Wiser Than Yesterday: Book club

By: Book geeks Sam Harris & Nicolas Vereecke
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  • Summary

  • Wiser than Yesterday hosts open-ended discussions, breakdowns, and summaries of the world's most thought-provoking and inspiring books.


    Our hosts, Nicolas Vereecke and Sam Harris digest non-fiction books from all centuries and genres. They discuss the biggest philosophical insights and practical lessons for health, wealth, wisdom, and happiness.


    This podcast is here to help listeners become smarter. To learn about new ideas and to gain more perspectives on the books and ideas they are familiar with.


    Each season we tackle a new field and read the best books on a given topic such as racism, startups, stoicism, or personal finance. We cast a wide net to summarise all sides of opinions in an area to come to a wider understanding of the topic at large as well as help listeners navigate the different opinions and ideas they haven't heard of.


    We dive into topics such as philosophy, business, equality, psychology, politics, economics, and who knows what else. Our goal is to simply explore the best ideas and learn new things. You're most welcome to join us for the ride.



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    © 2023 Samuel Harris & Nicolas Vereecke
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Episodes
  • 1. Introduction - The Big Plan

    1. Introduction - The Big Plan
    Mar 5 2020
    This is a simple episode where we hear about what the plans are for the show.Sam and Nico introduce each other and discuss some of their backgrounds if you want to get to know you lovely show hosts.

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    19 mins
  • 2. The Elephant in the Brain - Kevin Simler & Robin Hanson

    2. The Elephant in the Brain - Kevin Simler & Robin Hanson
    Mar 17 2020
    About the BookThe aim of "Elephant in the Brain" is to confront our hidden motives directly — to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once our minds are more clearly visible, we can work to better understand human nature: Why do people laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen?Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains are therefore designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to get ahead socially, often by devious means.But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better. And thus we don’t like to talk — or even think — about the extent of our selfishness. This is “the elephant in the brain,” an introspective blind spot that makes it hard to think clearly about ourselves and the explanations for our behavior.What We GiveA summary of the key ways human beings lie to themselves and others without even realising. There are so many hidden ways we conceal the truth to protect and advance ourselves. But sometimes to our detriment.We work out the useful take-home point and consider the knowledge that is perhaps dangerous.

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    41 mins
  • 9. The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    9. The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
    Mar 27 2020

    The Black Swan focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events — and the human tendency to find simplistic explanations for these events, retrospectively. It was published in 2007, by author and former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Coronavirus and Pandemics This book is extremely poignant for understanding the Coronavirus pandemic and its effects.

    In the book, he explains why we would be caught unawares by such an event and why we should build robust systems for events like this. During the discussion on the show, we talk through a lot of the ideas he explains in relation to how it can help with the current situation and build robust systems for future events that we can not predict.

    Idea
    A central idea in Taleb's book is not to attempt to predict Black Swan events but to build robustness to negative events and an ability to exploit positive events. Taleb contends that banks and trading firms are vulnerable to hazardous Black Swan events and are exposed to losses beyond those predicted by their defective financial models.

    The book asserts that a "Black Swan" event depends on the observer: for example, what may be a Black Swan surprise for a turkey is not a Black Swan surprise for its butcher. Hence the objective should be to "avoid being the turkey", by identifying areas of vulnerability in order to "turn the Black Swans white".

    About
    Taleb has referred to the book as an essay or a narrative with one single idea: "our blindness with respect to randomness, particularly large deviations." The book moves from literary subjects in the beginning to scientific and mathematical subjects in the later portions.
    - Part One and the beginning of Part Two delve into psychology.
    - Taleb addresses science and business in the latter half of Part Two and Part Three.
    - Part Four contains advice on how to approach the world in the face of uncertainty and still enjoy life.

    The book has been described by The Sunday Times as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II. As of 2019, it has been cited approximately 10,000 times, 9,000 of which are for the English-language edition (we can expect a lot more after the Coronavirus event). The book spent 36 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list;17 as hardcover and 19 weeks as paperback. It was published in 32 languages.


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    40 mins

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