Science is a learning experience. We are interacting with nature, collecting evidence, and sometimes nature is more imaginative than we are. We ought to be humble when collective evidence, and not assume we know the answer in advance. Many of the realities we create are designed to flatter our ego... We prefer to attach ourselves to virtual realities that flatter us, and that's driven by ego.
— Avi Loeb Harvard astrophysicist who studies interstellar objects and extraterrestrial lifeWhatever you think it is, it self-evidently exists, because the universe means something to each of us. But I would argue that whatever it is, it's an emergent property. So it exists here on Earth because there are complex biological systems. Without those complex biological systems, it doesn't exist. There is no meaning. We bring meaning to it.
The primacy of overtly scientific approaches to understanding life has come at a tremendous cost; in some ways we see the world in shades of grey rather than in full colour.
The only reason we are the master of anything today is because of our intelligence. We're not the strongest species on the planet. We're not the biggest, we're not the most resilient. We're quite fragile and in all honesty, without our intelligence, we're quite irrelevant. The reality is, when they are smarter than we are, it is wishful thinking that they will continue to be connected to us.
The actual actions of the people in the market are the things that determine what happens next within the market.
The contract between an employer and employee has changed quite a bit. When I first joined Adobe I was hoping that there would be a meaningful impact and that I could contribute to the purpose. I was hoping that I would have an opportunity to grow and develop. I was hoping to have some autonomy and flexibility. All of that now has become a must have, not a nice to have.
Whether it's doodling with a pencil, or painting, the practice of art – in any shape or form – is hugely liberating and gets us into the sense, and state, of flow. Art helps us navigate our place in the world, and offers us a place of stillness – much needed in today's digital world.
We're outnumbered by bacteria 1.3:1, we're slightly more bacteria than we are human. We're also stardust. We are also 60% water, and that water in our bodies is billions of years old. At an atomic level, 98% of the hydrogen in our bodies came from the bigbang. We're incredibly ancient beings, perhaps we should see ourselves as aliens!
We believe innovation should be a continuous activity. It should be a capability that you are developing and attending to regularly. It requires a kind of fodder of new problems all the time in order to be refining and developing.
We found that individuals who habitually pushed away problems and difficulties, or those who opted to ignore their issues or avoid confronting them, tended to suffer more and fared less well overall. On the other hand, those who confronted their troubles directly, often seeking the support of others to navigate through these challenges, were the ones who exhibited the highest levels of resilience.
Freedom without struggle is an illusion. I love problems. How we deal with problems defines who we are and what values we stand for.
Growing up in Pakistan, I saw so many people with heart disease and having heart attacks – it felt almost biblical – it was catastrophic. Unlike a lot of diseases, there wasn't much a cultural footprint for heart disease – it's not something you hear about on news or TV shows…. You don't see much advocacy done around it.
It's not enough to sit in our ivory towers or offices and think we have to go out and talk to people who are affected by a problem to understand what's going on, on the ground.