From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
We have a very strange relationship with empire, a combination of selective amnesia and nostalgia. The amnesia comes from the fact we mostly identify as the nation that won World War 2 not as the nation which had the greatest empire in human history.
There's a vested interest – if the ideas you're teaching and have worked on are completely abandoned in favour of something else, then your legacy goes to zero. I think that's a big force.
Controlling strength takes a lifetime to learn – and young boys need to learn about physical strength, and how to employ it constructively not destructively. A male gorilla could easily kill a baby with his thumb but we see male adult gorillas playing gently, and tenderly with babies.
The phrase 'I don't know' serves as both an invitation and a challenge, a beckoning call to delve into the unknown and piece together the enigmatic puzzle of knowledge. Science, at its core, thrives not on regurgitating established facts but on the exhilaration of unearthing new discoveries.
Throughout the years, I've engaged in numerous conversations, yet the topic of languages has never surfaced. It's fascinating, truly. Reflecting on my childhood, growing up in an environment devoid of electricity and illuminated by candlelight, I didn't perceive it negatively. Such circumstances become the norm for a child, and the experience is shaped significantly by the parents' reaction.
The truth is that we live in a very unethical society. We don't teach ethics at home, schools or university. As a consequence most businesses don't have a code of ethics or conduct.
When you're training in the martial arts, you always want to be getting beaten in the practice room. That signifies you're fighting good people. When you're getting beaten, you're getting better, you're learning.
The absolute focus must be on reducing inequality. This means creating strategies which provide economic opportunity - investing in industries that provide employment rather than profit, investing in education, and providing a fairer deal for those who form the labour force.
The truth is that many in the clergy don't know what to do when people come to them with something that can't be prayed away! They need the right training, support and signposting skills to help.
Martial arts gave me my identity, my purpose, a passion for a pursuit in life. I wasn't particularly good at sports, I didn't have many friends, and was a bit of a loner. Martial arts changed everything. I finally found something I was good at... it became my identity... it helped my confidence... it gave me a social circle!
Every failure has lessons it can give us- and knowing failure is possible and monitoring where you expect it to occur, allows you to divert your attention to the necessary observations and actions to carry out the positive.
80% of ten-year-olds in these countries struggle with basic comprehension, even though they can technically read individual words. This lack of understanding severely hinders their future productivity.