#1: "I found it ______ to read that____"

After the reading, I felt more connected to people of other ethnicities. There are times when we separate ourselves from other cultures because we feel more comfortable being surrounded by what is familiar to us. Part 1 reminded me that we all descended from the same ancestors. It gave me a flashback to freshman year when I read part of Guns, Germs, and Steel. If anyone wants to read it, that book actually goes into depth about how communities developed differently. It explores the evolution of different groups and why some started practicing agriculture instead of staying as nomads in hunter-gatherer groups like the aboriginal australians. I love how although we are raised in different environments and have acquired different skill sets, we can still learn to get along.
I’d like to praise the author for showcasing his metacognitive abilities within the book. Mr. Strayer put in one hundred times more insight into the prologue than my APUSH textbook did in 1300+ pages. Right from the beginning, I loved how he acknowledges the flaws in most history textbooks and even his own, stating that Ways of the World  “is radically unbalanced”, because it doesn’t include enough information on the first few billion years of planet Earth,. It was a small criticism, but important to note. It helps me trust him more since he seems reliable enough to point out his own flaws. I don’t want to say he’s completely unbiased, but I can tell he’s trying to be fair from his careful wording. He tries to be inclusive  in the way he retells history as well. He pays attention to the roles of women, indigenous groups, and other groups who still practice the hunter-gatherer style of living.
Many parts of this chapter also try to show different lives of different people; rather than giving only facts, the book also provides personal experiences. In many textbooks, because of the breadth of information needed to cover, authors often skip out on telling individual stories. I was surprised to see a lot of stories in this one. *It’s not too evident in this section we were assigned, but I read ahead and wanted to briefly mention it.* It was nice to see general change over time while also being able to read about personal experiences.
Something that I wanted to address were the appeals of life back then. There are times when I want to live like an aboriginal australian and not have to worry about work or school. Some would say we advanced; however, like Strayer mentions, we destroy the land as we grow. Reading this made me feel like I was back in my APES class where we learned about the many ways we could go extinct because of global warming. It was interesting to see the origins of how humans first exploited their environment. It seems like an endless cycle. Bigger population → more agriculture → bigger population → more agriculture. This positive feedback loop wouldn’t be so bad if Earth had an unlimited amount of resources: but it doesn’t. We are quickly growing and resources are rapidly depleting as well. Of course, it is survival of the fittest, but we grew so quickly and I feel kinda bad being part of the species that gets rid of biodiversity on Earth. I’m no angel myself and I’m not pointing fingers, but that was just a random thought.
I found it relieving to read (from the schedule) that we only had half of chapter one due today. Someone told me we had to read both chapters 1 and 2. I nearly had a heart attack.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)

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