There's a compelling mission—both because of the enormous economic opportunity it represents, if it succeeds, and because of the broader impact it can have on the world. The mission is defined by a stubborn technical challenge. It has to be hard. No one wants to work on something that isn't difficult, and in a sense, choosing the hardest problems becomes a moat.

It's always been the job of comedy to point out hypocrisies and problems – it's a long historical tradition that goes all the way back to Aristotle and Jonathan Swift.

Our brain is local and linear, and we live in a global and exponential world. If you want to keep pace, you have to perform and think at speed and scale – and we're not built for it. Flow is literally our leverage for keeping pace in a global, exponential world.

In 19th century England, there was no law against opium use until something like the 1890's. It was freely available, people didn't talk about addiction but rather about 'bad use of opium'... Charles Dickens used to use it extensively! It wasn't always banned!

One you have to get a unique insight. It starts there. Two, you need to be prepared to devote a lot of energy and commitment.