Floating Upstream with John Markoff and Stewart Brand

John Markoff | Floating Upstream: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand (YouTube)

• New project every 5 years (until now, when he's shifted to long-term thinking).

• "If I tried to compete I would always lose. But when you invent, it's not competition yet. Inventing became my mode."

• Brian Eno to art students: "You're going to get out of here and you probably can't make money yet at what you really want to do. You're going to be tempted to get a job. Please don't do that. Because if you do that and then you see something or somebody or you have an idea or there's an opportunity to go somewhere you won't be able to act on it and you need to be able to act on things right away."

• "When you can do the thing you're doing in your sleep, wake up. Go somewhere else... (If invention is what turns you on)" ... "If you get addicted to being Somebody, you will become a caricature of yourself." ... "When you switch gears, you have to get into neutral... In between being somebody, you have to be nobody. That’s a fantastic place to be. Nobodies are open to the world. I think that’s what’s behind 'Stay hungry. Stay Foolish.'"