From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
People need to see that their responses are attempts to help themselves. The problem often lies in focusing only on the negative effects of these responses, not their intentions. By appreciating the reasons behind their actions, there's a much greater chance for positive change.
There's so much bullshit and deception out there- and most of it comes out of defensiveness and fear- not from evil intent. Most of the time- it's because they're scared and don't know how to tell the truth. You have to draw people out of the position of fear to really understand them- flat-out asking people if they're liars will never help you.
Self-awareness, to me, is about discerning the elements of life we can control from those we should release. This recognition doesn't hinder growth or improvement but provides a necessary clarity that aids in managing stress.
My advice is to grab hold of people that are close to you and lean on them heavily. That's how we're designed to work!
Disasters keep coming along at random intervals, they are not normally distributed. They either come randomly (in the case of war) or they are governed by power-laws (pandemics and earthquakes). That's hard for our brains to deal with… we don't like the idea that history is just a lot of random shocks without any predictable features.
People don't gravitate towards perfection. People like people like themselves. And that's another definition of 'selling,' when someone can see themselves in you.
During the day, we strive for efficiency. The brain forms habits to avoid wasting energy on unnecessary tasks, like finding a new route to work daily. It automates routes, like driving on autopilot, sometimes arriving home without recalling the journey. This efficiency undoubtedly has its benefits in a resource-limited environment shaped by evolutionary pressures.
When you're trying to understand the motivations of people, quite often understanding the emotional drivers is at least as important as understanding the facts that took them there. In the case of Putin and the people around him, it's resentment and it's anger and it's determination to recover something they believe they lost.
Entrepreneurship is about taking risks and having the audacity to commit and persevere through all the obstacles and hurdles we have to overcome.
Unlike the waking brain, the dreaming brain shows reduced executive function, specifically in areas like logic and mathematical reasoning. Instead, areas like the default mode network, which I'd argue functions as an imagination network, along with emotional centers, are highly active. This configuration makes the dreaming brain less logical but more emotional, visual, and imaginative.
Play is inherently interactive, granting agency whether indoors or outdoors. When competition was added into the mix, playing with friends introduced me to complex concepts like game theory, including strategies involving threats, promises, and bluffs.
Pleasure has limits, it's fleeting, we habituate to it quickly and get bored of it. You can only experience pleasure against a backdrop of pain, difficulty, or struggle. We allocate pain and pleasure; we balance them out in clever ways.