Vikas Shah - Thought Economics

Praise for

If you value those who think differently, read Thought Economics . Challenging traditional thought structure is what its all about. Im so glad this book exists. Rose McGowan, author of Brave

The remarkable thing about Thought Economics is that it isnt just thought-provoking, but genuinely thought-generating. It is a watershed in our understanding, and our understanding of understanding. Vikas Shah hasnt just moved the needle, hes fashioned an exciting new one. Dexter Dias QC, author of The Ten Types of Human

A must-read collection of interviews with incredible people and also me. David Baddiel

Its a joy to dip in and out of these learnings and insights. Sophia Amoruso, author of #Girlboss

An incredible collection of interviews with the people that have shaped our world. Heston Blumenthal

THOUGHT

ECONOMICS

conversations with the remarkable people shaping our century

VIKAS SHAH

Michael OMara Books Limited

First published in Great Britain in 2021

by Michael OMara Books Limited

9 Lion Yard

Tremadoc Road

London SW4 7NQ

Copyright Vikas Shah 2021

All rights reserved. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78929-245-9 in hardback print format

ISBN: 978-1-78929-315-9 in trade paperback print format

ISBN: 978-1-78929-267-1 in ebook format

www.mombooks.com

CONTENTS

Marina Abramovi, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor Justin Barrett, Professor Sean Carroll, Professor Deepak Chopra, Professor George Church, Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE, Sir Antony Gormley, Bear Grylls OBE, Professor Yuval Noah Harari, Sir Anish Kapoor CBE, Rose McGowan, Sam Neill, Dr Jordan B. Peterson, Professor Steven Pinker, Sir Ken Robinson, Professor Carlo Rovelli, Sadhguru, Dr Carl Safina, Dr Elif Shafak, Philippe Starck, Professor Jack Szostak

Dr Maya Angelou, David Bailey CBE, Black Thought, Heston Blumenthal OBE, Ed Catmull, Alain Ducasse, Tracey Emin CBE, George the Poet, Paul Greengrass, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Lang Lang, Ken Loach, Yann Martel, Moby, Sir Andrew Motion, Rankin, Dr Elif Shafak, Ritesh Sidhwani, Lemn Sissay MBE, Saul Williams, Hans Zimmer

Carlo Ancelotti OSI, Mark Cuban, Professor Stew Friedman, Professor Green, Colonel Chris Hadfield, Gary Hamel, Tony Hsieh, Arianna Huffington, Professor John Kotter, General Stanley McChrystal, General Richard Myers, Jacqueline Novogratz, Professor Robert Bernard Reich, Nico Rosberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Stephen Schwarzman, General Sir Richard Shirreff KCB CBE, Hamdi Ulukaya, Jocko Willink

Sophia Amoruso, Steve Ballmer, Sir Richard Branson, Tory Burch, Stewart Butterfield, Steve Case, Dennis Crowley, Sir James Dyson, Jamal Edwards MBE, Tony O. Elumelu, Scott Farquhar, Naveen Jain, Donna Karan, Robin Li, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Jos Neves, Kevin OLeary, Professor Michael Otto, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jack Welch, will.i.am, Chip Wilson, Jerry Yang, Professor Muhammad Yunus

David Baddiel, Laura Bates, Lord John Bird MBE, Sir Philip Craven MBE, F. W. de Klerk, Dexter Dias QC, Melinda Gates, Leymah Gbowee, Matt Haig, Afua Hirsch, Baroness Ruth Hunt, Jameela Jamil, L. A. Kauffman, Iby Knill BEM, Rose McGowan, Dr Gad Saad, Harry Leslie Smith, George Takei, Peter Tatchell, Ai Weiwei

Bertie Ahern, Martti Ahtisaari, Professor Zeid Raad Al Hussein, Professor Alexander Betts, Marina Cantacuzino, Professor Franois Crpeau, Dr Shirin Ebadi, Ben Ferencz, Gulwali Passarlay, Professor George Rupp, Lech Wasa, Jody Williams, Catherine Woollard

Alastair Campbell, Noam Chomsky, Vicente Fox Quesada, Professor A. C. Grayling, Susan Herman, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Garry Kasparov, Michael Lewis, Ted Lieu, Moiss Nam, Admiral James Stavridis, Ece Temelkuran, Yanis Varoufakis, Guy Verhofstadt, Lord Woolf, Bassem Youssef

To my incredible wife, Rachael Shah, who is my biggest cheerleader and has always pushed me to follow my heart. To Danny Donachie, who planted the seed of this idea a decade ago, sitting on a roof terrace with a cup of tea. To Lesley OMara, Jo Stansall and the team at Michael OMara Books for supporting and guiding me through this process; to Joel Cohen and Hayley Olsen, who have edited, corrected and reviewed my interviews since 2007; and to Luke Bainbridge, whose journalistic eye helped to refine so much of this work.

To every single interviewee who has given up the most precious commodity they have time to speak to me.

Thank you.

N omenclature and Thought Economics. A title needs to be unique to avoid the search-engine crash of discovering it corresponds with an obscure naked yoga cult in northern Kazakhstan. Vikass Thought Economics website was original from the start and its name serves as the first unique phrase in this entire project. You have chosen well.

As I am writing this, the United Kingdom is in lockdown. Previous to the pandemic, lockdown was a description of cell-bound prisoners. Lockdown enabled officers to search the cells, one by one, for contraband. Now we are in lockdown in our own homes, searching ourselves, one by one. Meanwhile, Covid-19 prowls across the globe with scant regard for boundaries and no respect for governments, for organizations, for us. The virus as terrorist, cloaked in invisibility, wreaks havoc wherever it is. We place ourselves indoors to protect ourselves, we wear masks and we are faced, most of all, with ourselves. It is up to us. Our thoughts. Our economics.

Resilience is needed. Hope is needed. Family is needed. Business is needed. The arts are needed. Government is needed. Friends are needed. All are represented in this book. Their value appreciates with need. We see more clearly what is precious, that which should be maintained and that which must be jettisoned. I hope that everyone could wake up in the morning and wonder what their purpose is. This is the main question of our existence! (Marina Abramovi).

But there is a gift in lockdown, a gift to governments and societies of the world. We have experienced now what happens when we place the wellbeing of fellow humans above profit and war. Another advantage to lockdown is The Book as a source of solace. The paper book is regaining its rightful place in tandem with the screen. On the arrival of the internet two decades ago, the book faced its greatest challenge. Today, there are more words passing between more people than ever. It was at the beginning of this revolution that the Thought Economics blog came to fruition.

In this book, Vikas converses with some of the most inspiring minds on the planet. It is an intimate and expansive expedition into what happens when a good question is asked of a great mind. Page after page of cross-thinking and counterintuitive insight. Through his questions, Vikas draws the brightest minds into seven chapters. Here, for example, in , chess master Garry Kasparov talks about democracy: