Reviews and Comments

Pradeep

eviley3@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years ago

A rationalist interested in Hard Sci-Fi, Dystopian fiction, Psychology and Philosophy

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Rudger Bregman: Human Kind (Paperback, 2021, Bloomsbury)

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A Guardian, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and Daily Express Book of the …

First half of the book drags it down

The book pushes back against the cynical narrative that we humans are selfish beings, that we only do good when it serves us. The narrative that said that the Stanford Prison Experiment revealed what being human is etc. (Stanford Prison Experiment's results were coerced and the study isn't valid, which i learned from this book)

He is right to push back against it but he goes too far, he says we are the opposite, that we are by default good, he picks instances of good behaviour and attributes it to our nature, he picks instances of bad behaviour and attributes it to a mismatch between our nature and our environment. Which results in the first half reading like Motivated Reasoning which I would say it is. If the first half was saying that we are neither good nor bad, we have potential for both and the environment brings out one …

reviewed 1984 by George Orwell

George Orwell: 1984 (Paperback, 1963, Dramatic Pub.)

The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 …

Very good dystopian fiction

Captures how much tyranny, abuse and manipulation can break people till they are no longer themselves.

reviewed Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke

Anna Lembke: Dopamine Nation (Hardcover, 2021, Dutton)

This book is about pleasure. It's also about pain. Most important, it's about how to …

Read this if you struggle with indulgence, be it with social-media, gaming, series etc

Through stories of interviews with her clients the author talks about how addiction works, how to heal and how pleasure and pain are related. How addictions are invariably filling some void in the person. Worthwhile read if you struggle with indulging or bingeing.