I see the American experience as being defined by the immigrant paradigm of rupture and renewal: rupture with the old world, the old ways, and renewal of the self in a bright but difficult New World.
Entrepreneurs almost always have to step out of existing institutions that embody old ways of doing things to build their vision.
The ground beneath you is shifting, and either you get sucked in by holding on to old ways, or you take a giant step forward by taking some risks and seeing what happens.
The truth is, you cannot run a political campaign like a tech startup. Technology is a field that fetishizes disruption. The old ways are suspect, and we place an almost irrational trust on new tools. That's fine for developing games, but it was a failing playbook for politics.
Some day, the public might actually revolt against the undemocratic system of seniority that allows Congress to keep the old ways of Washington ingrained into the culture of Congress.
There's no question in my mind of the value in technology in fueling young minds. Like any other tool, if you simply throw it in the classroom and don't consider how best to take advantage of that tool, and you try the old ways with a new piece of technology on the desk, it's no panacea.
What the world is saying to us human beings is, 'Don't stick to the old ways, learn to think anew.' And that's what musicians do every day.
As you step into your limitless self, you might be confronted with old habits and patterns that are not necessarily based in truth. These old ways of being show up because you have repeated many of them thousands of times.
If we're not on them, they go back to their old ways.
We have a maxim in the House of Commons, and written on the walls of our houses, that old ways are the safest and surest ways.
