Wisdom in fragments

I have complete humility in the face of the fact that my programming skills, as they were, are no longer economically viable as independent leverage for creating things.

The frontier models, especially when you run them in collaboration with each other, are better than virtually every programmer on Earth at a broad set of programming skills.

It's not just about things that I did and how powerful I ended up being. It's more about how unlikely the journey was.

It was classic Washington: lawmakers passed a bill so they'd have a positive talking point, and then put no effort into its execution.

Hyperfocus, for me, is so strong and so intense that the odds of being successful in that specific task go up substantially, because you're thinking about it twenty-four hours a day. Most people don't do that.

There's a sense I picked up from the Cuba experience that if you're not struggling, you're not really working. Life is a struggle. Don't be surprised. It's never going to be easy.

Leadership, ironically, in an era where everything is technology, is more important than ever.

How can I be against immigration when I came to this country as a refugee?

When politicians say, we are going to keep your factory open, knowing that there's no way that factory can compete in a globalised world, that also works against trust. What they should say is: you're going to lose your job because of what is happening around the world, and we have to retrain you. Nobody says that.

Do people trust that you will make the right decision for the company when the moment comes? Not the right decision for you, but the right decision for the company. And once you get it, it's an amazing thing to have. But you can lose it very easily.

I did sacrifice everything else. In my mind, it's part of the price you pay. They say some people find their self-esteem in different places. I found my self-esteem in work.

The thing about luck is that you have to have the skill to recognise it. Because we all have fortunate circumstances in front of us, but sometimes we don't see them.

I communicate through design rather than long interviews like this. I hope the story is told through the objects.

What happens if your legacy was that you created a new era, like the Renaissance? That would be cool. Very, very ambitious, but super fun to explore.

This is a safe zone for us, so let us move to an unsafe zone and do something new.

A lot of people, when they create an object, do an analysis of what will sell, rather than what they believe in themselves.