Professor Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, has said: “Never underestimate human stupidity. It’s one of the most powerful forces in the world.” As a child, Stefan Engeseth often got into trouble with his teachers, because he did not believe them. Could it really be true that we, Homo sapiens, achieved all that stupidity taught to us in history class? We’re destroying the planet, there’s new cold and hot wars, and economic systems are becoming unstable… yet, at the same time, we’re intelligent and have received the Nobel Prize. It did not make sense to him as a child, and it still does not today, which is perhaps why when consuming news, it feels like we are in World War Three with the planet and ourselves.

This book attempts to explain why human stupidity seems to dominate our lives, from current wars to the environment, politics to economics, inequality to sport. In answering the question, “Are we intelligent or stupid?”, Stefan Engeseth seeks lessons from our past failures that stretches all the way back to the creation of Earth, to find ways to turn the power of stupidity into a more positive force for our society and planet.