Neal Stephenson Quotes

It sucked to make my own CDs. I'm bad at that. It sucks to figure out how to power my amp. I don't know that stuff.

Technical understanding should be a core competency of any company.

Given a choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire.

The mobile phone is not a toy; it's a device that uses radio waves.

I'm a football manager, a football coach; I can't be expected to pontificate on everything.

With Gear, you're able to make calls and receive calls without ever taking your phone out of your pocket.

The first step in mobility was about letting people speak to each other; then, through 3G and 4G, we saw real connectivity - which works but isn't really designed for quality streaming. With 5G, we won't just be able to communicate better: it will democratise machines.

We need business leaders who have a respect for technical issues even if they don't have technical backgrounds. In a lot of U.S. industries, including cars and even computers, many managers don't think of technology as a core competency, and this attitude leads them to farm out technical issues.

Together, Cingular Wireless and Microsoft are working to revolutionize the way people communicate with mobile devices and set a new standard for personal connectivity.

We need a lot more technically literate people. The computers are the tools that are going to solve essentially all problems, and the people who can use them better will be more effective.

I'm not an IT expert myself.

I suspect that relatively few people will sit down and read 1250 pages [ of The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures.] all the way through from cover to cover. There may be some, but not everybody. But there are many, many, many different Christian, theological, pastoral, specialisms that are covered by one section or another of the book and this will become, therefore, a resource volume for many people.

I do make sure that I've got people who are experts that are helping me make the best decisions possible.

It's easy to get armchair analysts to talk, but to get people on the inside to talk is very, very hard.

Successful people, in all callings, never stop acquiring specialized knowledge related to their major purpose, business, or profession.

Did you ever notice that people who are good with a computer don't use it for much of anything except being good with a computer? They know all about information technology, but they don't have much interest in the information. I'm the opposite.

People all the time say, oh, if you only knew Hillary Clinton the way I know Hillary Clinton.

I love cell phones. I see people so happy and proud, walking around. Gesturing, you know. I'm like Karl Marx, I'm up for anything that makes people happy.

With photography, everything is in the eye and these days I feel young photographers are missing the point a bit. People always ask about cameras but it doesn't matter what camera you have. You can have the most modern camera in the world but if you don't have an eye, the camera is worthless. Young people know more about modern cameras and lighting than I do. When I started out in photography I didn't own an exposure meter - I couldn't , they didn't exist! I had to guess.

The essence of the expert is that his field shall be very special and narrow: one of the ways in which he inspires confidence is to rigidly limit himself to the little toe; he would scarcely venture an off-the-record opinion on an infected little finger.

There's the people who have one of these cell phones in their pockets and don't have a clue how it's made. But I really want to understand.

Technical people don't make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart.

Putting people in a room and strapping wires to their wrist to find out if I make them tingle when I'm telling them about Beirut is a long way from Edward R. Murrow.

We know enough to be sure that the scientific achievements of the next fifty years will be far greater, more rapid, and more surprising, than those we have already experienced. ... Wireless telephones and television, following naturally upon the their present path of development, would enable their owner to connect up to any room similarly equipped and hear and take part in the conversation as well as if he put his head in through the window.

It will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages around the world so simply that any individual can carry and operate his own apparatus.