The 2 Most Important Skills For the Rest Of Your Life | Yuval Noah Harari on Impact Theory
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Yuval Noah Harari, a tenured history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of bestsellers like *Sapiens* and *21 Lessons for the 21st Century*, argues that humanity has entered an era where we are "hackable animals." This hackability stems from the convergence of biotech revolutions, which allow us to decipher internal biological processes, and infotech advancements providing massive computing power. Unlike historical surveillance by entities like the KGB or Gestapo, modern algorithms can now predict human choices and manipulate desires based on biometric data such as eye movements and heart rates. While this capability poses significant dangers regarding privacy and job displacement—potentially creating a "useless class" of workers—it also offers unprecedented benefits in healthcare, where smartphones could eventually provide better medical diagnostics to the poorest individuals than current hospitals offer to the wealthy. The interview explores the profound philosophical implications of outsourcing self-discovery to algorithms. Harari illustrates this with an example regarding sexual orientation detection; while a Stanford algorithm claimed 91% accuracy based on facial photos, he notes that such technology could reveal truths about oneself before we are ready or allow corporations like Coca-Cola and Pepsi to target individuals differently than they know themselves. He extends this concept to art and music, suggesting that algorithms will soon understand the human biochemical system better than any artist, capable of generating songs specifically designed to induce joy or process grief in real-time. This shifts the role of artists from creators who inspire emotions directly to operators playing on a biological instrument, raising questions about whether we should allow machines to dictate our emotional states and identity narratives. A central theme is the necessity of maintaining mental balance and emotional intelligence as essential skills for life's reinvention. Harari warns that while education traditionally focused on building deep foundations like stone houses, it must now resemble constructing a tent—portable structures allowing individuals to adapt quickly to rapid technological shifts occurring every seven to ten years. He predicts a cascade of disruptions rather than a single AI revolution, meaning professionals in fields ranging from truck driving to yoga teaching will face obsolescence repeatedly throughout their lives. Consequently, he advises young people not to rely on specific career predictions but instead invest heavily in developing the psychological resilience and flexibility required to reinvent themselves multiple times over an extended 50-to-80-year working life. Harari concludes by emphasizing that our identity is merely a story we construct, often embellished through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram rather than reflecting objective reality. He argues that while living with the raw truth about oneself can be painful—requiring us to confront aspects of ourselves we prefer not to acknowledge—the cost of delusion is far too high, as fictional stories have historically led to wars and genocide. His ultimate mission involves bringing clarity to public discourse on the three biggest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century: nuclear war, climate change, and technological disruption. He urges society to prioritize these existential threats over current political agendas and encourages reliance on science fiction writers like Aldous Huxley, whose works such as *Brave New World* have historically provided crucial foresight into future societal trajectories that politics often fails to address.
Read the full video transcript
Well, I think this is maybe the most
important thing to know about living
right now in the 21st century that we
are now hackable animals. That we have
the technology to decipher what you
think, what you want, to predict human
choices, to manipulate human desires in
ways which were never possible before.
Hey everybody, welcome to Impact Theory.
Our goal with this show and company is
to introduce you to the people and ideas
that will help you actually execute on
your dreams.
All right, today's guest is one of the
most profound thinkers of our time. A
two-time winner of the Polansky Prize
for creativity and originality. His
books have sold over 12 million copies
and been translated into more than 45
languages. Sapiens, his seminal book on
the history of mankind, spent six months
on the Sunday Times best-seller list and
also made him a number one New York
Times best-selling author. His work has
been recommended by countless
luminaries, including Bill Gates,
Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and
Barack Obama. He's won a litany of
awards, including the Society for
Military History's Moncado Award for
outstanding articles on military
history, and the 2017 Handelsblatt's
German Economic Book Award for the most
thoughtful and influential economic book
of the year. Additionally, he's one of
the most sought-after and influential
speakers in the world. He's given
multiple TED Talks on hot-button issues
relating to the human race, and in 2018
he was invited to give the main stage
keynote speech on the future of humanity
at the World Economic Forum annual
meeting in Davos. He has a PhD from
Oxford, is a tenured history professor
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
and in addition to his many books, he's
also written for such prestigious global
outlets as the Financial Times, The New
York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and
The Guardian. So please, help me in
welcoming the man who does a yearly
60-day silent Vipassana meditation
retreat, the best-selling author of 21
Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah
Harari.
Welcome, man.
Good to have you on the show. Thank you.
It's good to be here. Dude, very
excited. So, I've been obsessively
reading your books since Sapiens came
out. Uh and just really, really blown
away. And behind the scenes, there's a
guy here named Chase somewhere who you
will have to meet today who has just
been an absolute champion for your books
internally um because of the way that
you really frame the historical and
where we're going in a way that becomes
very accessible for today and who we
are. And that, I think, is the cool
nexus of um 21 Lessons is that you're
really attacking how does this all make
sense? How is the past inform where we
are? And how does where we are today
inform where we're actually going to go?
Um and as a company that's making
fiction content and dealing in sci-fi
and things like that, these ideas are
really, really important to us for
creating guides on how to be
essentially. Um and the idea that I
wanted to start with is your notion of
some of the things that are happening
technologically become a little bit
dangerous because you can hack a human.
And if you could explain what you mean
by hacking a human and then how do we
end up hacking ourselves in a positive
way?
Well, I think this is maybe the most
important thing to know about living
right now in the 21st century that we
are now hackable animals. We have the
technology to decipher how humans
what you think, what you want, to
predict human choices, to manipulate
human desires in ways which were never
possible before.
Basically, to hack a human being, you
need two things.
You need a lot of data,
especially biometric data. Not just
about where you go and what you buy, but
what is happening inside your body and
inside your brain. And secondly, you
need a lot of computing power to make
sense of all that data. Now, previously
in history, this was never possible.
Nobody had enough data and enough
computing power to hack human beings.
Even if the KGB or the Gestapo followed
you around 24 hours a day, eavesdropping
on every conversation you had, watching
everybody you meet, still they did not
have the biological knowledge
to really understand what's happening
inside you, and they certainly didn't
have the computing power necessary to
make sense even of the data they were
able to collect. So, the KGB could not
really understand you, could not really
predict all your choices or manipulate
all all all your desires and so forth.
And but now it's changing.
What the KGB couldn't do, corporations
and governments today are beginning to
be able to do.
And this is because of the merger of the
revolution in biotech. We are getting
better in understanding what's happening
inside us, in the body and the brain.
And at the same time, the revolution in
infotech, which gives us the computing
power necessary. When you put the two
together, when infotech merges with
biotech, what you get is the ability to
create algorithms that understand me
better than I understand myself. And
then these algorithms can not just
predict my choices, but also manipulate
my desires and basically sell me
anything, whether it's a product or a
politician.
And that So, that's what you're calling
hacking, that you're hitting me with the
right emotional message at exactly the
right time based on my biometric data.
Mhm. Yeah, this is one of the things you
can do. Then you can predict, you can
manipulate, you can eventually also
re-engineer or replace. If you really
hack a system, you really understand how
it functions, then usually you can also
re-engineer it or you can completely
replace it. And again, one of the
dangers that we are facing today in the
21st century is that computers and AI
would be able to replace humans in more
and more tasks and maybe push millions
of humans out of the job market as a
result. All right, so I I fully
understand the dangers and we will talk
about some of what we were talking about
off camera, which is we've got this
whole story called Neon Future where
we're exploring that notion of what
happens to what you've called the
useless class when they're pushed out of
the job market and what does that do
economically, but going just staying
with the the notion of the hackability
for a second. So, it's funny, as you
were describing it and I know you bring
the sense of like, there's some like
real significant problems we need to
take a very serious look at and I get
almost giddy with excitement because I
have
potentially delusional levels of
optimism. I'm very open to that.
No, I agree. I mean, the thing about
this ability to hack humans is that it
has also potentially tremendous positive
consequences and this is why it's so
tempting. If it was only bad, then it
was it would have been like an easy deal
to say, "Okay, we don't want that and
let's stop researching or going in that
direction." But it is extremely tempting
because it can provide us, for example,
with the best health care in history.
Something which goes far beyond anything
we've seen so far. This can mean that
maybe in 30 years the poorest person on
the planet can get a better health care
from her or his smartphone, than the
richest person today gets from the best
hospitals and the best doctors. The kind
of things you can just know about what's
happening in your body.
Um, it is nothing like we've seen so
far. Yeah, now that that's really
extraordinary. And if you had to take
the positive look and say, "Okay, we
have this ability." Let's just say it's
already there. We've got all this
biometric data, it's kicking off.
Um, how would you
encourage people to leverage that to
empower themselves? And I'll I'll use an
example that I found profoundly
interesting from your book. So, you said
that growing up that it was unclear to
you that you were gay, but that now
Stanford has developed an algorithm that
essentially can look at three or four
photos of somebody's face and predict
with 91% accuracy whether or not they're
gay, which seems impossible. But, if
that's true, the level of data that we
could give ourselves about our like
deepest, most hardwired desires, there
would be a level of clarity there that
seems useful. Um, how would you
encourage people to use that? Well, it's
a very good example. I mean, the
Stanford algorithm, actually there was a
lot of problems with that research and
and let's put it aside. But, first key
message from from that is how little
people actually know about themselves.
And, um, one of the most important
things in my life and also in I think in
my scientific career was the realization
of how little I know about myself and
humans in general. There was so many
important ideas and important facts we
don't realize about ourselves. I was 21
when I finally realized I was gay, which
is, you know, when you think about it,
it's it's absolutely amazing. I mean, it
should have been obvious at age, you
know, 16, 15. And an algorithm would
have realized it very quickly. and you
can build algorithms like that today or
in a few years.
Um you just need to to follow your eye
movements. Like you you go on on on the
beach or you you look at the computer
screen, and you see an attractive guy
and an attractive girl, and just follow
the focus of the eyes. Where do the eyes
go, and whom do they focus on? Should be
very easy.
And uh such an algorithm could have told
when I was 15 that I was gay.
And the implications are really
mind-boggling. When an algorithm knows
such an important thing about you before
you know it about yourself. Now, it can
go in all kinds of directions. It really
depends on where you live and what you
do with it. In some countries, you can
be in trouble now with the police and
the government. Uh you might be sent to
some reeducation facility.
In some countries, like with, you know,
surveillance capitalism. So, maybe I
don't know about myself that I'm gay,
but Coca-Cola knows that I'm gay because
they have these algorithms. And they
want to know that because they need to
know which commercials to show me. Let's
say Coca-Cola knows that I'm gay, and I
even know it about myself that they know
it, and Pepsi doesn't.
Coca-Cola will show me a commercial with
a shirtless guy drinking Coca-Cola, but
Pepsi will make the mistake of showing a
girl in a bikini. And next day, without
my realizing why, when I go to the
supermarket, when I go to the to the
restaurant, I will order Coca-Cola, not
Pepsi. I don't know why, but they know.
So, they might not even share this kind
of information with me. Now, if the
algorithm does share the information
with me, again, it's it it a lot depends
on context. One scenario is that you're
15 years old, you go to a birthday party
of somebody from your class and somebody
just heard that there is this cool new
algorithm which tells your sexual
orientation.
And everybody agrees it will be a lot of
fun to just have this game that
everybody takes turn with the algorithm
and and everybody else looking and then
and then seeing the results. Would you
like to discover about yourself in such
a scenario?
This this can be quite
quite a shocking experience. Okay, but
even if it's done in like complete
privacy, you know, it's a it's a it's a
very deep philosophical question.
What does it mean to discover something
like that about yourself from an
algorithm?
What What does it mean about human life?
About human identity?
Um we have very little experience with
these kinds of things. You know, from
very ancient times
all the philosophers and saints and
sages tell people to get to know
yourself better. It's one of the maybe
the most important thing in life is to
get to know yourself better.
But
for all of history, this was a process
of self-exploration
which you did through things like
meditation and maybe sports and maybe
art and contemplation and all these
things.
What does it mean when the process of
self-exploration
is being outsourced to a big data
algorithm? And the philosophical
implications are are quite
mind-boggling.
It's interesting. So, let's talk about
that. So, the implications you're
outsourcing the self-discovery process.
To me, that sounds so profoundly useful
because all day the people that write
into me, they're asking basically one
essential question. How do I find the
thing that I love? Because I tell people
you you need to develop a passion in
your life. I don't think you find it. I
think you develop it. But they need to
start from an area of real interest. It
needs to be actually something that at a
hardwiring level they're just they get
that response. So,
the their next question is like, how,
right? How do I get into that? How do I
discover the thing that triggers me like
that? And if I discover it, then how do
I develop it into a passion? If you had
an algorithm, something that were able
to
use the more manipulative
techniques that you were talking about
that Coca-Cola is doing or whatever, but
give it to you in a way that can move
you in a desired direction. So, I'll
give you a specific example that you
give in the book. So, talking about how
let's say there was an algorithm that
knew you just broken up with somebody,
knew that you were in the grips of
heartache, cuz they're they're reading
your biometrics.
they're watching your your heart.
give it to us. That that example that
you you put. So, the biometrics, they're
reading you. The it's the song. It knows
what songs to pick. Yeah, I mean,
something as as simple as choosing
music. So, you you were just dumped by
your boyfriend or girlfriend, and the
the algorithm that controls
the the music that you listen to chooses
the songs that are the best fit for your
current mental state. And of course,
this brings up the the question of what
is the matrix. What do you actually want
from the music? Do you want the music to
uplift you? Or do you want the music to
kind of connect you to the deepest level
of sadness and depression?
And ultimately, we can say that the
algorithm can follow different kinds of
instructions. If you know what kind of
emotional state you want to be in, you
can just tell the algorithm what you
what you want, and it will do it. If
you're not sure, you can tell the
algorithm follow the recommendation of
the
best psychologist today. So, let's say
you have the five stages of grief.
So, okay, walk me with music through
this five stages of grief.
And the algorithm can do that better
than than any human DJ. And what we
really need to understand in in this
regard is that
what music and most of art plays on in
the end is the human biochemical system,
at least according to the dominant view
of art in the modern Western world. We
had different views in different
cultures, but in the modern Western
world, the idea of art is that art is
above all about inspiring human
emotions.
It doesn't necessarily have to be joy.
Great art can inspire also sadness, can
can inspire anger, can inspire fear. It
can be a whole palette of emotional
states, but art is about inspiring human
emotions. So, the instrument artists
play on, and whether it's musicians or
poets or movie makers, they're actually
playing on the Homo sapiens biochemical
system.
And we might reach a point quite soon
when an algorithm knows this instrument
better than any human artist. A movie or
a poem or a song
that will not
move you, that will not inspire you,
might inspire me. And something that
will inspire me in one situation might
not inspire me in another situation. And
as time goes on and the algorithm
gathers more and more data about me, it
will become more and more accurate in
reading my biochemical system and
knowing how to play on it as if it was a
piano. Like, okay, you want joy?
I press this button and out comes the
perfect song, the only song in the world
that can actually make me joyful right
now.
That's so interesting to me. All right,
so right now, real world, you can snap
your fingers and you can have one
algorithm that's tied to one
biochemical process. In your life for
real, what would you want to monitor and
get that feedback on? No, that's easy. I
mean, uh healthcare. If there is like
something seriously wrong in my body
that I don't know about, like, I don't
know, cancer or something, I would like
the algorithm to find that out. I don't
want to wait until I mean, the usual
process
is that it has to go through your own
mind. You can't outsource it. I mean,
today when you need to diagnose cancer,
there are exceptions, but in most cases,
there is a crucial moment when you feel
something is wrong in my body. And you
go to this doctor and that doctor and
then you do this test and that test
until they finally realize, "Okay, we
just discovered you have cancer in your
liver or whatever."
Um but because it relies on your own
feelings, in this case feelings of pain,
very often,
uh it it it's quite late in the process.
By the time you start feeling pain,
usually the cancer has spread. And maybe
it's not too late, but it's going to be
expensive and painful and problematic to
treat it.
But if we can, you know, outsource this,
don't go through the mind, through the
through my my feelings, I want an
algorithm that with biometric sensors is
monitoring my health 24 hours a day
without my being aware of it.
It can potentially discover this liver
cancer when it is just a tiny, just a
few cells are beginning to to to to to
split and to spread.
And it's so easy and cheap and painless
to take care of it now
instead of 2 years later when it's
already spread and it's it's it's a big
problem. So, this is something that I
think almost everybody would sign on to.
And this is the big temptation
because it comes with the whole other
with a long tail of dangers. I mean,
this algorithm that that that the health
care system knows almost everything
about you.
So, one of the biggest battles in the
21st century is likely to be between
privacy and health.
And I guess that health is going to win.
Mhm. Most people will be willing to give
up a very significant amount of privacy
in exchange for far better health care.
Now, we do need to try and and enjoy
both worlds to create a system that give
us a very good health care but without
compromising our privacy. Keeping the
Yes, you can use the data to tell me
that there is a problem and and and and
we should do this or that to solve it,
but I don't want this data to be used
for other purposes without my knowing
it. Whether we can reach such a balance
and like, you know, have your cake and
eat it, too, that that's a big political
question.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's that is very crazy and very
exciting for somebody like me who
definitely airs on the side of wanting
the health care. Um you've talked really
powerfully about story, about how
stories like money, which I don't think
most people think of as a story,
um as being, you know, these tremendous
things that control all of our lives,
that point us all in the same direction,
that give us sort of a common code by
which to live. How can people take
control of the story that they tell
themselves about themselves, which I
find uh to be one of the most important
stories that you engage in.
Yes, so our identity is really just a
story, which we constantly construct and
and embellish. I mean, you can say that
the the entire human mind is a machine
that constantly produces stories, and
especially one very important story,
which is my story.
Uh, and different people have different
specialized in different genres. Some
people build their stories a tragedy,
some people build their stories a comedy
or as a drama, but, um,
in the end, I the self is a story and
not a real thing.
And, on the one hand, with all the new
technologies, you get better and and
better abilities to construct yourself.
But, already today, a lot of the work,
which previously was done in the brain
and in the mind of constructing my
identity, my story, has been outsourced
to things like Facebook.
That you build your Facebook account,
and this is actually outsourcing it from
the brain, and you are busy maybe for
hours every day just building a story
and becoming extremely attached to it
and and publicizing it to everybody. And
you tend to make this fundamental
mistake, you think it's it's the This is
really me.
And, um, so so
Why is that a mistake?
I'm actually really curious.
First of all, if you take something like
the profile that people create about
themselves in in Facebook or in
Instagram, it should be obvious it
doesn't really reflect your actual
existence, your actual reality, both
inner reality and outer reality. Like,
the percentage of time you smile in your
Instagram account is much bigger than
the percentage of time you smile in real
life.
And, you know, you go on some vacation
um and you post the the the images from
the vacation. So, usually you're smiling
in your in your swimming suit on the
beach with your girlfriend and boyfriend
holding and this cocktail and everything
looks perfect and everybody's so
envious.
But actually, you just had a nasty fight
with your boyfriend 5 minutes ago and
then this is the image that everybody
else is seeing and thinking, "Oh, they
must have such such wonderful time." And
afterwards, like a year later or 2 years
later, you look back and this is what
you see. And you forget what was the
actual experience like.
What What is the role of truth in the
story that we tell ourselves about
ourselves?
Very little. Do you think there should
be more?
There should There should definitely be
more. And what would be the outcome if
we were like, "I'm really going to make
sure that the story I tell myself is
objectively true?"
It's going to be very very painful and
and difficult. I think it is worth the
effort.
But it's just very difficult. We
constantly
uh we constantly edit
the the story.
Just like the news on TV are edited and
just like you know, it's a bit like
making a movie. Like you watch the movie
in the cinema and everything is so
seamless. Like, yeah, this is the story.
It flows. And then when you actually see
how a movie is produced, this is insane.
Like you have this tiny bit of a scene,
you repeat it 50 times and and
sometimes, you know, you shoot this
scene this scene scene two comes after
scene one, but actually it was filmed
long before that. So, sometimes you you
you film the breakup of of of the lovers
before you film the the first meeting
for all kinds of of schedule reasons and
locations. So,
the the end result is completely
seamless and perfect, but it is actually
made up from all these tiny tiny
disconnected bits that have been, you
know, this is from here and this is from
there and we somehow glue it together
and it looks good.
And it's the same with the story of of
our life.
It's all kinds of bits and pieces
and only when you tell it to yourself or
to somebody else, it kind of makes
sense.
The cost of trying to stick with the
reality as it is
is very very high. It's very difficult.
It demands a lot of effort and it it is
often very painful because you have to
acknowledge many things about yourself
that you don't want to acknowledge them.
People have this
fantasy
of
I don't know, going to some retreat and
just taking out a week or two of from
life
to really observe inside, to really
explore who am I? What is my authentic
self? And they have this fantastic
notion
that I will be able to finally connect
to my inner child and I will discover my
true vocation in life and I will
discover all these wonderful things
about me.
And when you actually do it,
the first thing you usually encounter is
all the things you don't want to know
about yourself. There is a reason that
that that you don't want to know them. I
think it's worth the effort, but it's a
very very hard
task.
All right, on that, there's so many
studies that talk about the more
delusional somebody is, self-delusional,
the more likely they are to be happy.
You've said one of the big questions as
a historian you're trying to answer is
as we've moved forward as a you know, a
species a society, have we actually
gotten happier? So, there is some
importance it sounds like that you place
on happiness. So, why then would you
want people to do that hard work of
facing the realities, recognizing the
things about themselves that they don't
necessarily want to recognize? Is that
because you think it leads to more
happiness? I think that's ultimately it
is worth the price. I mean, delusions
come at a at a very high price also.
Um and not just to yourself, but to
people around you, to the world as a
whole. I mean, ultimately, this leads to
things like wars and like genocide and
like
and you know, I come from Israel, I come
from the Middle East. So, I am
surrounded by millions of people who are
killing each other because of all kinds
of fictional stories and delusions that
they believe in.
So, sometimes it's an important
defensive mechanism. It's very difficult
to live just with the raw truth all the
time.
But, the price of delusion and the price
of not being able to tell the difference
between fiction and reality, it adds up
and eventually it adds up to things like
genocide and war.
That sounds like a pretty extraordinary
price to pay. Yeah, I would agree with
you there.
Um in 21 Lessons is
what do we do when we're faced with
being put out of work that we are one of
the useless class and we have to do this
reinvention at a career level. You're
living longer, your career life is 50,
60, 70, 80 years, whatever that looks
like in a time where every 7 to 10 years
like it's just it's a completely new
world.
What do you think the human capacity for
that level of reinvention is?
Well, that's a very important question.
It has little to do with immortality
because even without immortality, we are
heading in that direction. Even if
people if the lifespan remains as it is,
80 years,
every 10 years, you have another big
shock. I mean, people one of the things
many people don't realize about the AI
revolution and the automation
revolution, they imagine it as some kind
of one-time event. We have the big AI
revolution in 2025. You have all these
truck drivers and taxi drivers and
doctors and whatever losing their jobs.
You have a few difficult years of
adjustment. And then eventually, you
have the new brave new world of AI with
a new equilibrium.
And this is an an extremely unlikely
scenario. Because we are nowhere near
the maximum potential of AI.
The speed in which it develops is only
likely to accelerate. So, what we are
really going to face is a cascade of
ever bigger revolutions in the job
market and in many other areas of life,
relationships, politics, and so forth.
So, you have a big disruption in 2025.
You have an even bigger disruption in
2035 and even bigger one in 2045 and and
so forth. And if you look say the job
market, so okay, you were a truck driver
and they no longer need you, but there
is new demand for yoga teachers. So, you
somehow reinvent yourself at age 40. I'm
no longer a truck driver, now I'm a yoga
teacher. It's very difficult, you
somehow do it. 10 years later, no need
of yoga teachers, thank you very much.
We now have these amazing applications
connected with biometric sensors to your
body. They know exactly what you're
doing with every tiny muscle as you do
this posture or that posture. No human
yoga teacher can compete with that.
You're out of job. You have to reinvent
yourself again as a designer of virtual
world games. And you do it somehow.
But 10 years later, you have to do it
again because this too has now been
automated. And even if you get support
from the government and there is all
these
education for for adult
a system.
The really big question is again, it's
psychological.
Do Do we as human beings have the mental
stability and the emotional intelligence
necessary to reinvent ourselves
repeatedly?
And you know, when you're 20,
what you're doing is basically to
reinvent yourself or to invent yourself
for the first time. And it is very
difficult.
When you're 30, it's even more
difficult, but you sometime but you
somehow do it. But when you get to be
40, 50, 60, it becomes more and more
difficult. You have more to let go of.
I've invested so much in building this
career, this personality, these skills
to give it all up and start again from
from a new. It's so difficult. So, I
don't know whether we can do it.
Yeah, that is the question that I think
will ultimately be forced to answer.
And that brings me to education. So,
what do you think that
if
we're talking to somebody who's 18 right
now, they're trying to decide, do I go
to college, yes or no? Should they go to
college? And if they go to college, what
should they be studying?
Um
That's It's a very difficult question.
The first thing they should realize is
that nobody really knows. Nobody really
knows how the job market would look like
in 2040.
So, they should
be suspicious of all these kinds of
advices by people who pretend that they
know what the job market would need in
20 years. But the best investment I
would say is in emotional intelligence
and in mental balance and these kinds of
skills of how to keep changing
throughout your life. How to keep
learning throughout your life.
Now, how do you learn that? That's very,
very difficult. We don't have a college
degree in mental flexibility.
But these are the most important tools.
So whatever you choose, you can go to
law school, you can go to ballet school,
but you should keep in mind that much of
what I'm learning might be irrelevant in
in 20 or 30 years. So whatever else I'm
doing, I should also invest in
developing my emotional intelligence, my
mental balance, my ability to keep
changing and learning and reinventing
throughout my life. So maybe to give an
image or a metaphor,
if in the past education was like
building a stone house with very deep
foundations,
now I would say that education is more
like a constructing a tent that you can
fold up and move to another location
very quickly and easily.
That's a great analogy.
Um
so given that it's so hard to predict
the future, you've talked a lot about
the power of science fiction, science
fiction writers. Um walk us through
that. Why what is the role that a
science fiction writer can play or
storyteller, filmmaker, whatever the
case may be?
Our lives in the 21st century more than
anything else are going to be new
technologies, especially AI and
biotechnology.
And most people, their understanding of
these technologies and their potential
for good or for bad, it really comes
from science fiction.
The political system so far has done an
awful job in understanding and preparing
us for these kinds of developments.
There is almost no talk in the
political arena about AI and
biotechnology.
The scientific community is, of course,
very deeply engaged with it, but most
people don't read articles in science or
nature. And even if they tried, it would
be very difficult for them to understand
the professional jargon and and all the
the statistics and and and so forth. So,
most people actually get their education
about what's coming from science
fiction.
And this means, at least I think so,
that science fiction is now the most
important artistic genre.
And it should also be the most
responsible.
And one of the problems with science
fiction is that so far it has done a
so-so job.
Some novels and TV series and films are
really amazing in the way they explore
what's what could what could happen,
ranging like some of my favorites are my
my all-time favorite is Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley, which was written back
in the early 1930s, and I think is the
most prophetic and profound.
Uh I totally understand. All right. So,
before I ask my last question, tell
these guys where they can find you
online.
Uh I have a website, ynharari.com.
And uh they can find me on Facebook and
and Instagram and Twitter and all the
usual places.
Awesome. My last question is, what is
the impact that you want to have on the
world.
I want to bring more clarity to the
public conversation on what's happening
in the world.
Um I think that too much of the public
discussion is focused either on the
wrong issues
or is extremely confused and and
unclear.
And people are flooded by enormous
amounts of information which they don't
know how to make sense of.
And what I I see my mission as bringing
clarity to the public discussion,
especially in terms of focusing people's
attention on the most important
questions. I try to give some answers,
too, but I don't care a lot if people
don't agree with me about the answers,
about the solutions. The important thing
is I think is is to agree about the
questions. And I would end by saying
that there are three big challenges to
humankind in the 21st century.
They're nuclear war, climate change, and
technological disruption. And these
should be the first three items on the
political agenda of every country. And
this is not the case right now. I would
like it to be the case.
Awesome. Yuval, thank you so much for
joining us today. That was incredible.
It's fascinating. All right, guys, when
I say that you're going to learn just an
absolute metric ton of stuff from this
man, dive into his first three books.
They are absolutely extraordinary. Um
you will learn so much about where we've
come from, where we're going, and where
we are today that it will give you the
ability to look at yourself in a totally
new way, to understand yourself not even
just at the operating system level, but
like at the kernel level. It was so
fascinating to see him walk us through
that entire lineage. It It's unlike
anything that I've read before, and
reading the books as a trilogy and
understanding um how they all work
together is is breathtaking. So, I
highly highly highly encourage that and
the fact that he's out there in a
populace way getting people to ask these
questions, I think is so critical. And
he threw out Go back to the beginning of
this episode. He threw out some amazing
business ideas without I think even
meaning to, but I thought, "Wow,
somebody could actually run with these
and they would be extraordinary."
And that's just the way his mind works.
He really is one of the most profound
thinkers of our time. Dive in. He's
accessible and that is one of the most
beautiful things. And remember, he's a
historian. So, the way that he's putting
this all in context is is truly
extraordinary. And once you understand
things at why they are the way they are,
then it just brings a whole new ability
to see through the lies, fake news, the
stories we tell ourselves, all of the
just natural human attachments, to
really come to an understanding of the
way the world actually is. And once you
understand that, then you can begin to
move in a way that makes sense and
allows you to reach your own goals. All
right, if you haven't already, be sure
to subscribe. And until next time, my
friends, be legendary. Take care.
Paul, thank you for coming. That was
extraordinary. Hey everybody, thank you
so much for watching and being a part of
this community. If you haven't already,
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