From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Most people don't know why an airplane stays in the air, but they'll still get on and fly to another continent.
Our brains actively construct a model of the world, which is our actual experience. Incoming sensory data serves mainly to verify and correct this internal model.
What's unnerving is that when students learn about this character (rational economic man), over time they begin to value self-interest and competition over altruism and collaboration. These models are performative. When we say rational economic man, we become more like him. Who we tell ourselves we are, shapes who we become…
By encouraging them to pay attention as they overeat, we can reduce the reward value of that habit to zero in just 10-15 sessions of eating. These are people who could have been overeating for decades, but their behaviour can change quickly.
The way you eliminate fear is to approach your situation from every angle, almost as though it were a logic puzzle. It's also setting a goal but not being afraid to back away if you think that you're going to do irreversible damage on the way there.
Much of the pushback against science is related to a distrust of the establishment and of multinational corporations and their profit motive. It's easy to spread fear; as humans we're very tuned and sensitive to it.
What's going to happen is that you just get busier and busier and move faster and faster! We treat productivity tools as if they're going to lead to our salvation, they're absolutely not going to.
People like Trump rally people behind them by pointing out threats; these may be real, but most likely are imaginary or inflated. Then he says, 'only I can protect you.'
Being 'online' does feel sort of 'godlike', it does make you feel that the limitations of material human existence don't apply quite so much. This godlike feeling explains some of the terrible behaviour on anonymous social media. It also gives you this sense that you somehow could become one with the metaverse.
Thanks to the incredible concept of neuroplasticity, we can reshape our thought patterns. Techniques like affirmations, altering our language, or refining our thought processes are invaluable.
You come back and go to a job where your boss is trying to make an extra buck and your co-workers are trying to trample each other to get ahead- even though you just came back from a place where people were willing to die for you.
When I set a goal for myself, and achieve that goal, that's what winning is to me. When you set out on that yellow-brick-road of life to fulfil your goals, just be the best you can be – and whether that means you finish as champion, first, second, tenth, whatever… if you've done your best? You're winning.