Advice

What does it take to intern or begin a starting position working on the Wolfram Language remotely?

What would you say to a manager who wants employees engaged in remote work to be on a webcam meeting all day so they can be monitored?

How do you motivate staff that you know are dealing with their own anxieties and personal issues?

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Artificial Intelligence

Will there ever be a perfect AI moral arbiter?

Have we seen extraterrestrial intelligence? What might that mean?

Are autonomous machines, capable of choosing their own goals, inevitable? Is there anything we humans do that cannot—or should not—be automated?

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Business

Did you go all in on remote CEOing pre-wife and pre-kids, or the reverse? And how was your schedule and/or productivity impacted with the change?

Running a single, simple company is one thing. Certainly you’re quite an obsessive person. Do you find it hard to switch between focuses and/or problems? Can you work on two such great problems in the same day without something less cognitively demanding (such as sleep) to break them up?

What would you say to a manager who wants employees engaged in remote work to be on a webcam meeting all day so they can be monitored?

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Current Events

What is your reaction to the reputation of science these days, particularly at the highest levels of our government?

Why did you propose to Congress that they hand over control of social media algorithms, giving outside companies the ability to sort posts for users in news feeds?

There has been a lot of concern that CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg decide what can and can’t be seen on platforms. How do you address that?

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Education

Do you think that we should teach physics before math? Is that possible?

What’s the most beneficial college class you’ve taken?

Why is math so awesome and how can we make it more accessible and easier to teach?

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Future Perspectives

What do you want your legacy to be?

What’s the next big thing in your line of work?

What role do you think computation will play in the future of physics?

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Historical Perspectives

Are there problems that were difficult to solve (historically) but can now be solved trivially using the Wolfram Language? If so, which are your favorites?

How much commonality is there between legendary mathematicians/scientists from ages ago, say from 1816, and more modern scientists? Would those legendary scientists from centuries past be significantly changed if they were brought up in this more modern environment?

Who in your book Idea Makers do you relate to most? Or who do you think is most like you, and why?

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Just Curious...

Who’s the smartest person you ever met?

In what ways are you frugal?

What’s the last luxury you indulged in?

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Mathematics

Why is math so awesome and how can we make it more accessible and easier to teach?

If there are some aspects of mathematics that might be common for aliens and humans, would there also be a lot that wouldn’t overlap?

Hypothetically, if you could choose two fields of math, physics or computing to be magically fully researched, which ones would you choose, and why?

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People

Did Steve Jobs ever try to explain math or physics to you?

Do you have a story about Steve Jobs, and how he helped in naming Mathematica?

Apparently you did a talk at Y Combinator in its early days. Any particular memories of Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian and Aaron Swartz when they were young?

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Personal History

How early on did you notice this part of your character that is so obsessed with uncharted territory?

Who were your heroes when you were at Eton?

Is it true that you had difficulty learning arithmetic in school?

view all

Personal Productivity

Did you go all in on remote CEOing pre-wife and pre-kids, or the reverse? And how was your schedule and/or productivity impacted with the change?

Running a single, simple company is one thing. Certainly you’re quite an obsessive person. Do you find it hard to switch between focuses and/or problems? Can you work on two such great problems in the same day without something less cognitively demanding (such as sleep) to break them up?

Do you ever work from your living room or dining room table? Or is it important to only work from your “home office” setup to keep things productive?

view all

Science

What is your reaction to the reputation of science these days, particularly at the highest levels of our government?

Advice

What does it take to intern or begin a starting position working on the Wolfram Language remotely?

What would you say to a manager who wants employees engaged in remote work to be on a webcam meeting all day so they can be monitored?

How do you motivate staff that you know are dealing with their own anxieties and personal issues?

Artificial Intelligence

Will there ever be a perfect AI moral arbiter?

Have we seen extraterrestrial intelligence? What might that mean?

Are autonomous machines, capable of choosing their own goals, inevitable? Is there anything we humans do that cannot—or should not—be automated?

Business

Did you go all in on remote CEOing pre-wife and pre-kids, or the reverse? And how was your schedule and/or productivity impacted with the change?

Running a single, simple company is one thing. Certainly you’re quite an obsessive person. Do you find it hard to switch between focuses and/or problems? Can you work on two such great problems in the same day without something less cognitively demanding (such as sleep) to break them up?

What would you say to a manager who wants employees engaged in remote work to be on a webcam meeting all day so they can be monitored?

Current Events

What is your reaction to the reputation of science these days, particularly at the highest levels of our government?

Why did you propose to Congress that they hand over control of social media algorithms, giving outside companies the ability to sort posts for users in news feeds?

There has been a lot of concern that CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg decide what can and can’t be seen on platforms. How do you address that?

Education

Do you think that we should teach physics before math? Is that possible?

What’s the most beneficial college class you’ve taken?

Why is math so awesome and how can we make it more accessible and easier to teach?

Future Perspectives

What do you want your legacy to be?

What’s the next big thing in your line of work?

What role do you think computation will play in the future of physics?

Historical Perspectives

Are there problems that were difficult to solve (historically) but can now be solved trivially using the Wolfram Language? If so, which are your favorites?

How much commonality is there between legendary mathematicians/scientists from ages ago, say from 1816, and more modern scientists? Would those legendary scientists from centuries past be significantly changed if they were brought up in this more modern environment?

Who in your book Idea Makers do you relate to most? Or who do you think is most like you, and why?

Just Curious...

Who’s the smartest person you ever met?

In what ways are you frugal?

What’s the last luxury you indulged in?

Mathematics

Why is math so awesome and how can we make it more accessible and easier to teach?

If there are some aspects of mathematics that might be common for aliens and humans, would there also be a lot that wouldn’t overlap?

Hypothetically, if you could choose two fields of math, physics or computing to be magically fully researched, which ones would you choose, and why?

People

Did Steve Jobs ever try to explain math or physics to you?

Do you have a story about Steve Jobs, and how he helped in naming Mathematica?

Apparently you did a talk at Y Combinator in its early days. Any particular memories of Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian and Aaron Swartz when they were young?

Personal History

How early on did you notice this part of your character that is so obsessed with uncharted territory?

Who were your heroes when you were at Eton?

Is it true that you had difficulty learning arithmetic in school?

Personal Productivity

Did you go all in on remote CEOing pre-wife and pre-kids, or the reverse? And how was your schedule and/or productivity impacted with the change?

Running a single, simple company is one thing. Certainly you’re quite an obsessive person. Do you find it hard to switch between focuses and/or problems? Can you work on two such great problems in the same day without something less cognitively demanding (such as sleep) to break them up?

Do you ever work from your living room or dining room table? Or is it important to only work from your “home office” setup to keep things productive?

Science

What is your reaction to the reputation of science these days, particularly at the highest levels of our government?

Are we a simulation?

What role do you think computation will play in the future of physics?

Software Technology

What is computational paradigm?

How do you define computation?

How is computing different from programming?

Wolfram Language

How is computing different from programming?

How has Mathematica changed over the past 30 years?

Why did you create Mathematica?