"A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century"

By the time I finished this book, I decided not to work another job on the graveyard shift.

Informed by the last 6 million years of modern human existence, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century focuses on some of the practices, structures, and ideas applicable to individuals and collective members of the modern world.

Lots of takeaways; it's more or less whatever chapters apply to you. 

The first half of the book lay the foundation for the second, so I enjoyed it most. In the first half, every chapter details lesser-known human histories (Chapters 2-3), new perspectives (Chapter 4), and lesser-known facts (Chapters 5-6). 

One of my favorites was "Ancient Bodies, Modern World." As a result, Chesterton's fence is one of the concepts I now hold as a principle. At the time of this writing, I can't say that I also hold T.O. as a principle, but it's now a consideration of mine.

"Asking Nature or nurture?" isn't wrong simply because the answer... or... the categories themselves are flawed, but also because once you understand that there is one common evolutionary goal, getting precise about mechanism is less important than understanding why a trait came to be."

That excerpt is only a snapshot of why Chesterson's fence stuck with me, even though it's just one of multiple concepts in the book. I take it that it's an example of what the authors refer to as "first principles."
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In Chapter 8, at one point, I felt that Heying & Weinstin were letting me in on some secrets. Ironically, it was this study of evolutionary biology of which I had the most exposure over the years.

Chapter 7 was a little too explain-ee. But I've had an introduction to some of the institutional research on the topic from a work by Charles Murray (yes, that Charles Murray). For me, Murray's actual overview in Human Diversity was sufficient enough to state his intention and approach to the topics to follow. (I intend to finish the book someday.) Similarly, I thought Heying & Weinstein accomplished this in A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide -- that is, until Chapter 11.

​If Chapter 7 was explain-ee, then Chapter 11 was much less so. Heying's & Weinstein's argument is well-made for learning that emphasizes certain types of environs and phenomena. But I felt there were gaps that prevented me from following the extent of their opposition to and conclusion about a couple of academic disciplines or schools of thought in question. Rather than define them, they were couched into a category, then attributed claims. 

Some other concepts that resonated with me were reductionism, scientism, and the distinction between Darwinism and Social Darwinism. There is a glossary in the back of the book for technical jargon, but A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century is not a mere collection of terms and concepts. Millions of years of evolution and ecology inform the perspectives, topics, and concepts by Heying & Weinstein. It, therefore, stands to be read a second time -- if not more.

A book review of A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life (Heather Heying & Bret Weinstein)

"A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century" book cover (Courtesy of Penguin Random House)

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Jubalyn ExWilliams lives in Pennsylvania (United States). You can find dozens of her reviews, including one on A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century by Heying & Weinstein, at landturn.com/reviews.

Commemorating 5 years of landturn.com​ (2019 - 2023)

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