24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week

Matt Ridley observes in his 2010 book, The Rational Optimist, innovation happens more often where diverse populations with different perspectives and experiences collide—in cities, at universities, at cafes, at intersections of humanity. If necessity

For these systems to flourish in the years ahead, it’s vital that we think back to the original vision of the Web and do a better job of integrating significantly more diverse perspectives into the creation of these products and devices, and that we think through—and legislate—the outcomes more carefully. Just as our political leaders ought to refl

It’s time for more balance across the board—for industry, for government, and for ourselves. Because this is a personal reckoning for each of us, too, to own our role in all of this, something we have intimate control over. How can we do things in the way we live that will restore balance? How can we make our own rules and regulations to help us ge

In addition to a chief executive officer (CEO), for example, what if corporations appointed a chief ethics officer and a chief empathy officer, who can act as thoughtful, conscious brakes, so that the leadership has the time to consider the impact of developing technologies and their effects on diverse populations, one, five, ten years out. What go

The word “culture” comes from the Latin word colere, which means “to cultivate the soil.” Giving yourself time to cultivate this practice of reflecting on your week, writing down what you appreciate, what you are grateful for, and saying it out loud, is the fertilizer.

“soft skills”—cooperation, collaboration, intuition, empathy, storytelling, connection, creativity, gratitude, and the desire to nurture—all

by 2100, it’s predicted there will be 11.2 billion people on the planet, all of them connected by an even more powerful Internet. Just thinking about how radically our way of life has changed in the past one hundred years gives you an idea of how different this future world could be. (It’s stunning how different life is now. Around a hundred years

Even the term “soft skills” sells them short, contrasting them with “hard skills,” whose name suggests they are more difficult to master and that they are also more important and indispensable. But to be good at empathy

One recent study revealed that children ages eight to twelve spend three times as much time on screens as they do playing outside. Adults, meanwhile, are in nature fewer than five hours a week.

when we detach from the screens, machines, and the enormous primal-urge network,