Wisdom in fragments

Information overload means we are so bombarded with information that we can't make sense of it and so we become tribal, emotional and irrational, surviving using heuristics rather than facts. You can see this reflected in how our politics is changing – it's becoming more tribal, emotional and polarized.

The concentration of power in technology corporations is a moral and political problem that we simply don't have a precedent for. More people use Facebook than speak English for example, so the implications of Facebook, as just one platform, are at the scale of language itself.

Our apps and platforms are addictive by design. We know this both because the tech titans behind them have admitted it publicly, and because the dominant apps and social media platforms use the same suite of techniques that are well-proven to ensnare us.

Psychologist & Author specializing in behavioral psychology and irrational decision-making

Our informational environment has flipped from scarcity to abundance in a similar way that our food environment has. The heuristics we had living on the plains of Africa in an environment of food scarcity served us well there. But in the environment of Netflix, Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream and La-Z-Boy recliners, these same heuristics give us less than ideal outcomes.

Digital technologies are now an unavoidable part of the infrastructure of life and society, and we have the capacity to design them in ways that promote, understand and respect people's goals and values in ways we simply couldn't in the pre-digital era. With many of these technologies, though, our deeper human goals get treated as secondary, or are ignored altogether, in favour of lower 'engagement' goals such as views or clicks.

A practitioner is the person who goes out and breaks the limits of the mind, the soul, the body. A practitioner listens, and understands that the voices who say things cannot be done are theorists.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

You must call yourself out for who you're not, and that's where you start to grow. That's where you can really fix the problems in your life when you recognise that.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

I need failure like I need air. Unless people understand what failure is, they can't grow. I find growth in suffering, in pain and in failure.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

You have to be your own hero; that doesn't mean sticking your head up your own ass- but being accountable for who you are as a person and finding strength from within.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

To overcome extreme obstacles, to do the impossible, you have to create another human being inside yourself. I had to create an image of how I wanted to look, how I wanted to act, how I wanted to believe, how hard I wanted to push. I trained that image in my mind, and then I had to become an artist to create it.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

You have to go into a very quiet place in your mind, away from the noise of the world, the noise of doubters, insecurities and your own self. You have to quiet your disbelief and create open mindedness to your own ability to succeed and overcome.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

As a matter of history it's crucial to distinguish between what I have taken to call 'mercantile capitalism' and what I like to call 'modern capitalism'. Mercantile capitalism I think of as prevailing in Britain, Holland, Spain and elsewhere from around 1500 to 1800 or so.

Nobel Prize Economist; Pioneer of Modern Macroeconomic Theory

Capitalism isn't miraculous, nor does it work on autopilot; periodically it comes off the rails and has to be pulled-back- that's where public policy comes in.

Economist specializing in poverty, conflict, and development in Africa

To my mind, the essence of capitalism is that decentralised economic decisions can be taken in firms that compete against each other in structured markets, and do so under strong incentives for growth and the increase of productivity. It's the only system we've ever hit-on that appears to be capable of driving mass prosperity.

Economist specializing in poverty, conflict, and development in Africa

I think we were fortunate to get capitalism rather than it being inevitable. Society had been organized long before capitalism began, in the cities of the North of England; where- for the first time on Earth- ordinary people were able to gain from economies of scale, economies of specialisation, and from working in firms and factories.

Economist specializing in poverty, conflict, and development in Africa

We talk of inequality as a natural phenomenon, but the truth is that it is the product of our own political, cultural and social ideals. We have in effect, sanctioned these vast gulfs to exist; albeit often we have been selectively-blind to the effects they cause.