From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Rather than politicising our cultural challenges, we have to allow people to feel comfortable about their culture and about who they are, and to accept each other as equals.
My life's mission is to dismantle the notion of mental illness altogether. I detest it. It only serves to shame and stigmatise those with brain health challenges, which is utterly wrong.
When pushed to extremes by exterior influences, real or perceived as real, the inclination toward evil can overwhelm our psychic system and push us toward extreme cruelty toward others and even toward the self.
Despite every adversity, never give up on your dreams. I am living proof that having been born and brought up in the smallest country in the Southern Hemisphere, it is possible to fulfil your ambition and succeed despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
inequality [was] a better predictor of violence than economic development… Increasing inequality was found to predispose more to lethal violence
Bias means your mind, your experiences, and your knowledge is too narrow to take in and truly appreciate the person standing in front of you.
Fictions grant us a semblance of understanding, a hint of control, and a sense of community during times of solitude. This makes misinformation appealing, as it fulfils these basic human desires: comprehension, control, and community.
[the impact of the internet on liberty and free speech has been] very positive indeed – not so much two steps forward and one step back, as ten steps forward for every step back. By breaking the oligopoly of the established press and letting everyone be a publisher, it has made information much harder for the powerful to control.
I don't think it's a coincidence that globally, we're having the biggest crisis of democracy since the 1930s. At the same time as we're finding it hard to focus and pay attention, we also can't listen to each other and sustain our attention on collective problems.
When I told my parents and sister – my sister (who has always been my champion) took me to a local photo studio. I had my best clothes, she did my make-up and I posed in front of the camera. I sent those pictures with a bio that my sister wrote, and I got called for an audition.
Knowledge diffusion mediated by migrants tends to be intergenerational. When German chemists were expelled and moved to the United States, the people who really adopted their ideas and technology were from the next generation.
You may become rich, engage in philanthropy and help a million people but the only way you can help a billion people is by building a profitable business. If you can't make a profit, you can't help a billion people – so go make a profit!