why we binge on the sweetest and greasiest food we can find?

<ul><li>The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud.</li><li>Who was responsible? The culprits were a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes.</li><li>The body of Homo sapiens had not evolved for such tasks. It was adapted to climbing apple trees and running after gazelles, not to clearing rocks and carrying water buckets.</li><li>Moreover, the new agricultural tasks demanded so much time that people were forced to settle permanently next to their wheat fields. This completely changed their way of life.</li><li>We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us.</li></ul>

History’s Biggest Fraud

One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally they reach a point where they can’t live without it.

The Luxury Trap

<ul><li>Henceforth, attachment to ‘my house’ and separation from the neighbours became the psychological hallmark of a much more self-centred creature.</li><li>People found it difficult to leave their artificial islands. They could not abandon their houses, fields and granaries without grave risk of loss.</li></ul>

Building Pyramids

<ul><li>In organised crime, the big boss is not necessarily the strongest man. He is often an older man who very rarely uses his own fists; he gets younger and fitter men to do the dirty jobs for him.</li><li>If people realise that human rights exist only in the imagination, isn’t there a danger that our society will collapse?</li><li>Voltaire said that ‘there is no God, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murder me at night’.</li></ul>

There is No Justice in History

A Myths and fictions accustomed people, nearly from the moment of birth, to think in certain ways, to behave in accordance with certain standards, to want certain things, and to observe certain rules. They thereby created artificial instincts that enabled millions of strangers to cooperate effectively.This network of artificial instincts is called culture’.

The Arrow Of Histroy

<ul><li>Money is not coins and banknotes.</li><li>Money is anything that people are willing to use in order to represent systematically the value of other things for the purpose of exchanging goods and services.</li><li>Money is thus a universal medium of exchange that enables people to convert almost everything into almost anything else.</li><li>Money isn’t a material reality–it is a psychological construct.</li><li>Trust is the raw material from which all types of money are minted.</li></ul>

How Does Money Work?

<ul><li>Money is accordingly a system of mutual trust, and not just any system of mutual trust: money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.</li><li>Why do I believe in the gold coin or dollar bill? Because my neighbours believe in them. And my neighbours believe in them because I believe in them. And we all believe in them because our king believes in them and demands them in taxes.</li></ul>

The Scent Of Money

<ul><li>Religion can be defined as a system of human norms and values that is founded on a belief in a superhuman order.</li><li>Today religion is often considered a source of discrimination, disagreement and disunion.</li><li>Yet, in fact, religion has been the third great unifier of humankind, alongside money and empires.</li><li>Since all social orders and hierarchies are imagined, they are all fragile, and the larger the society, the more fragile it is.</li></ul>

Law of Religion

"Humans emerge from the womb like molten glass from a furnace. They can be spun, stretched and shaped with a surprising degree of freedom. This is why today we can educate our children to become Christian or Buddhist, capitalist or socialist, warlike or peace-loving."

People pursue wealth and power, acquire knowledge and possessions, beget sons and daughters, and build houses and palaces. Yet no matter what they achieve, they are never content. Everything that one has accumulated vanishes like smoke. Life is a pointless rat race.But how to escape it?

Never Contented Sapiens

<ul><li>Buddha’s insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction.</li><li>"Suffering arises from craving ; the only way to be liberated from craving is to train the mind to experience reality as it is."</li><li>If the mind of a person is free of all craving, no god can make him miserable.</li><li>Conversely, once craving arises in a person’s mind, all the gods in the universe cannot save him from suffering.</li></ul>

Craving Is Suffering 

<ul><li>But modern science differs from all previous traditions of knowledge: The willingness to admit ignorance. </li><li>Even more critically, it accepts that the things that we think we know could be proven wrong as we gain more knowledge.</li><li>The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions.</li></ul>

The Discovery of Ignorance

<ul><li>Many cultures believed that lightning was the hammer of an angry god, used to punish sinners.</li><li>In the middle of the eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a lightning storm to test the hypothesis that lightning is simply an electric current.</li><li>Franklins empirical observations, coupled with his knowledge about the qualities of electrical energy, enabled him to invent the lightning rod and disarm the gods.</li></ul>

Ben Franklin Disarming The Gods

Throughout history, societies have suffered from two kinds of poverty:<ol><li>Social poverty, which withholds from some people the opportunities available to others.</li><li>Biological poverty, which puts the very lives of individuals at risk due to lack of food and shelter.</li></ol><ul><li>People still suffer from numerous degradations, humiliations and poverty-related illnesses, but in most countries nobody is starving to death.</li><li>In fact, in many societies more people are in danger of dying from obesity than from starvation.</li></ul>

Social And Biological Poverty

<ul><li>In the new capitalist creed, the first and most sacred commandment is: ‘The profits of production must be reinvested in increasing production.’</li></ul>Napoleon made fun of the British, calling them a nation of shopkeepers. Yet these shopkeepers defeated Napoleon himself, and their empire was the largest the world has ever seen.

Capitalist Creed

<ul><li>Today in the United States, only 2 per cent of the population makes a living from agriculture, yet this 2 per cent produces enough not only to feed the entire US population, but also to export surpluses to the rest of the world.</li><li>Humans now produce far more steel, manufacture much more clothing, and build many more structures than ever before. For the first time in human history, supply began to outstrip demand.</li><li>And an entirely new problem was born: who is going to buy all this stuff?</li></ul>

A Growing Pie

<ul><li>Most people throughout history lived under conditions of scarcity.</li><li>Consumerism has worked very hard, with the help of popular psychology (‘Just do it!’) to convince people that indulgence is good for you, whereas frugality is self-oppression.</li><li>It has succeeded. We are all good consumers. We buy countless products that we don’t really need, and that until yesterday we didn’t know existed.</li></ul>

The Age Of Shopping

<ul><li>In the affluent world of today one of the leading health problems is obesity, which strikes the poor even more severely than the rich.</li><li>Each year the US population spends more money on diets than the amount needed to feed all the hungry people in the rest of the world.</li><li>Obesity is a double victory for consumerism. Instead of eating little, which will lead to economic contraction, people eat too much and then buy diet products–contributing to economic growth twice over.</li></ul>

Obesity Is A Double Victory 

<ul><li>In medieval Europe, aristocrats spent their money carelessly on extravagant luxuries, whereas peasants lived frugally, minding every penny.</li><li>Today, the tables have turned.</li><li>The rich take great care managing their assets and investments, while the less well heeled go into debt buying cars and televisions they don’t really need.</li><li>The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments.</li></ul><ol><li>The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’</li><li>The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’</li></ol>

Invest Or Buy

<ul><li>Our children’s books and our TV screens are still full of giraffes, wolves and chimpanzees, but the real world has very few of them left. There are about 80,000 giraffes in the world, compared to 1.5 billion cattle; only 200,000 wolves, compared to 400 million domesticated dogs; only 250,000 chimpanzees–in contrast to billions of humans.</li><li>Humankind really has taken over the world.</li></ul>

Destruction Of Nature

<ul><li>Many call this process ‘the destruction of nature’. But it’s not really destruction, it’s change. Nature cannot be destroyed.</li><li>Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, but in so doing opened the way forward for mammals.</li><li>Today, humankind is driving many species into extinction and might even annihilate itself.</li><li>But other organisms are doing quite well. Rats and cockroaches would probably creep out from beneath the smoking rubble of a nuclear Armageddon, ready and able to spread their DNA.</li></ul>

Change Of Nature

The state and the market approached people with an offer that could not be refused. ‘Become individuals,’ they said."Marry whomever you desire, without asking permission from your parents. Live wherever you wish, even if you cannot make it every week to the family dinner. You are no longer dependent on your family or your community.We, the state and the market, will take care of you instead. We will provide food, shelter, education, health, welfare and employment. We will provide pensions, insurance and protection."

The Collapse of the Family and the Community

<ul><li>In the last two centuries, the intimate communities have withered, leaving imagined communities to fill in the emotional vacuum.</li><li>Consumerism and nationalism work extra hours to make us imagine that millions of strangers belong to the same community as ourselves, that we all have a common past, common interests and a common future. This isn’t a lie. It’s imagination. They exist only in our collective imagination, yet their power is immense.</li></ul>

Imagined Communities 

<ul><li>Madonna fans, for example, constitute a consumer tribe.</li><li>They define themselves largely by shopping. They buy Madonna concert tickets, CDs, posters, shirts and ring tones, and thereby define who they are.</li><li>Manchester United fans, vegetarians and environmentalists are other examples.</li></ul>

Consumer Tribe 

<ul><li>In 1945 Britain ruled a quarter of the globe. Thirty years later it ruled just a few small islands.</li><li>International wars became rare only after 1945, largely thanks to the new threat of nuclear annihilation.</li><li>While war became less profitable, peace became more lucrative than ever.</li><li>The economy has grown exponentially, and humankind today enjoys the kind of wealth that used to be the stuff of fairy tales.</li></ul>

Peace In Our Time

<ul><li>Money brings happiness.</li><li>Family and community seem to have more impact on our happiness than money and health.</li><li>Happiness depends on the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations.</li><li>If you want a bullock-cart and get a bullock-cart, you are content. If you want a brand-new Ferrari and get only a second-hand Fiat you feel deprived.</li></ul>

Counting Happiness

<ul><li>When things improve, expectations balloon, and consequently even dramatic improvements in objective conditions can leave us dissatisfied.</li><li>It is all a matter of expectations. If happiness is determined by expectations, then two pillars of our society–mass media and the advertising industry–may unwittingly be depleting the globe’s reservoirs of contentment.</li></ul>

Expectations Balloon

<ul><li>Happiness is determined by a complex system of nerves, neurons, synapses and various biochemical substances such as serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.</li><li>People are made happy by one thing –pleasant sensations in their bodies.</li><li>If sex were not accompanied by such pleasure, few males would bother.</li><li>At the same time, evolution made sure that these pleasant feelings quickly subsided. If orgasms were to last for ever, the very happy males would die of hunger for lack of interest in food, and would not take the trouble to look for additional fertile females.</li></ul>

Chemical Happiness 

<ul><li>Take the work involved in raising a child. Kahneman found that when counting moments of joy and moments of drudgery, bringing up a child turns out to be a rather unpleasant affair.</li><li>It consists largely of changing nappies, washing dishes and dealing with temper tantrums, which nobody likes to do.</li><li>Yet most parents declare that their children are their chief source of happiness.</li></ul>

And They Lived Happily Ever After

<ul><li>Happiness is not the surplus of pleasant over unpleasant moments. Rather, happiness consists in seeing one’s life in its entirety as meaningful and worthwhile.</li><li>A meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.</li></ul>

Know Thyself

"If you have a why to live, you can bear almost any how."

<ul><li>SEVENTY THOUSAND YEARS AGO, HOMO sapiens was still an insignificant animal minding its own business in a corner of Africa.</li><li>In the following millennia it transformed itself into the master of the entire planet and the terror of the ecosystem.</li><li>Today it stands on the verge of becoming a god, poised to acquire not only eternal youth, but also the divine abilities of creation and destruction.</li></ul>

The Animal that Became a God

"Fire give us powerFarming made us hungry for moreMoney gave us purposeScience made us deadly"

History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. Learn from the past, shape a better future.

Lessons of History

“People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.” — Helen Keller

New York Times Bestseller A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg 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. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become? Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.

Sapiens

Find 100+ Facts about Science - Curated by others from trusted sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!

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Sapiens

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It encourage to take action

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It's time to
Read like a Pro.

110 Albert Einstein Quotes that will inspire and motivate you

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

Into the Wild

We Are Our Brains

Sapiens

Ten Great Books on How to Learn Better - Scott H Young

Increase your self-awareness with one simple fix | Tasha Eurich | TEDxMileHigh

It encourage to take action

Perception is Not Only a Matter of Now: Our Past Influences What We See

The Neuroscience of the Seven Deadly Sins

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.