Wisdom in fragments

I dreamt of Farfetch for the love of fashion. I was absolutely determined to create something in the intersection of both fashion and tech – my two passions. I think the idea really came when I was in my showroom in Paris during fashion week and I could see all these boutiques who were just not going to survive as the internet and e-commerce really started to change the fashion industry.

Founder and CEO of Farfetch, luxury fashion e-commerce platform

The mythology tells us that you come to the valley and forge your own path, but in reality young people come here and are asked to essentially create careers that are a daisy chain of gigs on mini-innovation projects within large corporations.

She channelled that culture, and felt entitled to do the same thing – only her device wasn't a computer, or software, it was a medical device that patients and doctors relied on to make important health decisions, some of them life-or-death decisions. With medicine, you simply can't fake it till you make it. Otherwise, you jeopardize lives.

Investigative journalist who exposed Theranos fraud through Wall Street Journal reporting

Elizabeth Holmes is the product of a culture that has brought up young entrepreneurs to say, and believe, that 'moving fast and breaking things' is cool, that disrupting now and worrying about the consequences later is fine and that breaking laws and regulations is something to be proud of.

Investigative journalist who exposed Theranos fraud through Wall Street Journal reporting

People think that life inside Silicon Valley firms is like life under an orange tree, where you suck on the oranges and everyone treats each other perfectly – but that's not quite right… people are ruthless, competitive… human.

Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine & Cybersecurity Expert

In Silicon Valley there's a sense that there are 30 individuals who are 10x more capable than most people, it's like a power law scaling of talent. If a founder has really succeeded and thrived, people think it's because of their brilliance and because they're at this super far-end of the spectrum. As a result, founders get immense leeway, capital rushes toward them and in some ways that's good.

Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine & Cybersecurity Expert

People think these founders are all brilliant and can't make mistakes, we've found that; there's a sense that they can fix everything or have the answers for everything… they don't, and they can't.

Tech Journalist & Co-Founder of Recode Media

I'm particularly obsessed by communications; and if you are committed to doing charitable things, and- of course- have your primary duty to ensure money is spent well and makes a difference – I think you may also have the duty to make sure that you try to affect the general attitudes people have towards the issues too.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

We have to constantly evolve how we make an impact, and make sure that we're doing what the communities we work in want us to support rather than enforcing some kind of model. Our work has to be led by the leaders of communities telling us what will work.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

Our thought was simple; why don't' we send ill-informed comedians to look at these social issues? And that turned out to be the magical idea – because people were used to experts and journalists, talking in terms of agricultural yields and geopolitics… we sent out normal people, who were very well known, to talk about human issues and human problems.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

I flew home with this profound sense of the simultaneity of human suffering; I've never been able to get over that sense that even as I'm talking to you right now, there are people who are living unbearable lives.. I just came home and tried to think of as many ways that comedy could contribute – stage shows, television shows, books, merchandise, everything that we could do, like running a business.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

As comedians, our main charity engagement for such a long time had been the tradition of the Secret Policeman's Ball, a way of saying comedians care… they'll be as funny as they can…. they'll make money for a cause… but the event had close to no connection with the cause at all! When I did Comic Relief, the aim was to be as funny as possible, to get as much of an audience as possible, and leverage the fact that comedians are often seen as people's friends, and normal people, not as intellectuals.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

So many of us think that we don't have power as individuals; and that makes us unwittingly complicit. Every time someone doesn't do the right thing in any given situation, it allows that situation to go on longer, and in that way, there's complicity – and that's dangerous culturally, and dangerous to our forward momentum as we try to move towards being the free people we're meant to be.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

We are all creative beings, but we're brought up being told not to colour outside the lines – but why? It's OK to be different…. It's more than OK to be different, and we need to encourage that. Art has been the most freeing and therapeutic thing I can do.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

For me, freedom is living outside social norms, realising that power structures are an illusion and realising that the rules we put on ourselves and others are also illusions. Freedom means that we realise that we don't subscribe to illusions, and free ourselves from dogma.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment

I was raised in a really unique way, and it gave me a different view on gender and, in some ways, race. I was raised in a commune, and I grew up without mirrors- without vanity. To be without mirrors growing up means that there's no real defined sense of self based on the external. When I came into America however, I was told I was a girl, and this is what you can and can't do… it really is cult like thinking, and gender is a cult, and it's so dull… it's not what we are, it doesn't encompass what we are.

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment