It's very hard for individual inventors to get paid. For the same reason that private equity is valuable - broadly, that's a good thing - in the case of patents, many that own them aren't in a good position to take the next step. Nathan Myhrvold More Quotes by Nathan Myhrvold More Quotes From Nathan Myhrvold The NeXT purchase is too little too late. The Apple of the past was an innovative company that used software and hardware technology together to redefine the way people experienced computing. That Apple is already dead. Very adroit moves might be able to save the brand name. A company with the letters A-P-P-L-E in its name might survive, but it won't be the Apple of yore. Nathan Myhrvold technology past moving 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 intuition pants decision 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 knees growing law I wanted to figure out how long to cook things. I did some experiments and then wrote a program using Mathematica to model how heat is transferred through food. Nathan Myhrvold heat program long The NeXT purchase is too little too late. Apple is already dead. Nathan Myhrvold apples too-late littles Crazy ideas sometimes work, and the technological society that we have is built on a foundation of those crazy ideas that work. Nathan Myhrvold foundation crazy ideas Bill, we left megalomania behind a long time ago. Now we are gigalomaniacs. Nathan Myhrvold internet bills long 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 balance leader america Nuclear energy is a baseload - meaning it's power that you can run any time you want, day or night - and carbon-free. Nathan Myhrvold energy running night If you have a block of ballistics gelatin and a high-speed camera, pretty soon somebody gets a gun! Nathan Myhrvold cameras block gun If you talk about sous-vide, then you have to talk about food safety, and microbiology, and heat. Nathan Myhrvold microbiology heat safety If your kitchen smells good, your food lost something. Nathan Myhrvold kitchen smell lost In the early days of the software industry, people cared about copyright and didn't give a damn about patents - they copied each other willy-nilly. Nathan Myhrvold patents giving people Intellectual Ventures is a company that invests in invention. Nathan Myhrvold venture invention intellectual 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 special impossible thinking Making money from enforcing patents is no more wrong than investing in preferred stock. Nathan Myhrvold investing patents making-money 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. Nathan Myhrvold innovation historical people If I want popularity, I go to a chef's convention. Nathan Myhrvold popularity want chef For relatively modest amounts of sulfur dioxide injected into the atmosphere, you could easily cool Earth by 1% or more, if you want. Nathan Myhrvold sulfur atmosphere earth Risk is the sort of word that is easy to discuss upfront but tough to handle when it comes time to pay the piper. There will always be some who wimp out and second-guess when the pain hits, but that is a childish reaction. Nathan Myhrvold wimps risk pain
