What have you come to understand about what it means to be human?

Originally asked

Krista Tippett, to her guests, On Being

Krista Tippett uses this as a recurring, sometimes-closing On Being question; the wording is intentionally adapted to each guest.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Alex Honnold said elsewhere, not written here
Well, don’t you think that we are all like that? I mean in some ways the deepest fear for a lot of people is getting to the end of their life and think that they did it wrong.

52 Insights, 14 January 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 29 →
Agnès Varda Film director, photographer and installation artist
How people need the possibility of sharing, of not being alone. It’s bad to be poor, but it’s difficult to be alone.
Recorded Kiva Reardon, cléo, 11 April 2018 source ↗
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Part of what separates us from the other creatures on earth is that we make up stories. We are storytellers. And we can tell bad stories and we can tell good stories. We can tell stories that lead to division and hate and war. Or we can tell stories that lead to cooperation and peace and progress.
Recorded Ben Tiggelaar, Forward Thinking Leadership, Amsterdam, Ben Tiggelaar, 28 September 2018 source ↗
David Lynch Film director, screenwriter and painter
consciousness is the “I am-ness” of life. We can only say, “I am,” because of consciousness. And without consciousness, we wouldn’t exist.
Recorded Student 3, Maharishi University of Management commencement, TIME, 23 June 2016 source ↗
Cheryl Strayed Author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things
So much of what I’ve learned, so much of what’s good in my life, was learned because something bad happened, or from making the wrong decision. Through bad decisions I learned how to find the ways to make the right ones.
Recorded Guernica, Guernica, June 2013 source ↗

More from Alex Honnold

View profile →
Question How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? Failure & regret
Yeah. I, I think an interesting thing with that is that like, is it even failure if you've learned from it and you've taken those lessons onto your next project or the next thing that you're working on? And it's like, that's not necessarily a failure. It's all just part of a long-term learning process.
Recorded Adam Grant, Re:Thinking with Adam Grant, TED, 20 September 2022 source ↗

More on values & belief

Also answered this

Bill Clinton, Kurt Vonnegut, Mellody Hobson, Agnès Varda, Ram Dass, A.J. Jacobs

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer