From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
We make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same…
Globalisation is here to stay. You cannot, however, look at it as a natural phenomenon on which you have no influence- it's not like a typhoon or a cyclone. It's a process- and a process on which you can have influence.
My big contention is that we've misread Adam Smith. People don't realise that Adam Smith was a moral philosopher before an economics expert. His first book, before he wrote 'The Wealth of Nations' was, 'The Theory on Moral Sentiments'. In that book, you find the answer for what the invisible hand really is! He never accelerated the narrative that there should be completely unfettered free markets. He believed markets took place in the context of a moral framework and foundation.
If I left this mission, and didn't go, I would be on my deathbed wishing I'd had that opportunity back.
Your only duty is to take the rope and try to make a better one. Your only duty is to make the best rope you can for your children, for the next generation.
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 don't think about myself as a woman in these contexts, I think about myself as a human. We should take advantage of our qualities and not trying to change or hide them.
The Ancient Greeks believed philosophy was a medicine for the soul. Socrates said 'I teach my student how to take care of their souls', which is where the word psychotherapy comes from. Cicero said, 'there's a medical art for the soul, and its name is philosophy'.
When you're behind a camera, you have this incredible power to freeze a moment in time. But with that power comes responsibility. You're not just taking a picture, you're creating a narrative, you're telling a story.
We possess an essence deeper than mere job titles, yet society often deviates us from it. We're conditioned to identify with our roles more than our core selves.
If you start with a solution, there's a risk you might construct something that no one finds useful, leading to immense frustration. But when you centre your efforts on the problem, it serves as the guiding North Star of your journey.
Every human being on the planet- genetically- is 99.9 percent identical. Of the remaining 0.1 percent, only 10-15% accounts for the differences we see between asserted 'races' of humans.