Review: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading both Sapiens and Homo Deus, especially the former. This book picks up the thread and is set between the matter of Sapiens (now Homo Sapiens came to rule the Earth) and Homo Deus (what awaits us in the future) in terms of time scales. While the author talks about this book’s matter being more relevant to the present, it is still set out a little into the future.

The book starts with the impact of technology – robotics, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. This is going to mean a large-scale shift in the nature of jobs – with low end jobs set to disappear. This will lead to the emergence of what Yuval Noah Harari describes as a ‘useless’ class who will be unemployable. In the later part of the book he discusses ideas for the revamp of the education system. Till date, education has been about imparting of information & knowledge – there is little purpose in that any more with access to information being easier than ever before for anybody.

The political shift worldwide is discussed in some detail – including the apparent decline of liberalism. He talks about the emerging popularity of nationalist parties worldwide. In the later parts of the book, Yuval warns of the dangers of looking at aggregate data which is less personal, but in my opinion makes that mistake himself in the political section. Voters often only have a binary choice and the aggregate results make it appear as if they have chosen an ideology rather than voted for specific individuals.

There are further sections on immigration, religion, justice and finally on meditation. The discussions on mythology are far less nuanced and meaningful as compared to Joseph Campbell’s writings. The section on secularism makes some great points.

There are many brave and frank insights throughout the book, including on religion. There are several issues with the narrative though – a very pessimistic tone, disjointed sections and abrupt conclusions. And yet, it is a book which is intellectually stimulating and makes for great reading for that reason alone. The topics in the book are those which all of us should be thinking about. As Yuval Noah Harari points out, most of us are too busy trying to attain power and control circumstances, rather than understanding ourselves & the world we live in.

My rating is more liberal than my usual standards due to the highly intellectual, important and engaging content of the book.


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