Chef, restaurateur and food activist
I decided that my attention would be in the dining room. I haven’t cooked in 28 years at Chez Panisse. ... I didn’t intend to be out of the kitchen. ...
Recorded · NPR (Fresh Air) · 2011
Learning a craft
For somebody getting good at something. What the work actually consists of once you are inside it, the part of the skill that does not show, and how the day is arranged around it.
93 people · 112 answers
What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job?
Journalist and columnist, The New York Times; two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
I have a bunch of rules for myself. You stop at every village, you ask what the situation is like between this village and the next village, you look for fresh tire tracks.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2008
Photojournalist and war photographer; Pulitzer Prize winner, 2009
For a photographer — it’s like actually taking a picture is like five percent of what I do.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2017
French football manager; Arsenal 1996–2018; FIFA Chief of Global Football Development
A good coach is somebody who has a clear concept of what they want and what they love in the game, is capable of expressing it in an understandable way, and is able to obtain it on the…
Recorded · FIFA Training Centre · 2023
Novelist, short-story writer and translator
I myself, as I’m writing, don’t know who did it. The readers and I are on the same ground.
Recorded · The Paris Review · 2004
Novelist
Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
What is the thing you are best at that nobody watching can see?
Playwright and screenwriter
The look of the thing is one thing. The sound of it is more important.
Recorded · The Paris Review, Issue 109, Winter 1988 · 1988
Neurosurgeon; chair of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
I’ve done almost 4,000 operations for brain tumors. I’m thinking of what’s going to happen ten or 12 steps before.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2001
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1993–2020; Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit 1980–1993
I have followed that advice - with, I confess, occasional lapses not only at home, but in the places I have worked, even in relating to my colleagues at the Supreme Court.
Recorded · New York Law School Law Review (digitalcommons.nyls.edu) · 1999
Novelist, short-story writer and translator
I want my readers to laugh sometimes. Many readers in Japan read my books on the train while commuting.
Recorded · The Paris Review · 2004
Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA
Of all of the things that I value most about my abilities, intelligence is not top of that list.
Recorded · YouTube (recording of the Caltech commencement address) · 2024
Norwegian chess grandmaster; World Chess Champion 2013–2023
What kind of talent I had when I was really young was that I was able to concentrate on something for a really long time. My interest didn't really wane...That's been my main advantage.
Recorded · Chess.com · 2017
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
Biomedical engineer; Institute Professor at MIT
I didn’t realize that scientists were like that, and that people were like that. I would have thought — and I like to hope — that I encourage people rather than discourage people.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2012
Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
Most investors, of course, have not made the study of business prospects a priority in their lives.
Recorded · Berkshire Hathaway Inc. · 2014
Songwriter, musician and novelist
Many creative people, especially the young, may feel their chaotic or disordered relationship with the world is indispensable to their creative freedom. The more anarchic, the better!
Recorded · The Red Hand Files · 2024
Co-founder and former chief executive of Spotify
Many people talk about a willingness to have failures. I hate failures. I don't think you should strike to make failures.
Recorded · Music Ally · 2016
Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
The second thing there was another thing I learned at Sequoia is that the culture of a business is built in the first six months by the first ten to 15 employees.
Recorded · Goldman Sachs (official event transcript)
Novelist and essayist
Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
What does the first sixty minutes of your day look like?
Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA
I begin each morning, I do every single morning exactly the same way, I begin each morning by doing my highest priority work first.
Recorded · The Singju Post · 2024
Novelist, essayist and journalist
When I’m working on a novel I type the initial draft first thing in the morning. Really: first thing.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
Novelist, short-story writer and translator
When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours.
Recorded · The Paris Review · 2004
Norwegian chess grandmaster; World Chess Champion 2013–2023
I would want to be a role model. As you talk about an athlete who wakes up at seven every day, then you have two training sessions...for me, it's not like that.
Recorded · Chess.com · 2017
Songwriter, musician and novelist
As many of you know, I observe specific protocols to open the creative mind – I sit at a desk in my office and write, working exclusively between 9am and 5pm.
Recorded · The Red Hand Files · 2024
Novelist
I get to my desk (in a very small room at the top of the house) at about 10, and fiddle about with the height of the desk and the chair until I’m comfortable.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
What small daily thing do you do that most people would consider a waste of time?
Broadcaster; host of Larry King Live on CNN, 1985–2010
I have a habit of – thought habits. I try to total up words in a phrase or a sentence and then divide it to see if I get an even number. Like true love divided by two is four.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Composer, pianist and record producer
It’s wasting time to listen to music when you go outside because there are so many interesting noises. For example, every time it rains, I open the window and put the recorder outside.
Recorded · Kinfolk · 2018
Kenyan marathon runner
When you become a boss, you don't think straight. It's better to be a leader than a boss. That is why I do my share of the cleaning. That is how to show the way to young people.
Recorded · BBC Sport · 2020
Designer; host of Design Matters; founder of the SVA branding programme
I’ve been told that because I like to make up silly songs and then sing them in all sorts of absurd situations and occurrences, that I am trying to turn my life into a Hollywood musical.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It’s research.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
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