Wisdom in fragments

The single most important thing someone can do for a talk is to plan three or four rehearsals in front of people who are like the audience who will be receiving it; it may be one person or three, but you really should do that and discover what works, what doesn't, what's clumsy, what resonates.

Curator of TED Talks & Author of "The Long Tail

Storytelling is an extraordinary powerful human skill that all of us are wired for; but its best used in the service of ideas.

Curator of TED Talks & Author of "The Long Tail

Machines are pushing people to new frontiers, and teach us that complacency and the status-quo are not working.

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

Instead of worrying about powerful artificial intelligences in the future, we should be concerned about the lack of intelligence in the Oval Office today!

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

We cannot think about technology in confrontational terms. There is no race against the machines, there is no fight, no war. We have to end this long, historical confrontational narrative.

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

People like Trump rally people behind them by pointing out threats; these may be real, but most likely are imaginary or inflated. Then he says, 'only I can protect you.'

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

If you offer no vision for the future, someone else will. Our geopolitics cannot tolerate a vacuum, and if you retreat- whether physically or ideologically- someone else will come up with a plan which may not be complementary for democracy.

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

History is not linear, like the chapters of a book… History moves through seasons, and so winters are inevitable.

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

You shouldn't think of yourself as the person you are now – you are constantly changing – this is often called a growth mindset. When you think about human nature, you think of it as malleable, as something constantly growing and in-flux rather than something fixed.

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Dogs, chipmunks, squirrels, fish and dolphins do not have a meta-cognitive understanding of themselves. A dog can feel sad (we think) but cannot have a meta-cognitive understanding of the fact they feel sad and what to therefore do about.

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

People who learn fast and who have some level of 'natural' talent may go home from practice early because they don't have to work as hard as others to get to their target level of achievement, but when you study super-achievers, you find that instead of going home early, they work late, and really pull-away from the crowd.

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

If you think of a candle- it's bright, but the light goes out in all directions, like a sphere. If you think of a laser beam- the light is concentrated in one direction, and it can be much more powerful than a candle. Goals focus our energy in the same way.

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Most people we have worked with who have accomplished great things have an other-centred purpose, and that's never just 'make a lot of money…' – it could be to make women's lives easier, to close the inequality gap, to change the world, it's something which isn't strictly personal and selfish.

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

The human mind can shape itself – the human mind can take itself as an object and change – no other living creature on the planet can do that, and it gives me tremendous optimism.

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Our disconnection from nature has led to such irreverence towards the earth, a kind of murderous environmental rampage, a collective matricide. We destroy the forests, we pollute the waters, we violate the earth to the point where environmental damage now threatens the long-term survival of our species.

Author of "A Return to Love" & Spiritual Activist

The zeitgeist of this moment is not about charismatic leaders but about an awakened citizenry. This isn't an era of soloists. It's an era of change led by the choir, where everyone is learning to sing their own note by living as authentically as we can.

Author of "A Return to Love" & Spiritual Activist