Steve Jobs
Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked.
Marvin Minsky
Cognitive scientist; co-founder of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
People don’t have the slightest idea about how they do reasoning, and intuition is a polite word for guessing. And some people think that there’s some special kind of intuition which gives you the right answer in a magical way.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement interview, 4 May 2001
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Most people think that culture is something that happens to them, but what is important is that you take responsibility for culture — after all it's just a reflection of all of us, our every behavior and every action of ours.
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Interview originally given to Business Insider Polska, quoted by SmartCompany, 27 April 2017
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Mark Zuckerberg
Co-founder, chairman and chief executive of Meta Platforms
There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in 10 years while millions of students can’t afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business. Look, I know a lot of entrepreneurs, and I don’t know a single person who gave up on starting a business because they might not make enough money. But I know lots of people who haven’t pursued dreams because they didn’t have a cushion to fall back on if they failed. We all know we don’t succeed just by having a good idea or working hard. We succeed by being lucky too. If I had to support my family growing up instead of having time to code, if I didn’t know I’d be fine if Facebook didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be standing here today. If we’re honest, we all know how much luck we’ve had. Every generation expands its definition of equality. Previous generations fought for the vote and civil rights. They had the New Deal and Great Society. Now it’s our time to define a new social contract for our generation. We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful.
Recorded
Harvard University 366th Commencement, Harvard Gazette, 25 May 2017
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Sleep has to be, by far, the most underrated aspect of good health. I think sleeping less & working more is glorified. Life is like a marathon; if you run too fast and don't pace yourself, you can burn out, and you probably won't be able to finish strong.
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Kamath's own social account, Nithin Kamath's blog, 30 December 2022
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Lisa Su
Chair and chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices
Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like.
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MIT OneMIT Commencement, MIT News, 28 May 2026
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David Vélez
Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
I always say the Nubank story was very unlikely. It was a very low probability event. Again. We were going after these very big incumbent banks. Everybody told me, you know, you're Colombian. You have no idea what you're doing in Brazil. They're going to crush you. Like, don't. Just don't do it. And I did it mostly because everybody told me I couldn't do it. And so, if somebody tells me I can't do something, I want to go do it.
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John Waldron, Goldman Sachs Talks, Goldman Sachs (official event transcript)
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Of course, my decision faced plenty of criticism. One of my fellow Japanese CEOs went so far as to call the plan “stupid” – notable, in a country where executives do not generally criticize one another in the press. Clearly, I would have to fight an uphill battle for cultural acceptance. But I was not deterred. A seismic shift demands that we adapt to a new landscape, and a seismic economic shift is exactly what Japan has undergone in recent decades, driven by the forces of globalization and digitization. The only way to compete in this interconnected internet age is to speak the language of the market – and that language is English.
Recorded
Mikitani's own essay, originally published on LinkedIn, Inc. (republishing Mikitani's own LinkedIn essay)
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