I try to be a realistic optimist: I’m very clinical about where we are today, but extremely optimistic about what we’re going to get done in the future.
Ben Silbermann helps millions of people collect things they love as co-founder and CEO of Pinterest. Ben grew up in Iowa, where he spent a lot of time collecting bugs, so this makes sense. Prior to Pinterest, which launched in March 2010, Ben worked at Google in the online advertising group. He graduated from Yale in 2003 with a degree in political science. He lives in Palo Alto, California, with his wife and son.
What is an unusual habit, or an absurd thing, that you love?
Have you ever seen the blog Wait But Why? [written by Tim Urban] They have a chart of the weeks of your life.
I have a wall chart of boxes representing every year of my life: ten years across and nine rows down. Then things are plotted on it, like average life expectancy in the U.S. I always thought it was kind of cool, because it puts time into a visual format, and I’m a visual person. Even at the company, every week I show employees the current week within the year visually, just to remind them that every week matters. I didn’t think my own chart was weird, but in January, I showed it to my team, thinking they’d find it really inspiring and motivating. But people respond to mortality in very different ways. It was the worst meeting I’ve ever run.
I don’t think they knew what I was trying to convey. Some people see that as, “Hey, every year is really exciting and valuable,” and some people react with, “Oh wow, I’m gonna die.” It didn’t go over well, so I don’t share that chart anymore.
Ryan Shea co-created Blockstack, a new decentralized Internet where users control their data, and apps run without remote servers. With his co-founder Muneeb Ali, Blockstack has raised funding from top investors like Union Square Ventures and Naval Ravikant. Ryan majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton with a minor in coputer science. After graduation, Ryan started working on tech startups, was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list, went through Y Combinator, and authored several popular open source libraries in cryptography and blockchain technology.
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are books that have greatly influenced your life?
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why?
“Be present.” It’s very hard for almost all of us, and sometimes we need a reminder. The act of being present versus being preoccupied with the past or the future can have a massive impact on our happiness.
Free yourself to try anything. The best ideas are revolutionary.
Rick Rubin has been called “the most important [music] producer of the last 20 years” by MTV. Rick’s resume includes everyone from Johnny Cash to Jay-Z. His metal artists include groups like Black Sabbath, Slayer, System of a Down, Metallica, and Rage Against the Machine. He’s worked with pop artists like Shakira, Adele, Sheryl Crow, Lana Del Rey, and Lady Gaga. He’s also been credited with helping to popularize hip-hop with artists like LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Eminem, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. Believe it or not, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why?
The book I’ve gifted most is Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Tao Te Ching: ancient Taoist wisdom applicable to anything. It can be read at different times in your life, and every time it’s revisited, it takes on entirely new meanings.
The wisdom in it is timeless: how to be a good leader, a good person, a good parent, a good artist—how to be good at anything. It’s a beautiful read that awakens aspects of the brain in a really nice way.
Another one is Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are. It’s a wonderful book from 1994. The beauty of it is that it can spark the desire in a nonmeditator to take up the practice. [At the same time] you could be a lifelong meditator, read it, and still learn a tremendous amount. Thinking about it now inspires me to read it again.
Most likely, the problem won’t be around in a year, but my reputation of how I dealt with it will.
Whitney Cummings is a Los Angeles-based comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Whitney is the executive producer and, along with Michael Patrick King, co-creator of the Emmy-nominated CBS comedy 2 Broke Girls. She has headlined with comics including Sarah Silverman, Louis C.K., Amy Schumer, Aziz Ansari, and others. Her first one-hour standup special, Money Shot, premiered on Comedy Central in 2010 and was nominated for an American Comedy Award. Her second standup special, I Love You, debuted on Comedy Central in 2014, and her latest special, I’m Your Girlfriend, premiered on HBO in 2016. Whitney is the author of I’m Fine … And Other Lies.
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?
Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix. Love the book, hate the title. It’s a very illuminating exploration of how we’re attracted to people who have the negative qualities of our primary caretakers. It was very eye-opening given who I was gravitating to in my work and personal life. It’s helped me to make better relationship and hiring decisions, which ultimately saved me a lot of time and helped me to be way more efficient with my time. It’s been a game-changer for my self-awareness and made me a better picker of employees and co-workers.
The Fantasy Bond by Robert W. Firestone. This book helped me to understand how psychological defenses work, which gave me the power to disarm mine and move into a more honest, productive way to handle conflict. It helps stop your childhood from getting in the way of your adulthood.
I’m in three book groups where we discuss children’s literature (no actual children attend), and I have a room in my apartment where I showcase my collection of beloved books.
Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestsellers Better Than Before, The Happiness Project, and Happier at Home. Her books have sold nearly three million copies worldwide in more than 30 languages. On her popular podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, she discusses good habits and happiness with her sister Elizabeth Craft (they’ve been called “the Click and Clack of podcasters”). Her podcast was named one of iTunes’ “Best Podcasts of 2015” and the Academy of Podcasters “Best Podcasts of 2016.” Fast Company named Gretchen to its list of “Most Creative People in Business,” and she’s a member of Oprah’s “SuperSoul 100.”
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?
I frequently give the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. I’m not a visual person, but this book taught me to see the world around me in an entirely new way. It’s a brilliant way of analyzing experience and information. It’s haunting.
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?
I invested in three desktop computer monitors. I was afraid that having more than one monitor would make me feel overwhelmed and scattered, but in fact, having three monitors has dramatically increased my focus and efficiency while processing information. I can easily look something up while I’m writing, or copy information from the Internet into a piece I’m writing, or answer an email when referring to a document.
If it’s already common knowledge, it’s probably too late to make a major contribution. If you’re the only one excited, you may be deluding yourself.
Steven Pinker is a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as The New York Times and The Atlantic, and is the author of ten books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and most recently, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. He has been named “Humanist of the Year” by the American Humanist Association and is one of Prospect magazine’s “Top 100 Public Intellectuals,” Foreign Policy‘s “100 Global Thinkers,” and Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”
What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?
The X1 Search program: instant, precision searching by independent criteria (not just Google-style search string goulash) to pinpoint my files and emails going back to the 1980s. As info explodes, and my memory doesn’t get better, it’s a godsend.
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say? Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” —Rabbi Hillel
Effective communication matters. Good works usually require an accurate perception thereof.
Craig Newmark is a web pioneer, philanthropist, and leading advocate on behalf of trustworthy journalism, veterans and military families, and other civic and social justice causes. In 1995, Craig started curating a list of San Francisco arts and technology events he emailed to friends and colleagues. People were soon calling it “Craig’s List,” and when Craig turned it into a company, he monetized minimally, opting for a business model that prioritized “doing well by doing good.” In 2016, he created the Craig Newmark Foundation to promote investment in organizations that effectively serve their communities and drive broad civic engagement at the grassroots level. In 2017, he became a founding funder and executive committee member of the News Integrity Initiative, administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which seeks to advance news literacy and increase trust in journalism.
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?
I feel my rabbi is Leonard Cohen, even though when I met him I was too tongue-tied to say anything. Anyway, I’ve given away a number of copies of his Book of Longing, since it articulates a sense of the compassionate and spiritual that I’ve found nowhere else. His work brings me closer to sensing the divine, and apparently that’s also true for millions across the globe.
It might be more accurate to say that his collected poetry and music constitute a book, in the Biblical sense. I’ve probably given away more Cohen CD collections than the physical books, prior to widespread streaming.
When I’m old, how much would I be willing to pay to travel back in time and relive the moment that I’m experiencing right now?
Muneeb Ali is the co-founder of Blockstack, a new decentralized Internet where users control their data, and apps run without remote servers. Muneeb received his PhD in computer science from Princeton University, specializing in distributed systems. He went through Y Combinator—considered the Harvard/SEAL Team Six of startup incubators—and has worked in the systems research group at Princeton and PlanetLab, the world’s first and largest cloud computing test bed. Muneeb was awarded a J. William Fulbright fellowship and gives guest lectures on cloud computing at Princeton. He has built a broad range of production systems and published research papers with more than 900 citations.
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?
I took a loan of around $1,000 USD (in Pakistani rupees) to self-fund a three-month unpaid researcher gig in Sweden. There were no high-quality research opportunities in Pakistan, and I had to get out of the country and work with top researchers in my field in Europe or the U.S. to make progress toward my goals. The money wasn’t enough to survive in Sweden for three months, but I made it work by eating once a day and living on the free coffee and snacks available at the office. That investment opened the door to my PhD admission at Princeton, which opened the door to my current startup, which has raised $5.1 million in venture funding so far.
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
Asking myself the question, “When I’m old, how much would I be willing to pay to travel back in time and relive the moment that I’m experiencing right now?”
