From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
I have always believed in the principle that what comes easily can leave just as easily. Instead of merely 'buying' talent, which could later be 'bought' by another company, it is more impactful to create opportunities for potential talent. We need to see talent in more humanistic terms.
Most fundamentally- we respond emotionally to music- sound is communicative, it affects us, it causes feelings and connections. Sound making and listening are communal activities, they're communicative activities… music moves us, and when we listen to it, we feel transported.
Fashion is either one of the crowning achievements of western civilization or it is incontrovertible evidence of consumer culture's witless obsession with the trivial and the unreal.
Most people would have a nervous breakdown if they didn't have their phone for a day; I would have a total breakdown if there was no culture, no art. I couldn't live without art, it would be impossible.
More than just being a luxury item, they are pieces that represent milestone moments- that's why they're important.
We have angels in mythology which fly everywhere, we have fairies, we have myths like the Greek myth of Icarus. It does have a great hold over our imagination. I feel it's such a wonderful thing to be able to leave the tyranny of gravity to leave the ground and fly wherever you will.
Social synchrony is a big feature of human behaviour—it's a weird thing if you think about it, but we do things like marching in time and parading and singing in choirs in ways that are highly coordinated and synchronised. One of the psychological effects of that is it can blur the boundaries between self and group and create this feeling that you are the group, and the group is you.
It's fair to say that life felt more secure 40 years ago. You felt safer in your home, on the streets, in school, you just felt safer. If people suggest that humanity is becoming less 'human' – it's because we've allowed civilized conduct to deteriorate and that's what I've fought against for my entire professional career.
Slowly, over the course of a decade, we built relationships by proving we weren't there to destroy luxury's heritage and its 'unspoken codes of conduct,' but actually to protect them and enable this industry to thrive. We were fashion insiders, and we just happened to be coders too!
Comedy delivers the cerebral and the hyperbole, it can be funny and serious. You can see that ability for the pendulum to swing both ways when you watch the best comedians perform.
I can't make people do anything. What I can do is find the right people—those who fit the culture—and let their humanity shine. Then, I need to create the support and mechanisms for that to happen.