From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Happiness is a measure that reflects the success with which people achieve their personal objectives of living levels, happy and healthy families and satisfying work.
You create change in other people when you're totally honest, transparent, and authentic. When you show people who you really are, with all your flaws, with all your vulnerabilities...it moves them. People would come up to me crying and thanking me for telling the truth.
Gender identity drives self-socialization. People think adults socialise their children, but children socialise themselves. We see the same process in the Great Apes. Self-socialisation we see, is not limited just to humans! That's why I talk about the idea of gender in apes, not just sex.
The rate of change has become exponential and us as human beings physiologically have not been able to adapt. We just cannot physiologically adapt that quickly – what does it mean for us? This is in some ways Darwinian because he said it wasn't about the strongest that survives, it's those that are most able to adapt.
Don't make the mistake of confusing net worth and self-worth.
Seeing the Earth framed through the shuttle's small windows versus seeing it from outside was like the difference between looking at fish in an aquarium versus scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef… I was really out there, floating in it, swimming in it. I felt like a real spaceman…
Animals in this third group had learned from being exposed to inescapable shocks that nothing they did made a difference- they were essentially helpless when it came to controlling their fate. Learned helplessness can affect the future motivation to try. It can affect future ability to detect that you do have control in new situations.
We are held back by our deep, underlying fears. Fears of rejection, fears of being the imposter. We need to reframe these fears and work on regret minimisation. If you didn't take that action, spark up that conversation, or try that idea, would you regret it?
I believe it's crucial, especially in social settings, to be both interesting and interested. Being well-informed and keeping up with current events make you more engaging, but showing genuine interest in others is key.
anybody who's in wonderhell will know what that word means the second they see the word.
I think most limits are self imposed. The limits we place on ourselves are between our ears – it's our minds telling us we could never do X, or achieve Y. It's our minds deciding what is possible, or impossible. Guess what… when you go out and do something you thought was impossible, it expands your perspective on everything.
In comparing alternative explanations, it is not necessarily the one with the most evidence apparently in its favour that we should choose but the one with least evidence against it. One solid piece of evidence can demolish a hypothesis.