Psychology

There's an innate tendency in human-beings to sort ourselves by how much we want power. Some of us don't want it at all, some of us are absolutely obsessed with it. The interaction between the individual and the system is therefore critical.

Political scientist & author specializing in authoritarianism and democracy

Our brains are constantly taking shortcuts to inform us about the world and this introduces an intrinsic error which our brains are filling in. By the time we 'see' something perceptually, we're a fraction of a second behind real-time.

Sleep medicine specialist and NHS consultant neurologist studying sleep disorders

If our senses are really how we understand the world, and there are differences in those sensory windows, then our internal world will be different. Perhaps these differences explain the diversity of beliefs.

Sleep medicine specialist and NHS consultant neurologist studying sleep disorders

What we perceive to be the absolute truth of the world around us is a complex reconstruction, a virtual reality created by the complex machinations of our minds. We have no idea about the world that we inhabit and what the brain is doing is really creating an entire shortcut that enables us to understand the world without being able to physically really understand the reality in which we inhabit, which is a mind-blowing concept.

Sleep medicine specialist and NHS consultant neurologist studying sleep disorders

Humanity has the arrogance to believe that our intelligence is the only form of intelligence. Of course, we're arrogant enough to believe that we are the most intelligent being on the planet. We don't really know what intelligence is.

Former Google Executive & Author of "Solve for Happy

Consciousness is at the root of human identity. Fundamentally, we relate to each other as beings with feelings and experiences. Consciousness is at the root of everything that really matters in life from deep emotions, subtle thoughts, these are the things that make life worth living.

Philosopher specializing in consciousness and panpsychism

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.

Philosopher specializing in consciousness and panpsychism

Sometimes it doesn't matter if the other side doesn't care about fairness; provided you do, you explain what's going on. Now it's arbitrary versus arbitrary versus principle versus arbitrary.

Co-Author of "Co-opetition" & Yale School of Management Professor

I think the people who are larger or those who have more resources like to think they're the ones who have greater power… and they have benefited from that illusion.

Co-Author of "Co-opetition" & Yale School of Management Professor

A lot of negotiation is teaching people tricks or verbal games, as opposed to providing a framework for thinking about negotiation. People want to come up with a solution that's fair. But what they think of as fair is often proportional division, and that just arises because they don't really understand what they're negotiating over.

Co-Author of "Co-opetition" & Yale School of Management Professor

It doesn't matter how successful you are, how much market share you have, if you're in your comfort zone you will leave yourself exposed. Courage also links to decisiveness, which is one of the key attributes of great leaders. Cowardice pushes the day of reckoning out, decisiveness brings it closer.

If I practice friendship for the sake of my friend, I will have pleasure in it. If I practice friendship for the sake of pleasure, in the long run I'll have neither pleasure nor friendship.

Professor of Government and Philosophy at University of Texas at Austin

People do confuse pleasure for happiness, but as Mortimer J. Adler put it, there is a big difference between a having a good time and having a good life. Pleasure is best understood not as the very good itself, but as a by-product of pursuing the things that really are good.

Professor of Government and Philosophy at University of Texas at Austin

To be completely happy is the same as to be fulfilled, to flourish, or to thrive – to enjoy complete well-being, to have our complete and final good. We seek happiness for its own sake, not to get something else. This is our goal and deepest longing.

Professor of Government and Philosophy at University of Texas at Austin

An example is when you catch a cricket ball your brain is doing the equivalent of solving differential equations, but you do it unconsciously.

Evolutionary Biologist & Author of "The Selfish Gene

Birds are not born with an innate genetically determined knowledge of constellations. What they do has been brilliantly shown in an experiment by Stephen Emlen.

Evolutionary Biologist & Author of "The Selfish Gene