Social media is designed to maximize one thing: engagement. The thing that drives engagement best is anger and fear – we simply cannot look away. What happens when the very technology that allows us to have large-scale public conversations and allows democracy to flourish turns us against each other?
The truth is complicated, difficult and not always flattering: but the truth is essential. Without the truth we can never improve ourselves or our societies.
From a July 2026 event with Tom Parker, host of The Next Five, the Financial Times’ podcast on business.
Watch the whole conversation: https://t.co/pozCJOvWEp
Slow down and remember this:
Most things make no difference.
Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant.
Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive.
Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.
“10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and the remaining 80 percent can be moved in either direction.”
— Susan Sontag
“I am a typical loner in my daily life... my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.”
— Albert Einstein
"Diversity is really important in science. First of all, I think that if you want to have the best scientific outcomes, you need a lot of different brains working on it." – Chemistry laureate Jennifer Doudna on diversity in science.
Read the interview: https://t.co/QHtle42k8Y
Modern life:
Eat fake food.
Stare at fake light.
Build fake relationships.
Chase fake urgency.
We live in the matrix.
Then wonder why nothing
feels real.
A man spends 50 years teaching at MIT.
He knows his time is running out.
So he records one last lecture — everything he knows, distilled into a single hour.
He died 5 months later.
This is that lecture.
The most important hour you'll watch this week.
Bookmark it for later!