Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots Cover
Podcast Mentions

Work A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots

James Suzman

"This book is a tour de force." -- Adam Grant, Work defines who we are. It determines our status, and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hard-wired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live...

Podcasts 1
Quotes 4
The Ben Shapiro Show

The basic idea of this book was that for most of human history, people lived as hunter-gatherers on diets that yielded high calories through fire predigestion, leading to increased free time which then shaped cultural evolution through language, storytelling, and the arts. The author used this premise to suggest that modern society should aim for a subsistence minimum to spend more time on leisure and cultural pursuits.

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And the basic idea of this book is that for the vast majority of human history, human beings have lived as hunter gatherers on diets consisting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, insects, fish and game.

— Episode: Ep. 1355 - The Loudoun County Sex Assaul...

Episode: Ep. 1355 - The Loudoun County Sex Assault Cover-Up

The basic idea of this book was that for most of human history, people lived as hunter-gatherers on diets that yielded high calories through fire predigestion, leading to increased free time which then shaped cultural evolution through language, storytelling, and the arts. The author used this premise to suggest that modern society should aim for a subsistence minimum to spend more time on leisure and cultural pursuits.

"

And the basic idea of this book is that for the vast majority of human history, human beings have lived as hunter gatherers on diets consisting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, insects, fish and game.

Mastering fire thus made for a radical increase in humanity's free time because early humans were able to get more out of the food that they had and therefore they had a lot of free time.

Leisure afforded long periods of hanging around with others which led to the development of language, storytelling and the arts.

He says, we should set the course not to Mars for vacationing with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. But rather to a post-scarcity planet Earth on which their wealth has been confiscated and put to better ends.

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