185 Quotes by Nathan Myhrvold

Technological ‘revolutions’ don’t really overthrow anything – they simply append a new and dynamic market to that which went before.

Chefs think about what it’s like to make food. Being a scientist in the kitchen is about asking why something works, and how it works.

Efficiency in government is a more elusive concept than efficiency in the private economy, which may be measured relatively easily as output per units of input. What is the government’s ‘output?’

Regardless of how it’s done, transaction costs will continue to plummet as computers get more powerful. Low transaction costs are a wonderful thing if you’re in the transaction business. They’re wonderful for consumers too, making it cheaper and easier to buy things and creating new things to buy.

No CEO ever says, ‘Damnit, we need to increase research!’ I want to encourage them to do that.

Another random thing I do is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI. And you may be familiar with the movie ‘Contact,’ which sort of popularized that. It turns out there are real people who go out and search for extraterrestrials in a very scientific way.

People who grow up in a region doubtless have a better cultural awareness of their own cuisine, but it’s also true that a lot of locals go to McDonald’s, Applebee’s and the like.

Why pay a fee for Internet content when a million free sites are just a click away? There’s no incentive until people are too addicted to the Net to turn off their computers, yet are bored with what’s available.

I have a very pragmatic approach to diets. Ones you can’t stick to don’t do you any good. Some people say, ‘Just eat half of what’s on your plate,’ but I can’t do that!