Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Paul Myhrvold, formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures and the principal author of Modernist Cuisine. Myhrvold was listed as co-inventor on 17 patents at Microsoft and has since co-sponsored applications for over 500 other patents for which his corporation is funding the patent monetization effort...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth3 August 1959
CountryUnited States of America
mother book home
When I was about nine years old, I announced to my mother that I was going to cook Thanksgiving dinner. And I went to the library and got this whole pile of books. I'd love to say it all turned out great. It didn't. But, sort of, from that point on, whenever there was serious cooking at home, I was the one who did it.
new-york law everyday
The way Moore's Law occurs in computing is really unprecedented in other walks of life. If the Boeing 747 obeyed Moore's Law, it would travel a million miles an hour, it would be shrunken down in size, and a trip to New York would cost about five dollars. Those enormous changes just aren't part of our everyday experience.
people vision age
The techniques of being an Internet visionary are just like those of lower-tech fortunetellers through the ages. A technological visionary must tell people what they want to hear, because your company's stock won't rise if you spout an unpopular vision to analysts.
black tin lines
The simplest fix for better grilling is to line the inside of your barbecue with tin foil. It dramatically affects how evenly the heat is distributed. That crusty black hibachi or Weber grill is doing your food no favors.
government evil democracy
The reason societies with democratic governments are better places to live in than their alternatives isn't because of some goodness intrinsic to democracy, but because its hopeless inefficiency helps blunt the basic potential for evil.
crazy ideas foundation
Crazy ideas sometimes work, and the technological society that we have is built on a foundation of those crazy ideas that work.
careers cooking way
My career at Microsoft really was getting in the way of my cooking.
games apples patents
Microsoft, Apple, Facebook all bought huge patent portfolios to further their strategic game. They're doing what I'm doing!
people innovation historical
Many of the things the slow food people honor were innovations within historical times. Somebody had to be the first European to eat a tomato.
patents investing making-money
Making money from enforcing patents is no more wrong than investing in preferred stock.
boring dramatic boring-things
It is better to predict dramatic things that don't happen than boring things that do.
thinking special impossible
It's impossible that we're alone in the universe. Every time we think we're more special than others, we're proven wrong.
problem posing plans
One of the problems with posing a 'bold new plan' is that you can't just extrapolate from previous plans.
secret ugly energy
One of the ugly secrets of the renewable-energy industry is that its products make no economic sense unless they are highly subsidized.