From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
When faced with the inevitable, get relative.
Markets have an incredible capacity to forget, so who knows if it will stay like that… Markets forget, they get over-leveraged, they extend themselves, we will see other bubbles.
Robustness is being in a good place and having a plan, resilience is being able to implement that plan and stay in a good place.
You cannot understand entrepreneurial activity without understanding optimism. Research has shown that optimism and overconfidence in individuals is directly linked to their engagement in entrepreneurial activity.
The easiest way to understand noise is by thinking about measurements. The variability of the error is noise – and that's important. In the mathematics of accuracy, the expression for total error is very simple and quite compelling. It is bias-squared plus noise-squared.
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.'
I remember one particular interview with a boy, Peter, aged just 14. He told me how he posted on Instagram and then waited and waited for someone to like his posts. When they didn't' it made him feel awful and invisible. It's so heart-wrenching to think of that.
When it comes to claims like 'pets alleviate depression,' there's really no solid evidence. In fact, the findings so far are pretty ambiguous. And—I don't really want to tell you this—but in one study that found no significant overall effect, cat owners were actually more depressed than the control group.
Fear is a complex emotion that's moulded by years of experience. Much like fitness training, confronting fear is progressive. You can't begin with soaring in a wingsuit through a narrow canyon at astonishing speeds. This sport mandates extensive training and preparation.
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.
The people who influence the best are the ones who take the advice of the ancient Chinese military expert, Sun Tzu. Every battle is won before it's fought. If you put people in a mindset that is congruent with the major focus of the message you are yet to send them, it opens the door to persuasion.
We all have inertia in life, the more comfortable we are, the harder it is to change. One of the best pieces of advice I got was from Dr. Paul Hersey, I was working for him, and he said, '…you're making too much money, your clients are happy, that's your problem… you're not going to be who you could be…' I was comfortable – inertia had set-in, I was re-living the same day repeatedly. It was a nice day, but I wasn't going anyplace.