Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience


If you cannot recreate an idea from its elementary components, you do not really understand it — knowing something is not the same as knowing the name of something.

The next time you see a janitor, stop, smile, and say thank you. The word will spread, far faster and far more effectively than via any memo.

Why is it culturally acceptable in the U.S. to say, “I’m bad at math and science” when few would willingly confess to semi-literacy by saying “I don’t read very well.”

The price of innovation keeps rising, the talent is following the money, and many of the traditional players – companies and countries – are struggling to keep up.

The conflict between airlines and wireless carriers over 5G and radar altimeters could have been prevented by clearer and better coordinated policy leadership in Washington.

The free ride from Dennard scaling is over; the von Neumann architecture is showing its age; and our hierarchical abstractions are now an intellectual box from which we must escape.