6 ms·

Larry Page on how to change the world

45 points by jkush 18y ago

brooksbp 18y ago
"Even when we started Google, we thought, "Oh, we might fail," and we almost didn't do it. The reason we started is that Stanford said, "You guys can come back and finish your Ph.D.s if you don't succeed."" So true. Society has formed a horrible notion of stressing the importance of earning your degree(s) right after high school and in consecutive order.
comatose_kid 18y ago
The sidebar on 'The Best Advice I Ever Got' makes for good reading too. Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.bestadvice.fortune/index.html http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.bes...
- jkent 18y ago
  Great link this one, a couple of red herrings in there. Ford CEO (#25) saying "Focus on the customer. Deliver value.". Neither of which they are respected for.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
aupajo 18y ago
I like the fact that he stays optimistic and talks about the opportunities we have to make a difference, rather than complain about all the problems we have.
- tokipin 18y ago
  yea, people that do that annoy me
redorb 18y ago
Wish cancer was on that list of noble things to fix. But I guess cancer < dirty water > shelter < food
gcheong 18y ago
I went to google's san francisco's open house a few months back where Vincent G. Serf (http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint) gave a talk and at one point he mentioned a list of engineering "grand challenges" put together by the National Academy of Engineering. It's an interesting list and may provide some good food for thought for anyone with a bit of free time on their hands: http://engineeringchallenges.org/cms/challenges.aspx http://engineeringchallenges.org/cms/challenges.aspx
- nazgulnarsil 18y ago
  i notice that all those challenges are related to one challenge that isn't mentioned. the exponential function as it relates to human population is the basis of most problems. at some point engineering doesn't matter, there simply won't be enough resources to keep everyone alive, much less with a decent standard of living. how do we reconcile our innate capacity to continuously expand with a finite world?
  - Xichekolas 18y ago
    Population growth has been slowing in the last couple decades. An odd effect of economic success (as a nation) seems to be vastly lower birthrates. It could be ready access to contraceptives, or more women working, or whatever, but it's an obvious trend. Nations like Japan and Italy have negative replacement rates at the moment. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Rate_of_increase http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Rate_of_increa... Aside from that, population pressures do build, but they can't just build forever. Eventually something happens (war, famine, technological breakthrough) that solves the problem in the short term. If we suddenly run out of some critical resource, that will suck for individuals, and the ensuing resource wars may take a terrible toll, but the race as a whole will survive and grow again.
    - nazgulnarsil 18y ago
      sure, but the point is to choose sustainability because if we don't nature chooses war, famine, or disease for us.
dangoldin 18y ago
The thing that struck me was the point about Moore's Law not being applicable to cars - which seems to go against his point of not believing in limits. If we all expected cars to double their efficiency every 2 years maybe people would be working on that just like they are working hard to double the number of transistors every 2 years.
- pchristensen 18y ago
  It's a reflection of the physical limits of transportation. Even if you have a weightless car, you still have to move the weight of the passenger, who's a lot heavier than the electrons getting moved around in computers. Really, nothing in history has improved as fast as computer hardware, so it's reasonable to assume that most things won't. That doesn't mean that huge advances are not possible - read Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken to learn how 250mpg cars are possible with current tech.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
mrdorian 18y ago
i wish i could work for him on some of the projects

45 points by jkush 18y ago

"Even when we started Google, we thought, "Oh, we might fail," and we almost didn't do it. The reason we started is that Stanford said, "You guys can come back and finish your Ph.D.s if you don't succeed."" So true. Society has formed a horrible notion of stressing the importance of earning your degree(s) right after high school and in consecutive order.

comatose_kid 18y ago

The sidebar on 'The Best Advice I Ever Got' makes for good reading too. Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.bestadvice.fortune/index.html http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.bes...

jkent 18y ago
Great link this one, a couple of red herrings in there. Ford CEO (#25) saying "Focus on the customer. Deliver value.". Neither of which they are respected for.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

aupajo 18y ago

I like the fact that he stays optimistic and talks about the opportunities we have to make a difference, rather than complain about all the problems we have.

tokipin 18y ago
yea, people that do that annoy me

redorb 18y ago

Wish cancer was on that list of noble things to fix. But I guess cancer < dirty water > shelter < food

gcheong 18y ago

I went to google's san francisco's open house a few months back where Vincent G. Serf (http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint) gave a talk and at one point he mentioned a list of engineering "grand challenges" put together by the National Academy of Engineering. It's an interesting list and may provide some good food for thought for anyone with a bit of free time on their hands: http://engineeringchallenges.org/cms/challenges.aspx http://engineeringchallenges.org/cms/challenges.aspx

nazgulnarsil 18y ago
i notice that all those challenges are related to one challenge that isn't mentioned. the exponential function as it relates to human population is the basis of most problems. at some point engineering doesn't matter, there simply won't be enough resources to keep everyone alive, much less with a decent standard of living. how do we reconcile our innate capacity to continuously expand with a finite world?
- Xichekolas 18y ago
  Population growth has been slowing in the last couple decades. An odd effect of economic success (as a nation) seems to be vastly lower birthrates. It could be ready access to contraceptives, or more women working, or whatever, but it's an obvious trend. Nations like Japan and Italy have negative replacement rates at the moment. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Rate_of_increase http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Rate_of_increa... Aside from that, population pressures do build, but they can't just build forever. Eventually something happens (war, famine, technological breakthrough) that solves the problem in the short term. If we suddenly run out of some critical resource, that will suck for individuals, and the ensuing resource wars may take a terrible toll, but the race as a whole will survive and grow again.
  - nazgulnarsil 18y ago
    sure, but the point is to choose sustainability because if we don't nature chooses war, famine, or disease for us.

dangoldin 18y ago

The thing that struck me was the point about Moore's Law not being applicable to cars - which seems to go against his point of not believing in limits. If we all expected cars to double their efficiency every 2 years maybe people would be working on that just like they are working hard to double the number of transistors every 2 years.

pchristensen 18y ago
It's a reflection of the physical limits of transportation. Even if you have a weightless car, you still have to move the weight of the passenger, who's a lot heavier than the electrons getting moved around in computers. Really, nothing in history has improved as fast as computer hardware, so it's reasonable to assume that most things won't. That doesn't mean that huge advances are not possible - read Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken to learn how 250mpg cars are possible with current tech.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

mrdorian 18y ago

i wish i could work for him on some of the projects