Last month, I had the immense privilege of sitting in a quiet room in Lindau, Germany, with my camera rolling, preparing to interview a Nobel Prize winner. My notebook was filled with questions about macroeconomic theory, the future of labor markets, and search frictions. I was there to talk about systems.

But within minutes, it became clear the most important conversation we could have was about something far more human: fear.

I was speaking with Sir Christopher Pissarides, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Economics. He won the world's most prestigious prize for his work on the "frictions" that make job markets inefficient. As he explained his latest research from the London School of Economics, however, it became apparent that the biggest frictions he's worried about now aren't in the market—they're in our minds.

We spent our time deconstructing the deep anxiety and "technostress" that the AI revolution is creating in workplaces around the world. He argued that the constant pressure to adapt to uncertain technology is having a devastating impact on our well-being. But his proposed solution wasn't a complex new economic model. It was a formula rooted in 2,500-year-old wisdom: the power of Socratic humility, the vital importance of informal human connection (the "coffee chat"), and the need for leaders to understand culture before imposing rules.

It was a powerful reminder that behind every global economic trend are individual human beings, trying to navigate a world that feels increasingly complex. This conversation set the tone for my entire experience at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting and is the first of many stories I will be sharing from this incredible journey.

I’ve written the full story of this conversation, complete with the academic research that backs up these powerful ideas, for my column "The Human Algorithm" at Psychology Today. I invite you to read it:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-algorithm/202509/a-nobelists-formula-for-managing-ai-anxiety