From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Conservatives and liberals are wandering around with different brains. They have different tools with which to apprehend the world, and therefore they are seeing different worlds — which inform the politics that emanate from that experience.
Whatever you are going through, could lead you to something even better. You cannot often control what happens to you- but you can control your response to it. In a way, serendipity is about taking agency over your life more!
Women were never in the driver's seat with dating. It always came down to the man to take the lead, to ask the girl... There was this playbook where the guy has the power, the girl is weak and fragile waiting to be saved by Prince Charming... and this is disempowering for both sides.
Making mistakes is necessary- if you don't make mistakes, you can never grow. Every failure is a little lesson in how to be a winner. Failure is an opportunity to learn, to start again, to see problems, and find solutions. Failing may be the reason you win next time!
There is a specific type of person you'll often find in these long-lasting organisations: thoughtful, future-oriented, introspective, and often self-critical. These individuals are focused on making a positive impact in the world and serving the organisation rather than seeking personal gain.
We are now 10 years into the mass warping of the human collective psyche because of a lack of checks and balances. To even begin to correct what's already happened means we have to wake up to the challenge of a world which must collectively wake-up from a mass delusion that has warped our trajectory as a civilisation.
I once got a troll who read something about me and tweeted, 'The only thing I want to read about you is your obituary...' my comeback, 'well, at least I'll get one mate!' – that accepts his position (that he only wants to read my obituary) and turns it back at him without aggression. That's how you have to do it, that's the basic rule.
If somebody told me the US stock market returned 12% per annum over the last 50 years, I would simply ask them what the returns were over the last 150 years, 250 years, 10 years and so on. I could make up any return I want just by picking the appropriate time period.
When I ask people to note down their desired earnings for the next week or year, about 95% choose figures they deem 'realistic'. They won't even dare to jot down their dream figures, held back by their internal reservations.
To overcome extreme obstacles, to do the impossible, you have to create another human being inside yourself. I had to create an image of how I wanted to look, how I wanted to act, how I wanted to believe, how hard I wanted to push. I trained that image in my mind, and then I had to become an artist to create it.
Studies show that to get an MBA and to be a high-level executive you need to be a standard-deviation above the norm (have an IQ of 114 or more). After that, it turns out there's a negative relationship between IQ and leadership effectiveness. Perhaps because at that point people become narcissistic or egocentric.
Rumours are unofficial information that passes from person to person. People share rumours because it makes them more part of their community. It's very pro-social. You hear something that sounds interesting—it piques your interest—you share it with your neighbour: 'Hey, did you hear…?' This is just a social behaviour that people have done in groups forever; it's just part of human society.