The physics of water is central to cooking, because food is mostly water. All steak that you cook is actually boiled on the inside. Nathan Myhrvold More Quotes by Nathan Myhrvold More Quotes From Nathan Myhrvold 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 effectiveness successful suffering I was good at math and science, and I got lots of degrees in lots of things, but in a parallel universe, I probably became a chef. Nathan Myhrvold degrees math chef A person's basic humanity is not governed by how he or she came into this world, or whether somebody else happens to have the same DNA. Nathan Myhrvold dna humanity world 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 jobs men hands By burning nuclear waste as fuel, we believe we can power the United States cleanly for hundreds of years without ever touching new resources. Nathan Myhrvold touching believe years Don't let the secret recipe die with the inventor. Nathan Myhrvold inventor recipes secret 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 debate discipline want Microsoft, Apple, Facebook all bought huge patent portfolios to further their strategic game. They're doing what I'm doing! Nathan Myhrvold patents apples games My career at Microsoft really was getting in the way of my cooking. Nathan Myhrvold microsoft careers cooking No CEO ever says, 'Damnit, we need to increase research!' I want to encourage them to do that. Nathan Myhrvold research want needs Our goal was to show people a vision of food they hadn't seen before. So, I had this idea of... let's cut all these things in half, and show a picture of the food in the pan, in the oven. Nathan Myhrvold cutting people ideas 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. It's the reactor of your dreams. Nathan Myhrvold creating powerful dream People get cranky when you burst their bubble. Over time, advances in astronomy have relentlessly reinforced the utter insignificance of Earth on a celestial scale. Fortunately, political and religious leaders stopped barbecuing astronomers for saying so, turning their spits with human-rights activists instead. Nathan Myhrvold religious rights people People who grow up in a region doubtless have a better cultural awareness of their own cuisine, but it's also true that a lot of locals go to McDonald's, Applebee's and the like. Nathan Myhrvold mcdonalds growing-up people Politicians don't like to face unpleasant realities. In truth, nobody does, but as individuals, we have no choice; if we neglect to plan ahead, we are held accountable. Fail to meet your responsibilities at work, and you get fired. Ignore your car's gas gauge, and you get stranded. Nathan Myhrvold car responsibility reality 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 creating cost powerful Researchers who examined the voting records of wine judges found that 90 percent of the time they give inconsistent ratings to a particular wine when they judge it on multiple occasions. Nathan Myhrvold wine judging giving If you take a scotch whiskey and distill out the alcohol, what is left has an amazing taste to it and can be used as a flavoring for a dessert. Nathan Myhrvold scotch alcohol taste Software-industry battles are fought by highly paid and out-of-shape nerds furiously pounding computer keyboards while they guzzle diet Coke. The stakes aren't very dramatic. Life? Liberty? The pursuit of happiness? Nope, it's about stock options. Nathan Myhrvold dramatic-life nerd pursuit-of-happiness One of the things that I love to do is travel around the world and look at archaeological sites. Because archaeology gives us an opportunity to study past civilizations, and see where they succeeded and where they failed. Use science to, you know, work backwards and say, 'Well, really, what were they thinking?' Nathan Myhrvold opportunity past thinking
