Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Coined summary
Kabir Sehgal
The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us
Listen to the first key idea
Key idea 1 of 5
3.6 (21 ratings)
12 mins
5 key ideas
Audio & text
What is Coined about?
Coined (2015) offers an in-depth explanation of money, a powerful and complex force that many of us take for granted. It examines money’s historical roots and explains the relationship between it and our emotions, while offering theories on the future evolution of money.
About the Author
Kabir Sehgal is the former vice president of emerging market equities at JP Morgan. He's also a bestselling author, including titles such as Walk in My Shoes, A Bucket of Blessings and Jazzocracy.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 5
Money arose as a medium of exchange when communities began to produce surpluses.
Money is a crucial element of survival in the society we've constructed. We use cash as a medium of exchange for getting the things we want or need.
And if you really want to understand money, you first have to understand how it works in the context of the laws of nature.
The nature of exchange is a key concept for all living creatures. Organisms work together to survive, often entering into symbiotic relationships, or symbiosis. In such a relationship, two different organisms benefit each other so that they together can better survive and reproduce.
That's how bees and flowers work. Bees derive energy from the nectar in flowers and then make honey to store through the winter. In turn, they spread pollen from flower to flower, thus fertilizing the flowers and ensuring their survival.
Bees and flowers also exchange electrical energy. Flowers have a “negative” charge and bees a “positive” charge – like magnets, that's why they're attracted to each other. The bees are pulled toward the negatively charged pollen, which then sticks to them so they can easily transport it and pollinate other flowers. Both species benefit equally.
Ancient humans, in contrast, came to realize that they as a group had a better chance of survival if they helped each other.
So humans specialized in different skills and created divisions of labor. Some individuals hunted, while others raised children, for example.
Eventually, humans started producing more food than they could consume. For the first time, they had a surplus that they could trade with other groups for goods they needed. Thus groups began trading technology, such as hand axes or spears.
Over time, humans learned that trade was easier and more effective if there existed a universal tool for exchange, rather than exchanging goods or services themselves – and money was developed.
Want to see all full key ideas from Coined?
Key ideas in Coined
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
Who should read Coined
- Historians or anthropologists, or people interested in these topics
- Bankers or people curious about the origins of money
Categories with Coined
Books like Coined
What our members say
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Start growing with Blinkist now
25 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers