As I read through “Sapiens” my partner and I have also been reading a couple pages of “Digital Minimalism” each evening after dinner. Strangely enough the concepts from these two books mixed well in my mind. 

Sapiens  goes into detail on may concepts, including the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Noval Harari does a wonderful job of objectively describing to the reader the benefits and drawbacks of each revolution whilst also telling the reader who the winners and losers are of each. It turns out that Henry David Thoreau, whose concepts are presented at length in Digital Minimalism, studied the economics of these revolutions 

Thoreau did his own minimalist experiment, because, as he puts it, he did not want to be “crushed by his own possessions” as he saw many of his peers were. During his study on minimalist living he measured everything incessantly. He determined that he could live comfortably at Walden Pond with one day’s work per week. This, of course, by keeping his needs low. 

This concept is not new. Many sages throughout the ages have preached of the trappings of material possessions. However, reading the brief history of humankind presented in Sapiens has been one of the best and most logical calls to action I have received: Keep Your Needs Low.

Sunny pond by Valeria Mia Piccioni from the Noun Project