Peter Diamandis Quotes

Transformation Economy, where you're not just paying for an experience, you're paying to have your life transformed by this experience.

If it were easy it would have been done already.

Currently a billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation. As a result, half of the world's hospitalizations are due to people drinking water contaminated with infectious agents, toxic chemicals and radiological hazards. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), just one of those infectious agents — the bacteria that cause diarrhea — accounts for 4.1 percent of the global disease burden, killing 1.8 million children a year. Right now more folks have access to a cell phone than a toilet. In fact, the ancient Romans had better water quality than half the people alive today. So what happens if we solve this one problem? According to calculations done by Peter Gleick at the Pacific Institute, an estimated 135 million people will die before 2020 because they lack safe drinking water and proper sanitation. First and foremost, access to clean water means saving these lives. But it also means sub-Saharan Africa no longer loses the 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) that's currently wasted on the health spending, productivity losses and labor diversions all associated with dirty water. Furthermore, because dehydration also lowers one's ability to absorb nutrients, providing clean water helps those suffering from hunger and malnutrition. As a bonus, an entire litany of diseases and disease vectors gets wiped off the planet, as do a number of environmental concerns (fewer trees will be chopped down to boil water; fewer fossil fuels will be burned to purify water).

The first commercial GPS hit shelves in 1981, weighing fifty-three pounds and costing $119,900.

Our philosophy is that the things that people use often are really important to them and we think that over time, you can make money from those things.43

Honestly, we might not need better hospitals; we need better technology that prevents people from ending up in the hospital in the first place.

See a problem. Solve a problem. That's it. That's the entire entrepreneurial playbook.

With the smart grid for energy and the smart grid for water — what's technically called resource consumption optimization — we're seeing the second wave. Next up is the automation and control of far more complex autonomous systems — such as self-driving cars.

Genomic Instability: DNA doesn’t always replicate according to plan. Typically, these errors in gene expression get caught and corrected, but not always.

But not every goal is the same. “We found that if you want the largest increase in motivation and productivity,” says Latham, “then big goals lead to the best outcomes. Big goals significantly outperform small goals, medium-sized goals, and vague goals. It comes down to attention and persistence — which are two of the most important factors in determining performance. Big goals help focus attention, and they make us more persistent. The result is we’re much more effective when we work, and much more willing to get up and try again when we fail.

Stem Cell Exhaustion: As we age, our supply of stem cells plummets, in certain cases by a ten thousandfold decline. Worse, the ones we do manage to hang on to become far less active. This means that the body’s internal tissue and organ repair system loses its ability to do its job.

the best way for children to learn was not through "instruction," but rather through "construction" — that is, learning through doing,

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates we have twelve years to halt global warming at 1.5 degrees. Yet we already have the technology required to meet these challenges, and thanks to convergences, it will only continue to improve. Our innovations may have caught up with our problems. Collaboration is the missing piece of the puzzle. If we're going to make the shift to sustainable at the speed required, then we the people are both the obstacle and the opportunity.

The London coffee-houses provided a gathering place where, for a penny admission charge, any man who was reasonably dressed could smoke his long, clay pipe, sip a dish of coffee, read the newsletters of the day, or enter into conversation with other patrons. At the period when journalism was in its infancy and the postal system was unorganized and irregular, the coffee-house provided a centre of communication for news and information … Naturally, this dissemination of news led to the dissemination of ideas, and the coffee-house served as a forum for their discussion.

The World's Biggest Problems = Biggest Business Opportunities