Philosophy can help you innovate. Here's how.

Philosophy is often called the ultimate form of curiosity: keep asking ‘why’ until you get to the core of things. Centuries ago, Socrates was executed for this. But Anders Indset, one of the keynote speakers at our Curiosity Forum, usually gets away with standing ovations. Here’s why.

Anders Indset will be headliner at SAS Curiosity Forum

“We are gradually evolving into a knowledge society, with plenty of analytics and machine learning tools providing us with new revealing insights and enabling new business models. But what about ourselves as individuals and society? Do these new insights ultimately improve our lives and our world? Are we moving beyond this knowledge society towards a wisdom society?” That is the kind of thinking that sets apart Anders Indset from the average keynote speaker.

Anders Indset is a ‘business philosopher’. He takes the traditional philosophers’ wisdom and applies it to today’s business environment and to our society. The concept of stoicism translated to a world looking for resilience, the idea of thesis, antithesis and synthesis applied to countless business and technology trends: one can find numerous examples of how philosophy can provide useful insights into what is going on today. And, Anders Indset adds, philosophers can also help you deal with these insights in a meaningful way, and ultimately enrich our lives in the process.

“Remain playful”

What are Anders’ main messages and takeaways for his audience (and readership, Anders has written various bestselling business books already)? “Try to insert some philosophy into your own lives as well. You should always remain playful and challenge yourself by continuously discovering new areas. This ranges from taking on new activities to radically adopting new ways of thinking.”

Easier said than done, of course. How do you move from your day-to-day reasoning to some less practical, more fundamental questions? Anders replies: “You should start with some familiar topics that you’re interested in. To employees and CEOs in technology organizations, this could mean thinking about topics such as: what comes after the digital transformation? What do we really want to achieve with it? Do we want machines to take over everything? Do people become irrelevant? Or are we evolving towards a genuine Utopia? You would be surprised how much philosophers from the past have to say about that!”

“Shut up for at least one hour a week”

Without giving away too much, we want to leave you with one last piece of advice from Anders Indset, to fully prepare you for his keynote: “You should shut up completely for at least one working hour per week. Physically shut yourself out of the daily treadmill, to just sit down and reflect on certain topics. This is how you can train your mind to think beyond the obvious and day-to-day concerns. That’s how ‘out of the box’ thinking gets an entirely new meaning.

 

Curious to find out more? Then you have just found one more reason to join us on our Curiosity forum! Do not hesitate, join us on 13 June by registering here.

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