A C.E.O.’s incentive is not to learn, because he’s not paid on real value. He’s paid on cosmetic value. So he’s paid to be nice to the Merrill Lynch analysts or the Wall Street analysts. So this is where the problem starts.

We tend to treat our knowledge as personal property to be protected and defended. It is an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order…we take what we know a little too seriously.

Don’t read newspapers for the news (just for the gossip and, of course, profiles of authors). The best filter to know if the news matters is if you hear it in cafes, restaurants… or (again) parties.

Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.

Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones. Junior people have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.

You find peace by coming to terms with what you don’t know.