Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A (76 videos)

Biweekly ask-me-anything about business, innovation & managing life

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Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:
Business, Innovation and Managing Life (October 23, 2024) »

1 hour 12 minutes

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What are your top picks for "startup ideas for Mathematica users"? What's the future looking like for entrepreneurial business ventures and technology ones in particular, given what's happening with tools, capital, etc.? More solopreneurs? More big VC? Neither? In business, do you think it is better to try and start a business with a totally new idea that hasn't been done before or to reinvent an old idea your way? How do you advise young people with a similar all-consuming, intrinsic compulsion as yours, be it in their quest for knowledge/understanding or otherwise, and going about their careers/lives? If you're debating the efficiency of algorithm design with your team, how do you navigate conflicting feedback? Do you have an innately good memory or do you use memory tricks? Did you ever play an instrument? How do you develop speed reading and improve memory for a student or anyone who wishes to be better off intellectually? What financial advice would you offer to someone developing a new business idea with limited capital? ​​​​When you run a business that provides a web service to international users, are you bound to comply with the laws of all countries from where the service is accessed? Learning to ask better questions seems to be arguably more relevant than ever before. How do you learn to ask better questions? View Less »
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Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:
Business, Innovation and Managing Life (October 9, 2024) »

1 hour 28 minutes

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Can you comment on the recent Nobel Prizes? Do you think you'll ever try to win a Nobel Prize? Are this year's Nobel Prize nominations a kind of interim step toward Nobel Prizes awarded to AI "entities" (rather than programs)? I'm not that fond of prizes, because there's many people out there that deserve it as much as they do. There's no need to waste too much time on it, since they probably already got the recognition. I mean, I'm more interested in understanding the contributions rather than the prizes themselves. Its like... OK. So what? They got a prize that somebody else wanted to give them... What software do you use for the graphs/illustrations in your books? I always find the illustrations in your posts, books, blog to be aesthetically pleasing, and I'd like to reproduce that. The combinations of colors are amazing. Did you take any special course on visual representation of concepts or something? What is your advice for attending technology conferences as a student? ​​​​Do you have general advice for university students (in my case I am a CS student) that do not necessarily have the confidence to begin a big project? What has made you happy or is the best thing about running a business? What do you think about literature? About fiction books? What are some of your favorite books? What are some you would recommend? Do you think it is important to read fiction? Have you ever been to Japan, Stephen? How did you come up with your new blog about time? Recently some friends' daughter was sharing enthusiastically what she was passionate about career-wise, and it crushed my soul that it was being taken over by AI already... what's one to say? I'm learning about AI models right now. And I've come to the point where I am adjusting hyperparameters a lot, which is driving me nuts. Do you have any advice on what to do with this? What gave you the confidence to work hard on your vision before you saw any external validation/success? What is your advice for the people who are "not good employees"? How do they get to do their own things in their own way, but still contribute value and "make a living"? View Less »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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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 »
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