From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Today, a fear-based politics has largely replaced the promotion of ideals. Obama's call for 'the audacity of hope' in 2006 now feels quaint. To me, this concession to fear poses a big challenge: how do we recover an aspirational politics?
If you love yourself – and feel good about yourself, it will help you enhance your future, life, and relationships. Loving yourself makes you feel worthy and if you love yourself, you're far more likely to love others.
Conditional on the emergence of the human brain, civilisation was inevitable for many reasons. We had a commendable population in Africa 300,000 years ago and given the fact that these individuals were equipped with the power of the modern brain, the emergence of civilisation was inevitable.
You become immune to the evils of criticism and flattery and enjoy a fundamental self-esteem and not a desire for self-image. This is dependent on others and can be taken away any time you are not validated.
Don't make the mistake of confusing net worth and self-worth.
The French Revolution really is this incredible hinge in the story of Western political thought. For a long time, it was just taken for granted that the French Revolution was the starting point of political modernity.
Jack Ma encouraged the entire company to practice and learn Tai Chi in their free time, it is a practice that allows one to embrace the seeming contradictions in the world, and in business. Let me give you some examples – how do you become a profitable business while also doing good for society?
We seem to be in a strange period of history where our official world view, our official picture of the universe denies the reality of the thing that's most evident and the thing that gives life value. I think people do feel this at an intuitive level, and it can lead to a deep sense of alienation.
Your mission in life is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. When we're being useful and doing what we love, there's a sense of bliss. It's that moment where you say, 'This is why I'm alive. This is reason enough to be alive, right here.'
There's a tension amongst the countries who belong to, and who have led, international organisations. Are they there to solve problems which no country can alone solve? Or – are they there to impose one particular view of the world on the rest of the world?
We take ethics very seriously – and it's important to never fool the user. It must be clear that you are dealing with a digital person, not a real person, and at the same time you cannot create any dependency.
Monkeys are superior to men in this: When a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.