Wisdom in fragments

There's a moment when the unconscious crystallises into consciousness, leading to all our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. In ancient texts, this moment is referred to as 'vedana', and we describe them as 'feeling tones.' These feeling tones are the mind's initial acknowledgment or categorisation of experiences as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

These accumulating errors can foster feelings of the world being against us, a sense of continuous misfortune, and the magnification of everyday stresses and unhappiness. In earlier, more primitive times, external factors would often interrupt these negative mental states, snapping us back to a more grounded reality.

Our brains actively construct a model of the world, which is our actual experience. Incoming sensory data serves mainly to verify and correct this internal model. A familiar example is predictive texting on smartphones. You start typing, and the phone anticipates the rest of the word. This process mirrors how our brains handle sensory input, triggering various internal models.

Being 'online' does feel sort of 'godlike', it does make you feel that the limitations of material human existence don't apply quite so much. This godlike feeling explains some of the terrible behaviour on anonymous social media. It also gives you this sense that you somehow could become one with the metaverse.

Guardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness

The crux of the matter is the internal liberation that comes from acknowledging that there will always be more to do than we can handle, and that certainty about the future is unattainable. It's a form of defeat, yet immensely productive, because as long as you believe mastering everything is just extremely challenging, you'll continue to struggle.

Guardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness

Patience is really the act of letting things take the time that they take. It becomes more important as the world accelerates and as we have the opportunity technologically to do things faster and faster. There are many things that can't continuously be accelerated, or which can only be accelerated to a certain point.

Guardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness

We use these tools to do things quicker – but that never help us get on top of everything because they systematically increase the size of the 'everything' – It's a rigged game!

Guardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness

The efficiency trap is very modern, but it's now become a holdover from the Industrial Revolution. If you only relate to time, as if it were a certain kind of 'thing', like a natural resource… something that you could maximise, then you're going to be in a perpetual state of psychological struggle because you won't be using the right conceptual tools to live in time.

Guardian columnist & author on psychology, time management, and happiness

An example of this successful approach was our first enterprise private 5G launch, which we achieved remarkably fast – from ideation to market-ready delivery in just six weeks. This achievement highlights the effectiveness of our strategy in driving innovation at speed.

A principle that I hold personally important is radical transparency in communication. This transparency extends from the shareholders to every level within the organization. It's vital that everyone is aware of what is working, what isn't, and the actions required for improvement.

Perhaps the most critical element is the cultural integration. The distinct cultures of the two companies present a significant challenge, consuming 80-90% of our efforts. Our goal is to forge a unified team culture, permeating from senior leadership to the deepest levels of the organization.

Firstly, it's crucial to adopt a bold mindset right from the start. I advocate for setting almost unrealistic targets. This approach might seem counterintuitive, but it's essential for enabling substantial change. If we only aim for realistic targets, our efforts will be limited to minor tweaks rather than significant transformations.

In my role, I assess new investments and innovations not just through financial lenses but also considering their societal and environmental impacts. This broader perspective is a key difference from the shareholder-centric approach. Another notable distinction is the focus in Silicon Valley on technological superiority, whereas in Japan, there's an intense emphasis on delivery quality and the customer and employee experience.

A crucial realization for me is that the management styles of the West and East are not mutually exclusive. In fact, blending the best elements of each can be highly effective. Western management, particularly in Silicon Valley, is often seen as a triumph of capitalism, primarily focused on maximizing shareholder value. Contrastingly, my experience with NTT revealed a different approach, one that prioritizes stakeholders, sometimes even more than shareholders.

I often envision the modern world as a battleground, with a continuous tug-of-war between the forces of salvation and our own potentially destructive instincts. AI emerges as a beacon of hope with a promise to significantly elevate the quality of life, especially for those in the lower echelons of society.

Author of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist

On a fundamental level, any experience that nudges your mind to engage from a unique angle is immensely valuable. Art, for instance, demands a different set of appreciation and communication skills. It invites you to respect and marvel at someone whose talents may be starkly distinct from your own.

Author of "The Tipping Point" & Popular Cultural Theorist