Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

“He's also a renowned author of books such as Guns, Germs, and Steel, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. He has also been awarded the National Medal of Science and a MacArthur Genius Award.”

“I'm such a fan of your books. Guns, Germs, and Steel was the first one I read, and I'm going to resist the temptation to ask about the topics in each of all of your books and mainly focus on your book, which is profits, phonetically the same, but profits as in making profits and prophets as in who become prophets and what they are. Coaches and kings. When do leaders matter?”

“about leaders now seems to be the opposite of Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared, your book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, was about big patterns. There was nothing about individuals. Instead, it was about domestication and the shapes of continents. Does that mean that you've changed your mind and you now recognize the role of individuals?”

“And my answer to that is no. Guns, Germs, and Steel is about patterns of history on the continents over the last 10,000 years. And over the last 10,000 years on whole continents, I can't think of any individual who's made a difference.”

“And so in Guns, Germs, and Steel, there's nothing at all about individuals. Whereas my book about leadership is about what people have done during my lifetime, usually on local scales. And so it is about individuals, whereas Guns, Germs, and Steel was not at all about, I haven't changed my mind.”

“Very nice to meet you, sir. It's a pleasure. Great pleasure to meet you. I really enjoyed Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I just got into this yesterday. And today, I started reading your new book. Awesome. Awesome so far.”

“And that is that. People often ask me, Jared, Guns, Germs, and Steel neglects individual people. It's about things that happened over the last 10,000 years. And Guns, Germs, and Steel, the different outcomes of societies and different continents has nothing to do with any individual.”

“How do you reconcile Guns, Germs, and Steel with leaders? And my first response would be to say that Guns, Germs, and Steel is about entire continents for 10,000 years, where one person doesn't make a difference, whereas my book about leaders is about individuals in the short term.”

“Well, I think Guns, Germs, and Steel highlighted all the factors that have to be in place for these types of changes to take place. It's not mutually exclusive that leaders aren't important as well.”

“An example is. So my books get translated into lots of languages. The Guns, Germs, and Steel has been translated into 45 languages. And one thing that I can see, I see how, because I've got all the, I see how thick are the editions.”

“Over the years, Collapse, you know, Guns, Germs, and Steel. You've really done an amazing job of relaying these incredibly complex and impactful moments in society and in history and made it very entertaining and very consumable.”