The Reader

  This book is about achievement – how excellent people accomplished something. According to the author, to achieve something great, both talent and effort are necessary and effort is a more determining factor than talent. In the viewpoint of nature vs. nurture controversy, the author focused more on nurture, or improvable and alterable elements, which made this book a well-written motivational book. As the author is a confident psychologist who studied grit for a long time, this book contains valuable related information and personal interviews of grit paragons. Above all, the author’s career is a very good example of grit, or passion and perseverance. I was impressed by the author’s inquiring mind and subsequent attempt to get an answer, step by step, in one research topic of ‘achievement’. It made me reflect on my past research life. Did I do my research driven by curiosity? Did I initiate that statistical analysis as I wanted to get an answer on the topic? To be fran...

After finishing reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, I started reading this book. I heard that the author was motivated to write this book by Guns, Germs, and Steel, so I thought that it might be a similar book. Many religious people may feel uncomfortable with the author’s viewpoint, and I heard that the author was criticized for glorifying the history of modern colonial empires. This book is about human history but it encompasses more than that. It is more like a philosophy book to me. While reading this book, I was very pleased and consoled, and impressed by the author’s brave and novel viewpoint. He is the same age as me, and how can he have such deep insight about humankind and the surrounding world? If Guns, Germ, and Steel was felt like a warm and kind storybook by old grandpa, this book was like a very straight and sharp intelligent reasoning by a youthful genius. Ironically, I felt a kind of pleasure and liberation through this book, as intangible things (e.g., religion, n...