Jerard's September 2024 Reads

Summarizing my September 2024 reads with some thoughts:

1. The Selfish Gene (1976) by Richard Dawkins
2. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (2019) by Trevor Noah
3. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017) by Robert M. Sapolsky
4. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (1976) by William Zinsser

1. The Selfish Gene (1976) by Richard Dawkins

Contexts about the author: Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator, and author.

This book has answered one of the largest mysteries I have: Where do we (all living beings on earth) come from?

In this classic book, Professor Richard Dawkins expressed the gene-centered view of evolution (thus the title) as opposed to the views focused on the individual or groups of organisms. It argues that the genes by themselves - are selfish, and altruism and cooperation are merely to further the cause of the genes, which is to replicate and pass on the the next generation. The individual may die, but the genes are passed on. In retrospect, Dawkins thinks he should've taken the advice and called this book "The Immortal Gene" instead.

Dawkins proposes the idea of the "replicator" and the "vehicle", where the genes are the former, and the individual organism is the latter. The vehicle is a mere survival machine for the replicators, to pass on the replicators to the next survival machine.

Where did it all start?

This is where the "Something from Nothing" idea takes place. Well, not nothing, but with basic molecules within the primordial soup. The replicator which first manages to reproduce itself, thus gains the advantages over other molecules in the primordial soup. As the replicators become more complex, the replicators become the genes within an organism, with the organism serving as the survival machine.

“Was there to be any end to the gradual improvement in the techniques and artifices used by the replicators to ensure their own continuation in the world? There would be plenty of time for improvement. What weird engines of self-preservation would the millennia bring forth? Four thousand million years on, what was to be the fate of the ancient replicators?

They did not die out, for they are past masters of the survival arts. But do not look for them floating loose in the sea; they gave up that cavalier freedom long ago. Now they swarm in huge colonies, safe inside gigantic lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control.

They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.” ― Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

The book also discussed many ideas on evolutionary biology. A few of them are evolutionary stable strategy (ESS), kinship theory, and game theory from an evolutionary perspective.

Dawkins also coined the theory of "Memetics" in this book, in which memes act as the unit of culture. My understanding from this is that - like genes acting as the replicators, memes act as the replicators for culture itself. Like genes, memes are selfish replicators. Their properties influence their chances of being copied and passed on (from person to person). And yes, this meme is the same meme that you share on the internet! Fun stuff.

Dawkins ended his first edition of this book with the quote below:

We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators. ― Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

At first, I was worried that a person without a biology background (like me, my last encounter with biology was SPM) would get lost in the introduction, but Dawkins made this book understandable to the layperson. Appreciate the efforts of all science communicators in making science accessible to all.

This book is a must-read for evolutionary biology. Like me, you might also find the answers you are looking for.

Highly recommended read.

2. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (2019) by Trevor Noah

Contexts about the author: Trevor Noah (born 20 February 1984) is a South African comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host.

This is the memoir of Trevor Noah. You might have known him as the ex-host of The Daily Show. As the title of the memoir states, his birth itself is a crime. Trevor was born to a Swiss (white) father and a Xhosa (black) mother during the peak of the South African apartheid. Trevor was not white nor black, he was categorized as "colored".

The author's stories in the memoir were partly funny, dramatic, and eye-opening. I heard of the apartheid, but that's about it. Reading this memoir made me understand more of what life is like growing up in this state, the hardships that Trevor has to go through as a colored kid, not belonging to the whites or the blacks.

This memoir is also heavily centered on the life of the author's mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah. I remembered one part where the author says that it is the two of them against the world. However, it was not all rosy. There is a lot of tough love involved.

“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.” ― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime

Reading memoirs like these made me think deeply about how different people's lives could be, growing up in such a different environment. We will never live other people's lives, the closest you can get is a memoir or an autobiography.

Interesting read.

3. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017) by Robert M. Sapolsky

Contexts about the author: Robert Morris Sapolsky (born April 6, 1957) is an American academic, neuroscientist, and primatologist.

This is by far the longest book I've read (the audiobook was around 25 hours). I'm quite proud of myself for completing this considerably challenging book. Appreciate how the author made this complicated topic simple for the layperson (like me) to understand.

This is the second book I've read from Dr. Robert Sapolsky. The first I read was Determined (2023), which is the follow-up to this book.

This book attempts to answer one of human's biggest questions: "Why do we do the things we do?" Sapolsky uses his rich experience as a neuroscientist and primatologist to uncover the hidden explanations of our actions.

What causes you to either pull the trigger of a gun or touch the person's arm? It depends on...

1. One second before: What is the level of activity in your amygdala?
2. Seconds to minutes before: What environment are you in that might trigger your amygdala?
3. Hours to days before: What are your hormone levels? Ex. testosterone.
4. Days to months before: Are you under stress or trauma? They will cause your amygdala to enlarge.
5. Years to decades before: What happened during your adolescence? Has your pre-frontal cortex matured well? What happened during your fetal life? Did your mother have alcohol when you were a fetus?
6. Centuries to millennia before: What cultures did your ancestors pass down to you? Are you from a collectivist culture or an individualistic culture?

On top of the above, Sapolsky also has chapters touching on evolution, us vs them dichotomy, hierarchy, morality, empathy, metaphors, the criminal justice system/ free will (this is the chapter that spawned the sequel I mentioned earlier), and lastly - on war and peace.

At the end of the book, Sapolsky left us with two last thoughts (excerpt from the book taken from the Kindle version):

If you had to boil this book down to a single phrase, it would be “It’s complicated.” Nothing seems to cause anything; instead everything just modulates something else. Scientists keep saying, “We used to think X, but now we realize that …” Fixing one thing often messes up ten more, as the law of unintended consequences reigns. On any big, important issue it seems like 51 percent of the scientific studies conclude one thing, and 49 percent conclude the opposite. And so on. Eventually it can seem hopeless that you can actually fix something, can make things better. But we have no choice but to try. And if you are reading this, you are probably ideally suited to do so. You’ve amply proven you have intellectual tenacity. You probably also have running water, a home, adequate calories, and low odds of festering with a bad parasitic disease. You probably don’t have to worry about Ebola virus, warlords, or being invisible in your world. And you’ve been educated. In other words, you’re one of the lucky humans. So try.

Finally, you don’t have to choose between being scientific and being compassionate. ― Robert M. Sapolsky, Behave

There are a lot of things that we still do not know about ourselves, our biology, and our behavior. Only time and technology can uncover the mysteries within.

This book is one of the must-reads to better understand human behavior. It is mind-blowing and easily one of the top non-fiction books I've read.

Highly recommended read.

4. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (1976) by William Zinsser

Contexts about the author: William Knowlton Zinsser (October 7, 1922 – May 12, 2015) was an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher.

Somehow, the audiobook version of this book was a little different from the hardcopy/Kindle versions. The audio version was relatively shorter than the other versions.

As I want to learn more about writing and how to write well, reading this book is a natural step.

"Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all." ― William Zinsser, On Writing Well

William Zinsser has four cardinal rules for writing well:

1. Clarity - We must be clear about what we write. If we cannot write clearly, the audience will not understand. If an author's mind is clear and well-organized, he will be able to write clearly.
2. Simplicity - We tend to think that by using jargon, we will look smarter. This is, of course, not the case. The more jargon we use, the more difficult it is for our audience to understand. The airline pilot who announced that the plane was presently experiencing precipitation could have just said "It is raining".
3. Brevity - Write only what's necessary. Don't give the reader more than it's needed. Short words are better than long words. Most writings can be cut down by 50% without impacting the meaning.
4. Humanity - Of all else, write with humanity. Write as yourself, not as anyone else. Never write anything you wouldn't say comfortably in a conversation.

The author also emphasized the use of active verbs instead of passive ones.

Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb. The difference between an activeverb style and a passive-verb style — in clarity and vigor — is the difference between life and death for a writer. ― William Zinsser, On Writing Well

An example is given below (extract from the Kindle version of the book):

“Joe saw him” is strong. “He was seen by Joe” is weak. The first is short and precise; it leaves no doubt about who did what. The second is necessarily longer and it has an insipid quality: something was done by somebody to someone else. It’s also ambiguous. How often was he seen by Joe? Once? Every day? Once a week? A style that consists of passive constructions will sap the reader’s energy. Nobody ever quite knows what is being perpetrated by whom and on whom. ― William Zinsser, On Writing Well

A great guide to hone your skills as a non-fiction writer.

If you have read something good lately, share your thoughts in the comments!

Checkout my next reads here: https://lnkd.in/gm8dV7hV

Happy reading!

#reading #readingjourney #readinglist #bookrecommendation