Quotes by Nathan Myhrvold

“Rick Rashid is one of the worlds great research leaders. He built Microsoft Research from the ground up to its current status as one of the top computer science research laboratories. Microsoft Research couldnt be in better hands.”

“The task of growing is finding these people. A lot of companies are (turning away) from the notion that basic research can be a good investment. Some of the best and brightest are being turned out by their companies,”

“There are two types of tech companies,”

“only stupid ones.”

“When people talk about Danny,”

“The personality of Bill Gates determines the culture of Microsoft.”

“The lamb will get to 131 in 30 minutes, where we can hold it for about 10 hours, which is when its at its best.”

Humans are a story telling species. Throughout history we have told stories to each other and ourselves as one of the ways to understand the world around us. Every culture has its creation myth for how the universe came to be, but the stories do not stop at the big picture view; other stories discuss every aspect of the world around us. We humans are chatterboxes and we just cant resist telling a story about just about everything.However compelling and entertaining these stories may be, they fall short of being explanations because in the end all they are is stories. For every story you can tell a different variation, or a different ending, without giving reason to choose between them. If you are skeptical or try to test the veracity of these stories youll typically find most such stories wanting. One approach to this is forbid skeptical inquiry, branding it as heresy. This meme is so compelling that it was independently developed by cultures around the globes; it is the origin of religion—a set of stories about the world that must be accepted on faith, and never questioned.

Our reactor actually burns nuclear waste as fuel. So not only is it safe and powerful, it solves an important issue: It actually reduces nuclear waste instead of creating. Its the reactor of your dreams.

For relatively modest amounts of sulfur dioxide injected into the atmosphere, you could easily cool Earth by 1% or more, if you want.

If I say Ive got two versions of Word - that old one from 1982 thats perfect, with zero defects; or the new one thats got all this cool new stuff, but there might be a few bugs in it - people always want the new one. But I wouldnt want them to operate a plane I was on with software that happened to be the latest greatest release!

Age can be wonderful for red wine, but not for spacecraft.

Most visions of extraterrestrial life are actually steeped in human hubris. The fictional extraterrestrials of Star Trek or a hundred other space operas are less alien than many of my neighbors. And funny, the ones running the place are mostly WASPish men.

We collectively have a special place in our heart for the manned space flight program - Apollo nostalgia is one element, but that is only part of it. American culture worships explorers - look at the fame of Lewis and Clark, for example. The American people want to think of themselves as supporting exploration.

Regardless of how its done, transaction costs will continue to plummet as computers get more powerful. Low transaction costs are a wonderful thing if youre in the transaction business. Theyre wonderful for consumers too, making it cheaper and easier to buy things and creating new things to buy.

Why pay a fee for Internet content when a million free sites are just a click away? Theres no incentive until people are too addicted to the Net to turn off their computers, yet are bored with whats available.

The whole hardware industry has experienced the phenomenon in which every time computers get cheaper, they appeal to a new set of users; every time they get more powerful, old customers upgrade.

Cooking is for chefs. Science informs us and lets us cook while knowing what we are doing, but it is not a replacement for the skills of a chef.

Another random thing I do is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI. And you may be familiar with the movie Contact, which sort of popularized that. It turns out there are real people who go out and search for extraterrestrials in a very scientific way.

Ive been on a team that won the world championship of barbecue. But barbecues interesting, because its one of these cult foods like chili, or bouillabaisse. Various parts of the world will have a cult food that people get enormously attached to - theres tremendous traditions; theres secrecy.