Nathan Myhrvold

software suck user demand

"Software sucks because users demand it to."

—Nathan Myhrvold

software gas container

"Software is a gas ! It expands to fit the container it is in !"

—Nathan Myhrvold

prediction future present statistically

"Nobody wants a prediction that the future will be more or less like the present, even if that is, statistically speaking, an excellent prediction."

—Nathan Myhrvold

chef food kitchen scientist what how why

"Chefs think about what it's like to make food. Being a scientist in the kitchen is about asking why something works, and how it works."

—Nathan Myhrvold

career microsoft way cooking

"My career at Microsoft really was getting in the way of my cooking."

—Nathan Myhrvold

economist discipline science ideology

"Economists want their discipline to be a science, and they have nailed down a few precepts, but many of their debates are still clouded by ideology."

—Nathan Myhrvold

alone universe impossible special others wrong

"It's impossible that we're alone in the universe. Every time we think we're more special than others, we're proven wrong."

—Nathan Myhrvold

predict dramatic happen boring

"It is better to predict dramatic things that don't happen than boring things that do."

—Nathan Myhrvold

modern occupation cult leader weathermen visionary credibility

"Among modern occupations, only cult leaders and TV weathermen rival the technological visionary's ability to retain credibility despite all evidence to the contrary."

—Nathan Myhrvold

do people threatening important

"If people don't find what you are doing threatening, then it is probably not very important."

—Nathan Myhrvold

prize inefficiency America USA check balance leader hogtie

"The prize for ultimate inefficiency goes to America. We have built in so many checks and balances that our 'leaders' are the most thoroughly hogtied of any on Earth."

—Nathan Myhrvold

transaction cost plummet computer cheap easy

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

—Nathan Myhrvold

decision judgement rationale intuition faith

"Most decisions are seat-of-the-pants judgments. You can create a rationale for anything. In the end, most decisions are based on intuition and faith."

—Nathan Myhrvold

software grow size Moore's Law computer knees buy new

"The ever-growing size of software applications is what makes Moore's Law possible: 'If we hadn't brought your computer to its knees, why would you go out and buy a new one?'"

—Nathan Myhrvold

magic internet sentence protect scrutiny

"The magic words 'on the Internet,' if inserted into nearly any sentence, seem to protect it from normal critical scrutiny."

—Nathan Myhrvold

parent world cloning copy genetic

"Suppose that every prospective parent in the world stopped having children naturally, and instead produced clones of themselves. What would the world be like in another 20 or 30 years? The answer is: much like today. Cloning would only copy the genetic aspects of people who are already here."

—Nathan Myhrvold

ugly secret renewble energy economy subsidize

"One of the ugly secrets of the renewable-energy industry is that its products make no economic sense unless they are highly subsidized."

—Nathan Myhrvold

election popularity candidate competence effective science truth

"Elections, for their part, are typically popularity contests rather than measures of candidates' relative competency or effectiveness. Imagine if scientific truth were determined according to which scientist was most popular. To be successful, scientists would have to be charismatic and attractive - and human knowledge would suffer terribly."

—Nathan Myhrvold

government efficient dangerous wrong man right interest

"An efficient government is dangerous in the hands of the wrong man. Sadly, the right sort of man never seems interested in the job."

—Nathan Myhrvold

government efficiency private economy input output

"Efficiency in government is a more elusive concept than efficiency in the private economy, which may be measured relatively easily as output per units of input. What is the government's 'output?'"

—Nathan Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold law software

Nathan Myhrvold's Laws of Software:

1) Software is a gas - it expands to fit the container it is in

2) Software grows until it becomes limited by Moore’s Law

3) Software growth makes Moore’s Law possible

4) Software is only limited by human ambition and expectation