Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A: Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (September 11, 2024) »

1 hour

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Do you think the US will ever transition to the metric system? What tricks or methods do you use to stay focused on developing a core innovation, while not getting distracted by related features or future potentiality of the innovation (either as an individual or a team)? Do you have any thoughts why people always seem to underestimate the amount of time a specific project takes? Everyone knows a project always takes roughly double the amount but never plans around that knowledge. What country do you think is the best to live in? How would you compare the ideal of living in Europe, the ideal of drinking nice wine and good food with friends, to the ideal of working in the US and creating a business which solves some need? Do you think contemporary books are worse than the classics? Do you think contemporary films are worse than the old ones? What do you think about the art being made today in general? I'm in awe of your archive of information and would love to know about the mechanics of how you operate that and the tools you use. Would you be able to talk more in depth about how you add to this archive on a day-to-day basis, please, and your general setup? Speaking of your setup, how do you deal with "pen & paper," notably for preliminary thinking that may be visual/diagrammatic (i.e. free-form), and how does it fit your digital/"quantified" setup? How do you deal with "memorabilia," both physical and digital? I saw the kids on a iPad with a pencil doing math homework digitally and it works great to keep all the notes for homework! View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (August 28, 2024) »

1 hour 9 minutes

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Do you only collect books that you find useful/actually read? Or do you have some books that are there purely for "looks"? On the current topic of books, to what extent have you transitioned to electronic books and reading, if at all, and how do you foresee physical books fitting your workflow and life going forward? You seem to enjoy what you do with your business very much. I'm curious what you enjoy to do for a good vacation with regard to managing life? Saw your driver's license on X! What's the biggest difference between UK and US driving? Which do you prefer? For me the best, I would like to have both the physical book and the audiobook version. The audiobook helps to have a bit passive osmosis-like way to absorb the content, and I can go to parts that I am still confused about in the physical book. But the ability to search what you hear in the audiobook should be an option. What is the key to a happy/content life in your opinion? What would be the best arrangement in an innovation setting that collaboration won't create a conflict about who would get what credit? Have you tried the Daylight computer yet? Did you ever raise money for your company? It seems you've maintained freedom far better than other entrepreneurs. Happy early birthday! Do you "feel" your age? You seem surprisingly active for retirement age. I can't see the point of retiring. If you do what you love, then why stop? I help people to retire. I would suggest that, if your job is stressful, retirement is strongly correlated with better health. I am a baker by trade. I wanted to do mathematics when I was a teen but dropped out. Stephen's programs were a huge inspiration for me back in the late 90s. I am now in my 40s and looking to go back into maths and engineering. What is your choice of birthday cake flavor? Brain vascularization/oxygenation (through exercise) is such an underappreciated competitive advantage in cognitively demanding fields. When I went to Switzerland, I indulged in the chocolate frequently! View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (August 14, 2024) »

1 hour 24 minutes

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Can you tell us more about your book collection (or your artifact or art collection)? How does a "dashboard/portal" webpage as you show sometimes, with lists and links to your projects, and such tools, fit in your workflow and daily routines? Stephen, are you also the CTO of Wolfram Research? What are the characteristics of a good CTO? Do you find video calls draining? What is the Wolfram software continuity plan in the event something happens to you? You are so instrumental in the development of this software, so your absence would be a hard gap to fill. Did you have a mentor while creating your business? Do you find mentors useful? Faces distract from logic because we spend too long assessing people's emotions. Just wanted to share my personal Mathematica "story." I learned to know Mathematica way back when it was running on DOS in text mode and switched into graphics mode when I wanted to plot something. Later I switched to an early Windows version. Back then Macs were too expensive for me, but I loved that Mathematica was a free integral part of Macs! Could you share your methods for generating and keeping track of ideas? Do you have favorite techniques for being productive? View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (July 31, 2024) »

1 hour 16 minutes

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What can you tell us about the next Wolfram Language release? What are you most excited to see added to the language? Do you worry about the increasing appearance of incompetence in the world? The version numbers do get fuzzy over time.... Are you thinking about using years instead? It would be clearer how old your version is.... Any advice for autodidacts? How does one turn a personal curiosity or question about science into a structured project that can be published, as you often do? Do you think AI will take away some human autonomy, ultimately making humans less intelligent overall as they rely on AI too much? How do you think the patent system could be improved by AI? I wonder if we will go through a cycle of trusting AI far too much for answers to our questions, and then when we get too much incorrect information we give up and move to a position of total distrust. Where do you think we will end up? What has been your favorite place/country to visit? Is there someplace you have yet to visit that you would like to? What is it like starting one's first business? I'm just wondering because I don't personally know anyone who has a business. On that topic, if you had to start an innovation-intensive business nowadays, requiring R&D before revenues, would you go the VC route or find ways to bootstrap it (and if so, how)? Can AI systems be effectively applied to customer support roles, or is there too large of a security vulnerability? Can you elaborate on your experience expanding your business and products to be used by others whose language(s) you don't speak? What's your favorite new revelation or idea you read in your recent deep dive into philosophy? How often do you revisit your own personal goals in life and in your career? What are some things you look at that make you feel accomplished, whether small or big? View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (July 17, 2024) »

1 hour 22 minutes

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I loved the discussion with a robot! Based on that talk, how do you imagine a future of robots in business? (Robot coworkers, bosses, assistants, etc.) Will robots be able to effectively communicate with their human companions and vice versa? What business ideas can you think of for useful AI applications? How can we make building your own AI for your own purposes easy and affordable (such as having a bot that helps you find weekly coupons and savings for grocery trips, or for mapping ideal travel times)? What do you think of "robots" remotely operated by humans as a precursor to autonomous robots? A new spin on outsourced blue-collar labor? I believe that another crucial thing is that not only should technologies adapt to people's demands, but humans should quickly adapt to technology's demands in the field. Just recall how weird the computer mouse was for us 30–40 years ago. It is very useful for us humans to understand what the AI knows when it outputs its LLM computations. Maybe some layered hybrid architecture could work with LLMs providing the base, so to speak, while the other modules do more to correct what is there, perhaps? What's the gold in AI, LLMs, etc.? Is there some simpler algorithm that can learn, instead of big neural networks? Like trying to find gold in a goldmine? What do you make of the apparent disconnect between the heavy capital expenditure into AI infrastructure vs. the lagging revenues from applications at the present time? Are we in for a "2000 telecom/fiber"-like setback? For full robot integration into human society, will we see robot "coffee shops" where robots will be able to go and refuel/charge? What business opportunities would working robots open up? How was your annual summer of professoring? Kudos to all the student projects! Will you let future robots enroll in the Summer School? View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (June 5, 2024) »

1 hour 20 minutes

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What business opportunities could you see being successful in the next ten years? What do you think about the sort of "density of information" in science or philosophy? Like your TED talk could be a pamphlet, a book or a multi-volume set of books—same deal with philosophy? Would you ever teach a how-to writing course? What's your opinion about the space tourism business? Do you think there's a missing feature of current tech that computer or phone developers are overlooking? How can they capitalize on AI? Somebody from NASA or SpaceX should put a 360-degree camera on Mars such that people on Earth can look around. How important do you think interdisciplinary knowledge is for driving innovation? I'm entering college this fall. What advice do you have for a college student's first year? Can you think of ways to make a career out of learning? How can I stay focused and work on projects that I'm not necessarily excited about with general ed, especially where my major is not focused? I have several ideas for real-world applications of my work and I am a scholar in my heart, and it seems that a math PhD (currently doing MSc) and then continuing to be around academia is the best way to do that. Could you say your thoughts about this? Should I leave academia and work on these, or mix, or only after PhD? [My advice for education is] take classes that teach you how to learn or solve problems or different ways to think about subjects. Those were the most valuable classes. Could there be an argument for different types of schooling vs. common curriculums to better fit different learning styles? How do you compare scholarly life vs. entrepreneurial life? Can being a CEO be taught or is it something a person innately has the ability for? What would you study? View Less »

Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A (74 videos)