Alain de Botton has written ~17 books and runs the School of Life YouTube channel, which now has almost 10 million subscribers. And this is a rare interview for him. Some highlights: 1. A clear night sky is a challenge to everything we think we know. 2. If we really took on board what that night sky is telling us, we'd have to lie down and just question absolutely everything. 3. Writer's block is a conflict between shame and the desire for honesty. 4. The effect of mass media is to industrialize and commercialize our thinking, which leaves no room for the free thinker, the honest thinker, and the authentic thinker. 5. You've got to be attentive to your own sensations and thoughts. That's the real work of writing. 6. Every person is an incredible library of sensations but so often, particularly in the academic world, people think: “Let’s ignore ourselves as a source of data and find out what Cicero said, or what Socrates said, or what Michel Foucault said." 7. Writing can be revenge for the silenced person, which is why so many writers are meek in person but fierce on the page. 8. A work of art is the best thing you can do with your dislocation and distress, and sometimes, it’s even an alternative to losing your mind. 9. Emerson said: "In the minds of geniuses, we find our own neglected thoughts." 10. The thoughts of geniuses aren’t fundamentally different from others. It’s just that they’re able to put words to sensations we’ve long felt but couldn’t articulate. 11. Writing prompt: If there were no rules, if you couldn't fail, if no one was going to laugh, if you were going to be dead tomorrow, what would you actually do and say? How would you write, let's say? That's the thing you should write. I've shared the full conversation with Alain de Botton below. You can watch here or on YouTube, and listen on Apple or Spotify. You'll find the links in the reply tweets.