# Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for being scientifically rigorous and terminologically precise; one critic says it discounts complexity in neighboring fields.

## Why people recommend it

- Worth reading, valuable (3 comments): "Who we are and how we got here (great)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398554)) "I got a lot out of his 2018 book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47812524)) "Absolutely worth reading." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47795474))
- Scientifically rigorous and precise (1 comments): "His views that I've read [0, 1] are scientifically rigorous and terminologically precise, deftly navigating the politics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47812313))
- Handles politics deftly (1 comments): "His views that I've read [0, 1] are scientifically rigorous and terminologically precise, deftly navigating the politics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47812313))

## What people warn about

- Discounts complexity in adjacent subjects (1 comments): "He simply commits the same error as many other other experts in discounting the complexity of subjects he's adjacent to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47812431))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/g-del-escher-bach.md): 47 recommend
- [Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-fast-and-slow.md): 17 recommend
- [Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-in-systems.md): 17 recommend
- [The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins](https://hackerapproved.com/p/selfish-gene.md): 14 recommend
- [Cosmos by Carl Sagan](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmos.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101873469?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781101873465) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich", https://hackerapproved.com/p/who-we-are-and-how-we-got-here/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).