Quotes About Flexibility

To survive and flourish in such a world, you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance. You will have to repeatedly let go of some of what you know best, and feel at home with the unknown.

By 2050, not only the idea of a job for life but even that of a profession for life might seem antediluvian.

Most mammals emerge from the womb like glazed earthenware emerging from a kiln – any attempt at remoulding will only scratch or break them. Humans emerge from the womb like molten glass from a furnace. They can be spun, stretched and shaped with a surprising degree of freedom.

The ability to navigate is like a muscle—use it or lose it.

But fiction has enabled us not merely to imagine things, but to do so collectively. We can weave common myths such as the biblical creation story, the Dreamtime myths of Aboriginal Australians, and the nationalist myths of modern states. Such myths give Sapiens the unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers.

Humans should always retain the freedom to doubt, to check again, to hear a second opinion, to try a different path.

Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour quickly loses its relevance. The

We always prepare ourselves for the previous enemy, even when we face an altogether new menace.

Sapiens rule the world because we alone can cooperate flexibly in large numbers, then

In order to keep up with the world of 2050, you will need not merely to invent new ideas and products but above all to reinvent yourself again and again.

Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, there hasn't been a single natural way of life for Sapiens. There are only cultural choices, from among a bewildering palette of possibilities.

Two particularly important nonhuman abilities that AI possesses are connectivity and updatability.

any attempt to define the characteristics of modern society is akin to defining the color of a chameleon.

it is far from clear that billions of people would be able to repeatedly reinvent themselves without losing their mental balance.

In order to keep up with the world of 2050, you will need not merely to invent new ideas and products - you will above all need to reinvent yourself again and again.

The ability to navigate is like a muscle—use it or lose it.14 The same is true for the ability to choose spouses or professions.

In] the twenty-first century, you can hardly afford stability. If you try to hold on to some stable identity, job or world view, you risk being left behind as the world flies by you with a whooooosh. Given that life expectancy is likely to increase, you might subsequently have to spend many decades as a clueless fossil. To stay relevant - not just economically, but above all socially - you will need the ability to constantly learn and to reinvent yourself, certainly at a young age like fifty.

La maggior parte dei mammiferi escono dal grembo come la terracotta smaltata esce dal forno – ogni tentativo di rimodellarla manderebbe tutto in frantumi. Gli umani escono dal grembo come la pasta di vetro dalla fornace. Possono essere rigirati, stirati e modellati con un sorprendente grado di libertà.

science...accepts that the things we think we know could be proven wrong as we gain more knowledge. No concept, idea or theory is sacred and beyond challenge.

To the best of our knowledge, only Sapiens can cooperate in very flexible ways with countless numbers of strangers. This concrete capability – rather than an eternal soul or some unique kind of consciousness – explains our mastery of planet Earth.

If cooperation is the key, how come the ants and bees did not beat us to the nuclear bomb even though they learned to cooperate en masse millions of years before us? Because their cooperation lacks flexibility. Bees cooperate in very sophisticated ways, but they cannot reinvent their social system overnight. If a hive faces a new threat or a new opportunity, the bees cannot, for example, guillotine the queen and establish a republic.

Though the adult brain is more flexible and volatile than was once thought, it is still less malleable than the teenage brain. Reconnecting neurons and rewiring synapses is hard work.5 But in the twenty-first century, you can't afford stability.

Humans emerge from the womb like molten glass from a furnace. They can be spun, stretched and shaped with a surprising degree of freedom. This is why today we can educate our children to become Christian or Buddhist, capitalist or socialist, warlike or peace-loving. We

To survive and flourish in such a world, you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance. You will have to repeatedly let go of some of what you know best, and learn to feel at home with the unknown.