Sleep, productivity, and creatively are intimately linked, for better and for worse. And "we are living under a collective delusion that burnout is the way to succeed," observes Arianna Huffington, author of The Sleep Revolution. Not only does this affect our health and resilience, she argues, but the data shows that even though we are working longer hours than ever, we lose 11 days of productivity a year per employee due to sickness or diminished capacity. (It also hurts our ability to work in teams.) This isn't just a problem in the tech industry, either. BuzzFeed News senior writer Nitasha Tiku observes that "Any business book that's valorizing or diving into the life of a CEO is going to talk about how much he or she sleeps." But sleep isn't just a biological act, it's also a psychological (insomnia, anxiety, TV binge-watching?) as well as a socioeconomic one when you consider who gets to sleep (people higher or lower in the workplace hierarchy, other demographic factors?). And where does tech and the tech industry come in here? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, Huffington and Tiku discuss the hard realities of sleep -- everything from tech and culture to labor and the evolving nature of work.
Arianna Huffington is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global (in 2016) and the founder of The Huffington Post (in 2005). She is the author of fifteen books, most recent two being Thrive and Sleep Revolution, both international bestsellers. These books explore how to both work hard and keep a lifestyle that seeks well-being, wisdom, wonder. We got a chance to sit down for this quick chat after a conference we both spoke at and got right into the big topics of mortality, obsession, meaning, happiness, and love. This conversation is part of the Take It Uneasy podcast. Audio version is available on https://lexfridman.com/takeituneasy/ INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/takeituneasy YouTube Playlist: http://bit.ly/2VKZcE8 EPISODE LINKS: Arianna: http://ariannahuffington.com/ Arianna Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariannahuff Thrive Global: https://thriveglobal.com/ Thrive Global Twitter: https://twitter.com/Thrive HuffPost: https://www.huffpost.com/ HuffPost Twitter: https://twitter.com/HuffPost OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 0:50 - Meaning of life 2:30 - Mortality 4:48 - Failure 7:34 - Elon Musk and singular obsession 11:13 - Politics and journalism 18:43 - Family, love, and ambition CONNECT: - Subscribe to this YouTube channel - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
"I feel increasingly that the thing we are most starved for in our lives is wisdom," shared Arianna Huffington. During her Stanford GSB View From The Top talk on April 12, 2016, she shared her perspective on how to view failure, scale solutions, and refuel your body with sleep. Read more takeaways on Twitter: http://stanford.io/1Nnkjhl