Water is the essence of life. On Earth it's used to grow plants and within industrial processes but in space it takes on a whole new form. We can use water as a radiation shield. One cubic metre of water gives the same protection as Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere. Water is a molecule made of hydrogen and oxygen- and that happens to be rocket fuel.
— Chris Lewicki“Winning is good, losing is bad! Do you want to be in the winner's locker room celebrating or in the losers with your head down and a towel around your neck? If you're winning, you can give back — to your family, institutions of your choice, and your local communities... If you're losing, your pockets are empty.”— Jack Welch
The quote archive
Innovation
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
The design and collaborative power of an individual engineer or technologist is more powerful than it's ever been. The tasks themselves are getting more accessible too. Putting a robotic spacecraft out into space is becoming fairly routine.
— Chris LewickiBubbles are driven by people piling into ideas now, that they think will make them lots and lots of money in the future. The more people that pile in, the more quickly innovation can spread... But if the capital is misallocated? then when the money meets common sense, you get a bust.
— Bob Swarup...adoption of random strategies diminishes the probability of extreme events (in this case large capital increases or great losses) but also ensures almost the same average wealth over a long time period, at variance with other technical strategies...
— ResearchersCrypto-currency is a means by which people can exchange property in a secure way without the use of a central institution like a bank or the Federal Reserve.
— Prof. Campbell HarveyDuke Finance Professor & Co-Developer of Campbell Harvey Market Timing Model
It is the difference between an investor asking, 'so, what's your product…' and 'so, what's your idea, and what steps can we take to turn that into a product.'
— William R. KerrViewing entrepreneurship as experimentation allows individuals and societies to evaluate businesses and technologies in domains with greater uncertainty than otherwise possible, unlocking deep growth opportunities.
— William R. KerrInvention has to be about the dream, there's an ingredient which you can't put in a business plan- it's intangible- but I saw it, it was there.
— Doug MenuezGuess what, it turns out that you can't make big-breakthroughs without crazy optimism and idealism! With the exception of Elon Musk, that attitude is largely missing right now.
— Doug MenuezIf you don't have some failures continually, it is a signal that you have retreated into the conservative past. Most people still interpret failure as an unfortunate thing to get to success, but this isn't actually what it means.
— Ed CatmullCo-Founder of Pixar & Pioneer in Computer Graphics
People should adopt a fearlessness where they are trying new things, but then accept that by doing this- a certain percentage of things will fail. Failure is not a necessary evil, but rather- it is a positive part of on-going progress.
— Ed CatmullCo-Founder of Pixar & Pioneer in Computer Graphics
What is the value of asking the right question to prompt the right answer? It would be difficult to find a sector that design and/or design thinking cannot impact.
— Chris BangleBMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s
Design is the great 're-configurer' of problems for business… for example design takes an engineering solution for transmitting signals called a phone and reconfigures it into a hyper complex problem of glass and metal shapes, etc.
— Chris BangleBMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s
Look at something like Uber... on balance- it's still a taxi service! In the end, what they designed was a different way to connect customers and a service provider using technology, leading to a better experience for both.
— Mitch Cohen80% of self-made billionaires we studied made their mark in mature, competitive markets. They weren't all 'exactly' new products that came out – they were maybe a variation of a business model or existing product that pleased the customer in a different way.
— Mitch CohenDon't aspire to be an entrepreneur. Aspire to create something that solves a problem. My message to young people with an idea is build a prototype and test it. Test it again and again, making the changes, learning from failure.
— Sir James DysonInventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer