Yuval Noah Harari

It's a deep, again, it's in a way a spiritual practice to build your personality, to build your mind as a very flexible mind. If traditionally people thought about education, like building a stone house with very deep foundations, now it's more like setting up a tent that you can fold and move to the next place very, very quickly. Because that's the 21st century.

One of the reasons I became so interested in stories and in their power was I grew up in a small Israeli town in the 1980s, early 1990s, which was very homophobic. And I basically embraced it. I breathed it because you could hardly even think differently. So you had these two powerful stories around. One, that God hates gay people and that he will punish them for who they are or for what they do.

One of the reasons I became so interested in stories and in their power was I grew up in a small Israeli town in the 1980s, early 1990s, which was very homophobic. And I basically embraced it. I breathed it because you could hardly even think differently. So you had these two powerful stories around. One, that God hates gay people and that he will punish them for who they are or for what they do.

One of the reasons I became so interested in stories and in their power was I grew up in a small Israeli town in the 1980s, early 1990s, which was very homophobic. And I basically embraced it. I breathed it because you could hardly even think differently. So you had these two powerful stories around. One, that God hates gay people and that he will punish them for who they are or for what they do.

Secondly, that it's not God, it's nature, that there is something diseased or sick about it. And these people, maybe they're not sinners, but they are sick, they are defective, and nobody wanted to identify with such a thing. If your options, okay, you can be a sinner, you can be a defect, but what do you want? No good options there.

Secondly, that it's not God, it's nature, that there is something diseased or sick about it. And these people, maybe they're not sinners, but they are sick, they are defective, and nobody wanted to identify with such a thing. If your options, okay, you can be a sinner, you can be a defect, but what do you want? No good options there.

Secondly, that it's not God, it's nature, that there is something diseased or sick about it. And these people, maybe they're not sinners, but they are sick, they are defective, and nobody wanted to identify with such a thing. If your options, okay, you can be a sinner, you can be a defect, but what do you want? No good options there.

And it took me many years, until I was 21, to come to terms with it. And one of the things, I learned two things. First, about the amazing capacity of the human mind for denial and delusion. That an algorithm could have told me that I'm gay when I was like 14 or 15. Like if there is a good-looking guy and girl walking, I would immediately focus on the guy. But I didn't connect the dots.

And it took me many years, until I was 21, to come to terms with it. And one of the things, I learned two things. First, about the amazing capacity of the human mind for denial and delusion. That an algorithm could have told me that I'm gay when I was like 14 or 15. Like if there is a good-looking guy and girl walking, I would immediately focus on the guy. But I didn't connect the dots.

And it took me many years, until I was 21, to come to terms with it. And one of the things, I learned two things. First, about the amazing capacity of the human mind for denial and delusion. That an algorithm could have told me that I'm gay when I was like 14 or 15. Like if there is a good-looking guy and girl walking, I would immediately focus on the guy. But I didn't connect the dots.

Like I could not understand what was happening inside my own brain and my own mind and my own body. Took me a long time to realize, you know, you're just gay.

Like I could not understand what was happening inside my own brain and my own mind and my own body. Took me a long time to realize, you know, you're just gay.

Like I could not understand what was happening inside my own brain and my own mind and my own body. Took me a long time to realize, you know, you're just gay.

This is the power of self-delusion. It's not that I knew I was gay and was hiding it. I was hiding it for myself successfully. Looking back, I don't understand how it is possible. But I know it is possible. I knew and didn't know at the same time. And then the other big lesson is the power of the stories, of the social conventions. Because the stories were not true.

This is the power of self-delusion. It's not that I knew I was gay and was hiding it. I was hiding it for myself successfully. Looking back, I don't understand how it is possible. But I know it is possible. I knew and didn't know at the same time. And then the other big lesson is the power of the stories, of the social conventions. Because the stories were not true.

This is the power of self-delusion. It's not that I knew I was gay and was hiding it. I was hiding it for myself successfully. Looking back, I don't understand how it is possible. But I know it is possible. I knew and didn't know at the same time. And then the other big lesson is the power of the stories, of the social conventions. Because the stories were not true.

They did not make sense even on their own terms. Even if you accept the basic religious framework of the world, that there is a good God that created everything and controls everything. Why would a good God... punish people for love.

They did not make sense even on their own terms. Even if you accept the basic religious framework of the world, that there is a good God that created everything and controls everything. Why would a good God... punish people for love.

They did not make sense even on their own terms. Even if you accept the basic religious framework of the world, that there is a good God that created everything and controls everything. Why would a good God... punish people for love.

I understand why a good God would punish people for violence, for hatred, for cruelty, but why would God punish people for love, especially when he created them that way? So even if you accept the religious framework of the world, obviously the story that God hates gay people, it comes not from God, but from some humans who invented this story. They take their own hatred.