We found that individuals who habitually pushed away problems and difficulties, or those who opted to ignore their issues or avoid confronting them, tended to suffer more and fared less well overall. On the other hand, those who confronted their troubles directly, often seeking the support of others to navigate through these challenges, were the ones who exhibited the highest levels of resilience.

If an average developing nation had the UK's primary and secondary education level, it would be approximately 40% wealthier. It's indisputable that education makes individuals highly productive, making countries richer in the long run.

We have a significant ability to change our cognitive trajectory. But first, we need to believe it's possible. And second, we need to engage in the things that allow it to happen.

Even just 20 years ago we used to ask the question, 'why do we sleep?' It was one of the last great scientific mysteries; and the crass answer (at that point) was that we slept, to cure sleepiness. Much like saying we eat to cure hunger, however, this tells us nothing of the physiological functions that food and nutrition provide.

I realized then that I was inadvertently alienating our core audience — the surf community. Despite their understanding of the UGG brand, our advertising was sending the wrong message. This led me to shift our advertising strategy. We started featuring young professional surfers in our ads, often with the UGG boots barely visible.

The idea that you will sit down with someone who's had 30 or 40 years of lived experience and then somehow get them to change their mind in one sitting is implausible.

The 'black swan' doesn't appear very often in coin-toss land but in agent based complex systems land, it appears quite a lot.

The World Bank states that growth in agricultural sectors is twice as effective at reducing poverty than other sectors.

Every acorn is already programmed to become an oak tree, every embryo is programmed to become a baby, and every bud is programmed to become a blossom. Human beings are programmed as well, but we have something an acorn does not; free will.

There's something intrinsically sensual about jewellery, you wear it on your skin, it's a part of you and it embodies and imbues the personality and lustre of the wearer. There's something about gold and stones in particular which- for me- have a magical element.

The scale and scope of this threat is extraordinary. It amounts to US$320 billion per annum or, to put it another way, half a percent of global GDP. That is just the economic cost of drug trafficking. As far as the social and health risks are concerned, we believe that around 250,000 people each and every year die because of drugs.

Status is kinetic. Those who have it can give it to those who don't. Anointment refers to these ritualistic events that can be major: in a biblical sense, you're anointed by a king and all sorts of good things follow. In modern life, you're anointed if you're admitted to and graduate from a prestigious university. But anointment also happens on a much smaller scale, many times a day.