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July 2016
A Peek Inside the Moonshot Factory
Ever since we started as Google[x] in 2010, X has had a single mission: to invent and launch “moonshot” technologies that we hope could someday make the world a radically better place. We developed a simple blueprint to help us find ideas that could deliver 10x impact...
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January 2013
Moonshots Matter
Here is the surprising truth: It is often easier to make something 10 times better than it is to make it 10 percent better. Yes... really. Because when you are working to make things 10 percent better, you inevitably focus on the existing tools...
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January 2012
The Speed of Dreams
It is easy to make fun of the past. Remember when Thomas Watson, the head of IBM, said that the world would only ever need five computers? How about when DEC founder Ken Olsen, declared, 'There is no reason for any individual ...
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August 2008
The Mother of Invention
Why would a Hertz Fellow be working in the finance area? In my opinion, the answer is simple: the greatest advances in science and engineering come in the context of solving extremely difficult problems whose solutions really matter.
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October 2005
On Board with Astro Teller, CEO of BodyMedia
Healthcare isn't working in this country and it's getting worse. Costs are rising at 10 to 20 percent per year and as a nation, we're actually getting sicker by most standards. At the rate we're going, this will bankrupt all our major corporations...
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June 2001
Sequencing the Human Lifestyle
Ever-expanding knowledge of human behavior, which is being gathered as a side-effect of the increasing use of wearable monitors, is set to have a huge impact on health care.
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June 2001
Writing Isn't the Future of Writing
My 5-year-old daughter recently asked me about the habits of leopard seals. We went to Google and immediately had thousands...
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August 2000
War Stories: User friendly in and out of the office
The underlying methodology for product development at BodyMedia is a process known as user-centered design. This is the process of crafting the experience of use for the user, rather than focusing on technology or marketing details that so often lead companies astray. We have tried hard at BodyMedia to apply this same methodology to creating BodyMedia "the company" and BodyMedia "the culture." Our belief is that...
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June 2000
War Stories: Pittsburgh almost loses one
Last winter, BodyMedia came extremely close to relocating to Boston. An unusual byproduct of the event was the discovery that almost the entire company actually wanted to stay in Pittsburgh. The pressure built up in this situation brought out the true colors of both the VC firm in Boston and our city.
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March 1998
Smart Machines and Why We Fear Them
The cultural definition of artificial intelligence -- or A.I., as it is known -- goes something like this: "A.I. is the science of how to get machines to do the things they do in the movies." No wonder the subject makes some people nervous. The popular media portray artificial intelligence as one of the heights of human accomplishment, but also as an inevitable catalyst for the downfall of our species. From Frankenstein through HAL to "The Terminator," our culture enjoys wallowing in the fear of our creations.