From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
People underestimate their personal probability of encountering negative …it is not so much that individuals believe that negative events will not happen, but rather that these events are relatively unlikely to happen to them.
I've done what society tells you is successful, only to feel really empty and alone inside. True success is the discovery of your authentic self—discovering who you are before any wounding, trauma, or limitations were created in your life's journey.
The right idea is one that fascinates you, that you can't get out of your mind, that's a puzzle you want to solve. The path from a raw idea to success is a long one- full of frustration, dead-ends. If you don't have something that genuinely fascinates you, you're going to give-up long before the point you finally stumble on the thing that works.
The easiest piece of advice to give, but the hardest to follow- is to not let yourself get swept up in the next bubble. You could have said that about tech stocks in the 90's, housing prices around the world in the early 2000's… but people always got swept up in them. The history of financial bubbles does not give cause for optimism.
Work is preventing us living. So many people use work to avoid deeper topics around their lives, relationships, kids and health – deeper topics that can lead to the positive choices they need to make that will make them happier.
There was a significant psychological barrier; people were afraid of making mistakes and ruining their work. But when they saw this engaging, simple game on the screen, they understood what to do and felt successful. It broke down that fear and made people more comfortable with computers.
We always have this mix in each area, but people tend to categorise creativity by discipline rather than by the individuals within those disciplines.
The first thing I'd say is a big mistake is not caring about what the other side wants. Oftentimes people are thinking I have to say no to the other side. My goal is to say yes to them. It's to figure out what it is they want and give it to them.
There's a very strong relationship between depravation and drug use in many western cultures. It's not the sole reason- you do get the rich and mega-privileged using drugs… You can't go shouting from the rooftops that it's all about depravation… a lot of it is… but there are other social factors, personal factors, genetic factors and economic factors – all mixed into the pot.
All we can control in this life is our dedication, our self-belief, our determination. I can guarantee you, I will always have that, and that's my legacy. That's what I want to leave as a gift to my kids – the message that they should never give up, never have regrets, to give everything.
The 'Doomers' often anthropomorphize computers by attributing human characteristics to them. Humans have evolved their competitive nature and occasional violent impulses from survival in a world marked by resource scarcity and competition. Computers, on the other hand, have emerged from a vastly different evolutionary path. Thus, to say a computer 'wants to eat your lunch' leans heavily into projecting human traits onto machines.
The happier I become with myself, the less I buy… the better my bank account becomes, because I'm not buying nonsense that I never needed.