GORDON MOORE

With engineering, I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again. Failures are not something to be avoided. You want to have them happen as quickly as you can so you can make progress rapidly.

If everything you try works, you aren't trying hard enough.

Most of what I learned as an entrepreneur was by trial and error.

If you'd asked me in 1980 what the big impact of microprocessors would be, I probably would have missed the PC. If you asked me in 1990 what was important, I probably would have missed the Internet.

I define myself as the accidental entrepreneur.

Moore's law is really about economics.

The technology at the leading edge changes so rapidly that you have to keep current after you get out of school. I think probably the most important thing is having good fundamentals.

I had cataract surgery a while back.

I think Caltech fills a unique role, and it's not a cheap one. Their small size allows them to do interdisciplinary work a lot more effectively than anyplace else I know. The bigger universities get cast into silos.

The computer is really a useful gadget for consuming time.

It is extremely unlikely that anyone coming out of school with a technical degree will go into one area and stay there. Today's students have to look forward to the excitement of probably having three or four careers.

With engineering, I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again. Failures are not something to be avoided. You want to have them happen as quickly as you can so you can make progress rapidly.

The technology at the leading edge changes so rapidly that you have to keep current after you get out of school. I think probably the most important thing is having good fundamentals.

I remember the difficulty we had in the beginning replacing magnetic cores in memories and eventually we had both cost and performance advantages. But it wasn't at all clear in the beginning.

I define myself as the accidental entrepreneur.

I think Caltech fills a unique role, and it's not a cheap one. Their small size allows them to do interdisciplinary work a lot more effectively than anyplace else I know. The bigger universities get cast into silos.

I had cataract surgery a while back.

Yes, from the time I was in junior high school I decided I wanted to be a chemist. I didn't quite know what a chemist was, but I kept it up and got my Ph.D. in physical chemistry.

The computer is really a useful gadget for consuming time.

My first job out of school was to do basic research at Johns Hopkins University's applied physics lab.

Most of what I learned as an entrepreneur was by trial and error.

Moore's law is really about economics.

If you'd asked me in 1980 what the big impact of microprocessors would be, I probably would have missed the PC. If you asked me in 1990 what was important, I probably would have missed the Internet.

No physical quantity can continue to change exponentially forever. Your job is delaying forever.

One thing a leader does is to remove the stigma of mistakes.

If everything you try works, you aren't trying hard enough.