Sumit Paul-Choudhury

It is probably better to be an ordinary person today and certainly in the industrialized world than it would have been to be a monarch 200 years ago, certainly better than a thousand years ago. We live longer. We live healthier lives. We have material standards of living that are incomparable to anybody who's come before us.

It is probably better to be an ordinary person today and certainly in the industrialized world than it would have been to be a monarch 200 years ago, certainly better than a thousand years ago. We live longer. We live healthier lives. We have material standards of living that are incomparable to anybody who's come before us.

It is probably better to be an ordinary person today and certainly in the industrialized world than it would have been to be a monarch 200 years ago, certainly better than a thousand years ago. We live longer. We live healthier lives. We have material standards of living that are incomparable to anybody who's come before us.

And in most other respects and things like crime as well, there's probably... I think it's probably reasonable to say that we live in safer times. But I think that the psychological difficulty here is that those gross aggregate statistics are all very well, but they don't necessarily help me very much when it comes to what I'm going to do about my own life.

And in most other respects and things like crime as well, there's probably... I think it's probably reasonable to say that we live in safer times. But I think that the psychological difficulty here is that those gross aggregate statistics are all very well, but they don't necessarily help me very much when it comes to what I'm going to do about my own life.

And in most other respects and things like crime as well, there's probably... I think it's probably reasonable to say that we live in safer times. But I think that the psychological difficulty here is that those gross aggregate statistics are all very well, but they don't necessarily help me very much when it comes to what I'm going to do about my own life.

I mean, you're right, there is this kind of focusing effect of, you know, a terrible story breaks in the news and then it sticks in your head and you kind of think, I mean, even if you are, you rationally kind of think, well, the chances of that happening are very small. You still don't want to be the person who that very small probability happens to. So that's kind of one thing.

I mean, you're right, there is this kind of focusing effect of, you know, a terrible story breaks in the news and then it sticks in your head and you kind of think, I mean, even if you are, you rationally kind of think, well, the chances of that happening are very small. You still don't want to be the person who that very small probability happens to. So that's kind of one thing.

I mean, you're right, there is this kind of focusing effect of, you know, a terrible story breaks in the news and then it sticks in your head and you kind of think, I mean, even if you are, you rationally kind of think, well, the chances of that happening are very small. You still don't want to be the person who that very small probability happens to. So that's kind of one thing.

It's hard to kind of get away from the irrationality of being, well, I mean, from the concern that you would feel about having been exposed to that. The other is that, of course, aggregate statistics, I mean, as I just said, that it's probably better to be an ordinary person today than it was a monarch 300 years ago. Kind of irrelevant because I wasn't a monarch 300 years ago.

It's hard to kind of get away from the irrationality of being, well, I mean, from the concern that you would feel about having been exposed to that. The other is that, of course, aggregate statistics, I mean, as I just said, that it's probably better to be an ordinary person today than it was a monarch 300 years ago. Kind of irrelevant because I wasn't a monarch 300 years ago.

It's hard to kind of get away from the irrationality of being, well, I mean, from the concern that you would feel about having been exposed to that. The other is that, of course, aggregate statistics, I mean, as I just said, that it's probably better to be an ordinary person today than it was a monarch 300 years ago. Kind of irrelevant because I wasn't a monarch 300 years ago.

I'm an ordinary person now. And whatever concerns I have about the world I live in now are the concerns I have about the world I live in now. It's not especially helpful to me living my life to know that if I'd been alive 250 years ago, it probably would have been worse.

I'm an ordinary person now. And whatever concerns I have about the world I live in now are the concerns I have about the world I live in now. It's not especially helpful to me living my life to know that if I'd been alive 250 years ago, it probably would have been worse.

I'm an ordinary person now. And whatever concerns I have about the world I live in now are the concerns I have about the world I live in now. It's not especially helpful to me living my life to know that if I'd been alive 250 years ago, it probably would have been worse.

I don't know if I would go so far to say it's only optimists who change the world, but certainly it's substantially optimists who change the world, I would say. Because they are the ones who find solutions, who find technologies, who find ideas that the rest of us don't necessarily... I say the rest of us. Actually, I count myself as an optimist, but some people really put that into practice.

I don't know if I would go so far to say it's only optimists who change the world, but certainly it's substantially optimists who change the world, I would say. Because they are the ones who find solutions, who find technologies, who find ideas that the rest of us don't necessarily... I say the rest of us. Actually, I count myself as an optimist, but some people really put that into practice.

I don't know if I would go so far to say it's only optimists who change the world, but certainly it's substantially optimists who change the world, I would say. Because they are the ones who find solutions, who find technologies, who find ideas that the rest of us don't necessarily... I say the rest of us. Actually, I count myself as an optimist, but some people really put that into practice.

I think if you look at someone like Elon Musk, I mean, set aside his... his politics, or you might think of him personally, you think about what he's achieved in terms of, you know, revolutionizing the car industry, revolutionizing the space industry, becoming the richest man in the world, and now something close to the most powerful man in the world. That's an extraordinary thing.

I think if you look at someone like Elon Musk, I mean, set aside his... his politics, or you might think of him personally, you think about what he's achieved in terms of, you know, revolutionizing the car industry, revolutionizing the space industry, becoming the richest man in the world, and now something close to the most powerful man in the world. That's an extraordinary thing.