Wisdom in fragments

We don't make minds - neither through embryonic development nor through engineering. We make embodiments that have something else going on besides design, evolution and learning.

Even something as simple as bubble sort does things that are not in the code. This is not philosophy; it's actual data. There is another source that competencies come from.

Individual cells have little tiny cognitive light cones. But groups of cells have incredibly large, grandiose goals - no individual cell can store what a limb is, but the collective certainly can.

Whatever magic tricks we think brains are doing, what are they actually doing? Brains didn't just show up out of nowhere - they speed-optimised much more ancient evolutionary mechanisms.

We are more than we appear to be. The technology cannot be uninvented — I know, until I die, that we did that, and I was a key enabler of it.

Exploration starts with exploring yourself. There’s so much temptation for everyone to seek answers outside of themselves, when peace and leading a fulfilling life starts with self-knowledge and self-reflection.

There is no mundane. The word itself, I think, is a non-word. It should not be a word.

The small act of paying attention to people is extraordinarily rewarding to every member of the team — and it’s amplified in an inverse way from their level on the hierarchy.

The line between acceptable mitigated risk and recklessness is actually very thin— and it’s even more dangerous because it moves.

Never get into a vehicle where the fear of failure is greater than the fear of dying.

Life is a series of decisions you make with imperfect information — and then carrying it through with conviction, while at the same time looking over your shoulder to make sure the rest of the team is coming along with you

I never grew out of that feeling of constant wonder. I just became more experienced, and got a lot more resources to go to even more extraordinary places — but the same feeling existed in me. I never really grew up — just the expense and sophistication of my toys.

If you just stand up for your own values in all the things you do, big and small, you create the conditions for the possibility of collective action.

Every organisation is actually a little bubble of utopia. It’s somebody’s idea of the proper power relations between human beings. It’s a work of political philosophy, whether the person was aware of it or not.

Who would you rather die than betray? If it’s just shareholders, don’t expect anybody else to trust you.

The amorality of investors is actually a gift. They’re not opposed to what we’re trying to do. They just don’t care. Show them it’s good for returns and you’ll generally get them there.