You have to travel globally today to know what's going on and

When Yuri Milner proclaimed, “You have to travel globally today to know what’s going on and maintain an edge,” he spoke not merely as an investor of wealth but as a sage of the modern age. His words remind us that wisdom does not dwell in one city, nor truth in one nation. In a world where knowledge flows across oceans and innovation sparks in every corner, the one who limits himself to a single horizon is already blind. To keep an edge, to remain awake and alive in the affairs of men, one must go forth, see, listen, and learn from the whole world.

The meaning is both practical and eternal. To travel globally is not only to move the body across borders, but to open the mind to the languages, customs, and ideas of others. The man who remains fixed in his own land may know comfort, but he will not know the full breadth of possibility. As rivers do not flow from a single spring, so too does wisdom not arise from one people alone. The ancients taught that the philosopher must be a citizen of the world, and Milner’s words breathe that same truth into our modern time.

History offers brilliant examples. Consider Herodotus, the so-called father of history. He did not content himself with the tales of his own people, but traveled globally by the standards of his age—journeying to Egypt, Babylon, and beyond. He listened to priests, kings, and merchants, and from these voices he wove the tapestry of human story. Or think of Marco Polo, who left Venice to walk the roads of Asia and returned with knowledge that reshaped Europe’s vision of the world. Without their travels, their knowledge would have been provincial; with them, it became universal.

The edge Milner speaks of is not only in commerce but in the spirit. To know only one culture is to sharpen the mind on a single stone; to know many is to sharpen it upon many whetstones, until it gleams with clarity. The warrior who has faced only one enemy may falter before a stranger’s weapon, but the one who has battled across nations is ready for any hand. So too with knowledge: exposure to many peoples tempers the intellect and gives it the strength to withstand change.

Yet the act of global travel is not without challenge. It demands humility, for one must admit ignorance and sit as a student before the unfamiliar. It demands courage, for to leave one’s land is to walk into uncertainty. It demands adaptability, for what is true in one nation may falter in another. But precisely because it is hard, it is also fruitful. Just as the mountain climber must strain against gravity to see the world from above, so the traveler must endure distance and strangeness to gain the vantage of wisdom.

So, dear listener, the lesson is this: if you would know the truth of the age you live in, do not remain still. Move, observe, listen. Do not imagine that the pulse of the world beats only where you were born; it beats in the markets of India, in the laboratories of America, in the workshops of China, in the villages of Africa. To understand the whole is to be prepared for the future, while to remain narrow is to stumble when the unknown arrives.

In practical action, this means: seek opportunities to step beyond your borders, whether in body or in mind. If you can, travel globally—see the lands, meet the people, learn the customs. If you cannot, then let books, conversations, and the digital bridges of our age be your vessels of travel. But never let your vision shrink to the size of your doorstep. For the one who sees the world in its fullness will always maintain an edge, while the one who hides from it will fall behind, blind to the vastness that surrounds him.

Thus the words of Yuri Milner stand as a call to courage and curiosity. “You have to travel globally today to know what’s going on and maintain an edge.” Let us then not be stagnant, but like the ancient explorers, let us go forth—not only with our bodies, but with our minds, our hearts, and our spirits—so that we may live not as provincials in a vast world, but as heirs to the whole of human knowledge.