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

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (May 11, 2022) »

1 hour 2 minutes

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Would you agree that the way you succeed matters a lot in regards to whether you get to enjoy your success or not? How do you mold your environment to create good working habits? What's the best passive way to make money (stock trading, investing, etc.) and how stable is it? It's a matter of time. If you spend a lot of time on investments, you won't have time for research and other projects. Any thoughts on managing people's personalities on a project? What is your approach when exploring a new topic or learning a new technology, e.g. note taking, practice, recall? On the same note, I believe that a great team makes great products, not great individuals. Have you found this to be true in your products? View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (April 27, 2022) »

1 hour 18 minutes

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Do you take work problems home? What are your thoughts about a balanced work life? What is a "shocking" meeting? What do you think of Elon Musk buying Twitter? It's like voting for algorithms in elections! Algorithm personalities or bias will be increasingly important, I think. Now that I think of it, a "master AI" will basically mimic a human—a "well-rounded" human derived from all the info out there. The real world is also highly dynamic, so one AI might be ideal for a while, and then another will be better. When something seems to be a mishmash of complicated spaghetti code, it's often because the obvious and simple solution is being dismissed early on for mistaken reasons. No code is the best code in the case of Twitter ranking algorithms. Just let users do it with sorting/filters! It's pretty funny watching people get excited about Twitter again. How can we avoid the world becoming an electronic panopticon when everything goes digital (currency, ID, AI government...)? [Several comments mentioning the Ministry of Truth] I do think the marketplace approach isn't a bad option, but it seems like the optimal way to do that is just to reopen the Twitter API and let different people create clients. You end up with a social network as good as the people in the network. I don't think you can elevate people by moderating what they are allowed to say. I don't think you can avoid bias; it's just inherent to language and minimally complex knowledge units. Bias should be a feature more than something to avoid. It's more useful to understand bias than to attempt to neutralize it. What tools do you use to get refocused? How do you set yourself up for more creative exploratory activities? View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (April 13, 2022) »

1 hour 14 minutes

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Did you have any fun April Fools' Day occurrences this year? What is the best April Fools' joke you've been a part of or experienced? Do you enjoy traveling? Is there anywhere you haven't been yet that you've always wanted to visit? Good food is an added benefit also. Travel tip: I always have a big snack hidden in my bag, just in case. There is nothing wrong with chocolate (no matter what the truth is). These days, people don't remember portable computers being 10+ pounds. I'm curious: did you ever own old Toshibas? This is what I feel we are on the cusp of. Less rigid paradigms like general media consumption have ballooned (look at Twitch). I hope to see the day that unknown citizen scientists can democratically do research with thousands of others, and get compensated for that research. Absolutely. I can only feel like academia is on its way out, and more sophisticated platforms will emerge for collaboration. View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (March 16, 2022) »

1 hour 19 minutes

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If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Any business/scientific reason why that place? University vs. experience in programming and computer science: which one is more valuable? How do you manage technical debt? What advantages come from using Wolfram Language as in-house code? How do you manage technical debt in Java codebases? Good afternoon, Dr. Wolfram. How do you cope with the stress of releasing new products? As it is very hard to judge the success beforehand, do you have any techniques to reduce that stress? If you were never allowed to use Wolfram Language, what would you use? Do you find that innovation is largely driven from within, or is it largely external (e.g. your users push you for more features)? How does Stephen see the current co-creation space and how can we bring the benefits to smaller businesses with smaller budgets? What is the best way to fund a research project? Would you always have to artificially describe some midterm future application of your research to sell a business plan to some investors? View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (March 2, 2022) »

1 hour 34 minutes

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Does Stephen play any musical instruments? Would you consider songs formal systems? I've been imagining a multiway graph for all of the chords on a guitar. How do you think the behavior of innovation changes with scale? That is, what's the difference in innovation between startups, small businesses and enterprises? Do you have electronic-off days or time windows (no electronic communication and no computers, etc.)? How do you deal with back pain or eye strain from reading too much? If you started your business again, what would you avoid or do differently? As we are eliminating jobs at light speed, how do you think society will cope with mass unemployment after we can automate the majority of trade-related jobs? How did you manage the sales side when you started that first company? If you were to go back in time, would you be able to get the world to 2020 tech within 20 years? But what happens in the future when we have AIs that can simulate realities that are indistinguishable from reality? What if you can simulate people doing jobs? Does Stephen Wolfram think that people should specialize in education earlier? Instead of taking general classes in high school, focus on one field and get to an undergrad level of education earlier? Didn't Feynman study Mayan hieroglyphs? Can an old dog learn new tricks (i.e. can a middle-aged person learn math and programming and be successful anywhere near someone who started when they were young)? What innovations, if any, do you think may be most useful for K–12 public education in the US? View Less »

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A:

Business, Innovation and Managing Life (February 16, 2022) »

1 hour 23 minutes

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What are your thoughts on GDPR legislation and the general hostility toward cloud technologies in the EU? Lots of tech companies are getting huge fines these days. Your hair is looking sharp today, looks like a fresh cut. What are your thoughts on the grooming habits of scientists and technologists? Any correlation with grooming/dress and productivity? Can you talk about the perception of CEOs within their own companies and in the public eye? How can one maintain one's leadership and reputation when thousands of people rely on one's decisions? Have you ever felt that you were working on too many projects at one time? I am developing three different products now. I love the challenge, but is one project at a time better in your experience? What is your ideal business size? How many employees? Is there a sweet spot? What's your rule of thumb to change your mind? Your record of being a WFH CEO is unique. Has the pandemic changed how you have been CEOing? If you don't mind me asking, Stephen, what do you do to relax and unwind from your business? What's the best way to organize thoughts, ideas, pieces of code, frameworks and projects when there are hundreds? View Less »

Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Business, Innovation & Managing Life Q&A (87 videos)