Thanks to you too, for responding.

I think I was a bit too harsh on you. I see you have put a lot of thought, time and energy into what you do, and I don’t mean to discredit that in any way.

I get frustrated when people, especially younger people — which now includes almost everyone — feel that they can’t influence the powers that be, and that it is meaningless to try.

I think if you want to be a “better person” and create more good things for yourself and society, that comes from developing the skills to interact with others, trying to under stand their ideas, and then deciding how much of them you agree with. Everyone changes their lives through experience. The more you become aware of what your influences are, the better you can choose what to go toward and what to move away from.

I agree with your choice of recommending Harari’s book. The questions he raises are even more relevant now than before the pandemic. People should think about how they want their lives to be in the near future.

Another book I would recommend is Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. The first half is really important, the second half probably gets too academic, but you may find it interesting. Mostly, he talks about the need for critical thinking in age of too much information.

Over the last fifty years our advances in technology, science, medicine, communications and travel have changed our world very dramatically. I think that the skills people need to survive and thrive in this new world are very different from those people needed in the very recent past. The folks who don’t develop those skills will have a much more difficult time finding satisfaction and happiness, which will prove very disruptive for everyone’s future.