From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
People suffer from the curse of knowledge, they don't know what they don't know! All of us have different starting points, different assumptions and a different knowledge base.
Most leaders are running human organisations, not financial organisations. This means they need to understand how to motivate, inspire and organise people first rather than capital first. This requires a set of skills that traditionally have not been taught in business schools.
The key for young individuals is to balance seeking wisdom from those who have preceded them—being open and receptive, yet not confusing confidence with arrogance—while offering their insights and ideas for collaboration.
Interestingly, during my observation year at Eton, I asked a staff member if they ever intended to expand the institution. Their perplexed reaction was intriguing. They asked me, 'Why would we want to grow?' The question made me realize that once growth ceases to be the primary objective, it allows the spotlight to shift towards aspects like sustainability, longevity, nurturing a strong culture, and attracting top-notch talent.
In a democracy, an informed citizenry can act as a driving force for more robust and effective foreign policies and strategies related to national security, thereby fostering peace and encouraging prosperity. However, the lack of such comprehensive education has been a stumbling block. Education is the linchpin in this process.
Children are bought and sold like animals, sometimes at a lower price than animals. 168 million children work as child labourers, more than 200 million children who should be in education are not at school.
If you want to do something well you do it 1,000 times, if you want to do something great you do it 10,000 times.
We all have the opportunity to be on the level of Da Vinci or Franklin because we all have access to so many different forms of knowledge. Those who study philosophy, the arts and sciences together can make connections at that very high level.
The brains of our ancestor Homo sapiens were the same as our brains. How to draw, how to write, how to think, have all been learned, sometimes with great difficulty, and the learning has been passed on.
The concept of Wikia is to provide a platform for communities to build 'the rest of the library', everything that doesn't belong in an encyclopaedia. The purpose is to empower the next wave of massive collaboration, and to extend participatory culture beyond just the non-profit educational and reference works.
If we can create excitement, wonder, and solutions to problems like loss of biodiversity, then I think that not only can we inspire the next generation, but we can give them hope.
Children are the future of humanity. If we cannot protect our children, if we cannot ensure their rights, their education, their protection from exploitation, then we are failing humanity itself.