psychology rather than to exploit it.
To create tools that promote greater character and maturity in our cultures
rather than diverting us from growth.
To enshrine the virtues of autonomy, liberty, privacy, and dignity not just
in our legal documents but also in our business models and our social lives.
To treat people not merely as means but also as ends, and more important,
to do it at scale.
To encourage antifragility and self-imposed limitation in each of us, rather
than protecting everyone’s feelings.
To create tools to help our Thinking Brain better communicate and
manage the Feeling Brain, and to bring them into alignment, producing the
illusion of greater self-control.
Look, it may be that you came to this book looking for some sort of hope, an
assurance that things will get better—do this, that, and the other thing, and
everything will improve.
I am sorry. I don’t have that kind of answer for you. Nobody does.
Because even if all the problems of today get magically fixed, our minds will
still perceive the inevitable fuckedness of tomorrow.
So, instead of looking for hope, try this:
Don’t hope.
Don’t despair, either.
In fact, don’t deign to believe you know anything. It’s that assumption of
knowing with such blind, fervent, emotional certainty that gets us into these
kinds of pickles in the first place.
Don’t hope for better. Just be better.
Be something better. Be more compassionate, more resilient, more
humble, more disciplined.
Many people would also throw in there “Be more human,” but no—be a
better human. And maybe, if we’re lucky, one day we’ll get to be more than
human.
If I Dare . . .
I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of
today and tomorrow, in this final moment, I will allow myself to dare to
hope . . .