Kumail Nanjiani on the big sickness in Silicon Valley

There's this sense in the tech world... that technology is completely amoral. It's a tool, you make it, and how it's used [isn't] up to us. Well, I don't think that's right ... I do think it's the responsibility of people developing this technology to consider the possible negative uses for it.

Don't watch the news all day every day. I don't think our brains are designed to really take that much stimulus over and over and over. This is how I feel about Twitter ... I bet you if you look at your replies, even if they're positive, it's really overwhelming. I don't think we're supposed to get that much information, that much communication, that much feedback from that many people in such a short period of time.

There's this sense that the gates are wide open [and] that anybody can come to America; nothing could be further from the truth. As a kid in Pakistan with my family, just trying to get a visit visa to America... It's almost impossible. It's so hard just to get a visit visa, especially from a place like Pakistan.

As trite as this sounds, we all truly have a lot more in common than we don't.

From 2001 to 2007, I just did open mics over and over in front of drunk people in Chicago ... I got pretty lucky over and over and over and over. It was right place, right time over and over ... The reason that I'm here—a lot of it is due to luck, and I feel extremely grateful.

I think you talking about AI taking jobs and stuff—it's so weird to me that people don't want to hear that stuff or talk about it. If you think about it for 30 seconds, it's inevitable that's where we're headed, and that's something that we need to be ready for and deal with.

Honestly, if it wasn't for her [Emily Gordon], I would definitely, definitely not be here right now. She basically supported me for a year and a half while I did open mics in New York ... Then, I got a job opening for a comedy tour, then I got a job writing for a TV show, and then that show gave me a job acting, so it was all these tiny little steps, but it all happened because Emily took a job and supported me for a year.

I think there are two ways you can go: You can fight against something or you can fight for something, and I think both are very valid ... I think that there are beautiful pieces of art that have come from cynicism and anger and negativity.

Right now, less than 10% of the national forest is actually getting managed for fire suppression, so 90% is not.