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We are more than we appear to be. The technology cannot be uninvented — I know, until I die, that we did that, and I was a key enabler of it.
— We are more than we appear to be. The technology cannot be uninvented
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Exploration starts with exploring yourself. There’s so much temptation for everyone to seek answers outside of themselves, when peace and leading a fulfilling life starts with self-knowledge and self-reflection.
— Exploration starts with exploring yourself. There’s so much temptation for everyone to seek answers outside of themselves, when peace and leading a fulfilling life starts with self-knowledge and self-reflection.
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There is no mundane. The word itself, I think, is a non-word. It should not be a word.
— There is no mundane. The word itself, I think, is a non-word. It should not be a word.
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The small act of paying attention to people is extraordinarily rewarding to every member of the team — and it’s amplified in an inverse way from their level on the hierarchy.
— The small act of paying attention to people is extraordinarily rewarding to every member of the team
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The line between acceptable mitigated risk and recklessness is actually very thin— and it’s even more dangerous because it moves.
— The line between acceptable mitigated risk and recklessness is actually very thin— and it’s even more dangerous because it moves.
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Never get into a vehicle where the fear of failure is greater than the fear of dying.
— Never get into a vehicle where the fear of failure is greater than the fear of dying.
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Life is a series of decisions you make with imperfect information — and then carrying it through with conviction, while at the same time looking over your shoulder to make sure the rest of the team is coming along with you
— Life is a series of decisions you make with imperfect information
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I never grew out of that feeling of constant wonder. I just became more experienced, and got a lot more resources to go to even more extraordinary places — but the same feeling existed in me. I never really grew up — just the expense and sophistication of my toys.
— I never grew out of that feeling of constant wonder. I just became more experienced, and got a lot more resources to go to even more extraordinary places
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If you just stand up for your own values in all the things you do, big and small, you create the conditions for the possibility of collective action.
— If you just stand up for your own values in all the things you do, big and small, you create the conditions for the possibility of collective action.
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Every organisation is actually a little bubble of utopia. It’s somebody’s idea of the proper power relations between human beings. It’s a work of political philosophy, whether the person was aware of it or not.
— Every organisation is actually a little bubble of utopia. It’s somebody’s idea of the proper power relations between human beings. It’s a work of political philosophy, whether the person was aware of it or not.
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Who would you rather die than betray? If it’s just shareholders, don’t expect anybody else to trust you.
— Who would you rather die than betray? If it’s just shareholders, don’t expect anybody else to trust you.
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The amorality of investors is actually a gift. They’re not opposed to what we’re trying to do. They just don’t care. Show them it’s good for returns and you’ll generally get them there.
— The amorality of investors is actually a gift. They’re not opposed to what we’re trying to do. They just don’t care. Show them it’s good for returns and you’ll generally get them there.
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What it means to make a profit is to maximise human flourishing. It just means you left the world better off than you found it.
— What it means to make a profit is to maximise human flourishing. It just means you left the world better off than you found it.
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If you don’t get the governance right for an organisation, in the long run nothing else you do will matter, because you won’t be the one making the decisions.
— If you don’t get the governance right for an organisation, in the long run nothing else you do will matter, because you won’t be the one making the decisions.
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We absolutely have to reclaim the word corruption to apply to any way of making money without creating value.”
— We absolutely have to reclaim the word corruption to apply to any way of making money without creating value.”
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The more golden the goose, the greater the temptation to butcher it. Success makes you a target. It makes you something worth capturing
— The more golden the goose, the greater the temptation to butcher it. Success makes you a target. It makes you something worth capturing
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Freedom of expression, the right to explore, the right to have the adventure of intellectual discovery is a deep personal right precisely because it is a deep personal pleasure.
— Freedom of expression, the right to explore, the right to have the adventure of intellectual discovery is a deep personal right precisely because it is a deep personal pleasure.
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The standard model of reason is the lone thinker — Rodin’s statue, head on fist. That is exactly the wrong model of reasoning. Reasoning evolved to be done in groups; it is a contested process. We think better in opposition with somebody we disagree with.
— The standard model of reason is the lone thinker
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Difference is not something we need to solve. Difference is something we need to love. Difference is something we need to respect — because it is in the clash of difference that the great ideas emerge.
— Difference is not something we need to solve. Difference is something we need to love. Difference is something we need to respect
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Conservatives and liberals are wandering around with different brains. They have different tools with which to apprehend the world, and therefore they are seeing different worlds — which inform the politics that emanate from that experience.
— Conservatives and liberals are wandering around with different brains. They have different tools with which to apprehend the world, and therefore they are seeing different worlds
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We assume that the person in front of us is essentially a broken version of us. When you realise that the person opposite you is not a broken version of you, but a very different kind of person, it forces you to take their perspective seriously.
— We assume that the person in front of us is essentially a broken version of us. When you realise that the person opposite you is not a broken version of you, but a very different kind of person, it forces you to take their perspective seriously.
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There is no sense in which we are predestined to our opinions. But the fact that we are predisposed to them rather demands that we understand those predispositions — because otherwise we are, in a sense, victims of them.
— There is no sense in which we are predestined to our opinions. But the fact that we are predisposed to them rather demands that we understand those predispositions
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Hot and humid climates tend to promote a kind of right-wing, slightly authoritarian politics — because hot and humid environments are also pathogen-rich, and over thousands of years, societies in those climates have developed what scientists call behavioural immunity.
— Hot and humid climates tend to promote a kind of right-wing, slightly authoritarian politics
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Most studies today show that our political leaning is at least 50 per cent genetic in origin — genetics is as important, if not more important, to how you vote than your cultural context, your economic context, and all the evidence you engage with in the world.
— Most studies today show that our political leaning is at least 50 per cent genetic in origin