From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Invention has to be about the dream, there's an ingredient which you can't put in a business plan- it's intangible- but I saw it, it was there.
If you're not careful, possessions can end up owning you. Eventually, the car became part of my identity; it represented who I was, which isn't healthy. I want everyone to become wealthy and experience this firsthand because once they do, they'll realize material possessions aren't fulfilling.
I want a world where people can be true to themselves and to live their lives according to who they truly are.
Postmodernists are intellectual terrorists who fly their planes of bullshit into the edifices of reason.
Curiosity drives human progress; it helps us understand our world and that's what drew me to leave my home. I had this curiosity, like Isaac Newton when he saw the apple fall and wondered why.
You should never place your value as a human being on results. You don't control the results of the game – people get lucky or go bankrupt. Also, what happens when you achieve your result? What long-term satisfaction does that bring you?
The greatest adventure that any of us can take is answering these questions for ourselves. This isn't deep, dark, conversation, it's normal conversation. The wisest, coolest prophets out there… people like the Dalai Lama… they're full of joy.
Magic is this incredibly weird bondage and discipline you make where you say to someone, 'do this thing to me that's morally wrong… you have my consent…' – once you give your consent, the morality changes.
I remember one day though, conversing with a primatologist and saying, 'oh, animals are just like us… we're not that special…' and he said, 'well, when did chimps build their own large hadron collider?' – I was gob smacked. That one comment made me realise how absurd it is to claim we aren't that different from other animals because, clearly, we're amazingly different.
Greek philosophers had this idea that philosophy has to be a daily practice. It can't just be this kind of French existentialist idea of a nice conversation once a week in a café. It has to be a kind of, daily practice.
What it means to be creative is pretty simple. It's to do something human, something generous, something that might not work. It has to be all 3 of those things. You will find creative accountants, politicians, housekeepers and engineers… being creative is to solve interesting problems!
The purpose of intelligence is to improve the quality of decision making by reducing ignorance. The more you know the more likely it is that a sound decision will be taken. That applies to all of us in our day-to-day decisions.