From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
When you start questioning and be mindfully aware of your thoughts, you realise that you are an observer of your thoughts, not the originator. You can then extend that observer experience to emotions, sensations, perceptual experience and every aspect of mental space.
Games are not just a source of entertainment; they can be a tool for self-improvement, a way to understand decision-making and break free from suboptimal patterns. The initial lesson in any game is that natural talent alone isn't enough. Every time I encounter a new game, I think I might be naturally good at it, but that's rarely the case. However, the truth is empowering: with effort, you can become proficient at any game.
When I look at my own life- the things that I'm most embarrassed about are the moments where I acted, or didn't act, because of fear. The moments I'm most proud of are those where I acted with some semblance of courage.
There's also a danger in acting of identifying yourself as an actor. We have to try to identify ourselves as human beings first, and our jobs second. I'm Sam, I act sometimes… not I am Sam, I am an actor.
It's about catching that surge of emotion, be it offense or anger, usually incited by someone attempting to ignite your social identity or signal an outgroup threat, with a likely aim to shape your thoughts or actions.
There's an old adage that the boxer is the last one to know – it's not true, he's the first one to know, but the last to acknowledge it. You can learn from defeat – it's not the end of the world, but you have to learn from it.
Be a curious explorer of other people's emotions. Don't approach people as if you know how they're feeling. We often make mistakes when reading other people's emotions because we bring in our own cultural values and belief systems.
Conflict resilience is the capacity to sit with the discomfort of disagreement in the first place. It's a leadership quality that integrates various skills, most notably genuine, curious listening and effective assertion—the ability to articulate one's experience authentically in a way that isn't avoidant but increases the likelihood of being heard.
You can think of the human mind as a measuring instrument. We're making judgements all the time and studies show that on a day-to-day basis, when presented with the same evidence, our judgements may be different. If you see the mind as a measuring instrument, you start to see it as a scale, a bafflingly variable and noisy scale.
More than most artforms, music is the one that can't be beaten, tamed or matched. It just impacts your soul. I love producing music that gives people hope, makes them feel good, and gets them dancing and moving.
The perspective of seeing the Earth from space has rewired our brain. We used to have a 2-dimensional view for hundreds of thousands of years. Now with space telescopes we have a 4-dimensional view of our universe.
You must call yourself out for who you're not, and that's where you start to grow. That's where you can really fix the problems in your life when you recognise that.