Stephen Wolfram's Readme

Stephen Wolfram's Readme

Nanyi

Have you ever heard of Stephen Wolfram (Stephen Wolfram)?

Understand his experience and accomplishments?

I don't know much about him, but I read the following 2005-year speech, associating it with the knowledge engine Wolframalpha launched in 2009, and I think he's a real legend, academically, and probably a level with Hawking.

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Stephen Wolfram's Readme
　　----speech at the Y Combinator start-up School

Date: October 25, 2005

Location: Harvard University

Ruan Yi Feng

Original: http://www.stephenwolfram.com/publications/recent/ycombinatorschool/

This is the start-up school, so I think, I should tell you a little about my business.

As a child, I never thought about opening a company, I want to be a physicist.

(Figure I: 1964, 5 years old.) ）

In this respect, I am progressing very fast, and I can publish my paper at the age of 15.

(Figure II: 1976, 17 years old, at Eton School.) ）

I always thought that research must use the best tools. Computers were rare in Britain in the middle of the 70. The first time I contacted the computer, I used the paper tape. However, I quickly became a very powerful programmer.

In the next few years, I used computers extensively in physics research. Even though I was using the most advanced American computer at the time, we were constantly in trouble.

When I was 20 years old, I got my doctorate and the dream of becoming a physicist went well.

(Figure III: 1980, 21 years old, was hired by Caltech immediately after graduation.) ）

But I still want better tools, and I understand that the only way to do that is to build them myself. So, I did it.

In the 1979, the most fashionable computer language was C. The first version of the software tool took a year, with hundreds of thousands of lines of code. The main part I wrote, the rest was written by seven or eight other people, and about five or six people provided help.

At that time, I was a researcher at the California Institute of Technology. My first thought was to let the school help promote my software. The idea was so bad that it caused so many things. However, I do not intend to say these things here, only to tell you, I later understand that if you want to promote the software, you have to do it yourself.

(Figure four: 1981, 22 years old, boarded the New York Times.) ）

So I set up a company, but I still think of myself as a scholar.

When I knew nothing about business, I found a CEO and raised a lot of venture capital.

Soon, the company's management said to me: "We are professionals, these things let us manage it." "I tried to get involved in the company's operations, but I met with a lot of setbacks. I think a lot of business decisions are problematic, but powerless.

I remember, the biggest problem is the sales people everywhere. They want sales to be distributed across the United States, but I think our products are very complex, it is difficult to manage the sales staff in the field, and if there are significant business activities, they should be sent directly from Los Angeles to fly past.

I thought it was common sense, but I was told that I didn't know about business and I had better not meddle. It turned out that I was right, but it happened again and again, and I said to myself, "No, it's ridiculous, I have to get out of here." "

(Figure V: 1984, 25 years old, developed software runs on Sun-2 computers. ）

I went to Princeton to study a lot of interesting scientific questions and to do some high-tech consultants in my spare time.

You might want to know what happened to my first company. I tell you, every year as long as there is a new hotspot, venture capitalists let it follow. As a result, it loses money every year, but it raises more money every year.

In the end, around 1995, I received a large pile of documents from the company. I thought it went into bankruptcy, but it was shocking, and the truth is it's going to go public.

(Figure VI: 1984, 25 years old, with the famous physicist Feynman.) ）

or back to my own story, in the middle of the 80, I did a lot of basic research, mostly related to the origins of complexity (complexity). It seems that I can create a new field. This involves a lot of work, and I've been preaching about the so-called "complex system Research" (Complex systems study), trying to attract people into the field.

I set up a small company to publish professional magazines in this area. The magazine is actually still in circulation until today. Then, a research center was set up in a university. However, I have to be embarrassed to admit that only a few weeks later, I found that the management style of the university is not suitable for me.

If I really want to carry my discipline forward, the best strategy is to make the best tools for yourself and then use them for research.

It was 1986, and it was getting enough computing power to catch up with the PC.

I use a variety of different software to complete different studies. I have an idea that I might be able to make a general-purpose computing system, and then I'll just use it, and other people will think it's useful.

That's why I'm inspired to make Mathematica. I made up my mind to make it come out.

(Figure VII: 1988, the first Mathematica book.) ）

I know I need to set up a company.

I don't want to make a mistake when I first set up a company, and I don't want to repeat the mistakes I saw when I was a consultant. This time, I must be my own CEO, even if I make a mistake, but also according to their own ideas to act.

At that time, I had a little money, the first batch of staff recruited a lot of part-time, so I do not need external funds. It wasn't long before I reached an agreement with Next, Sun, IBM and their machines would support our software.

Before 1.5, in June 1988, the first edition of Mathematica was released, causing a sensation.

(Figure eight: 1988 running Mathematica's next computer.) ）

I remember, I had 15 employees at that time. I want to keep the size of a small company and just be a purely research and development company. Parts of sales and promotion (at least sales) are left to hardware companies to do.

It's a pity that this idea won't work. Although my desire is very good, but also made a lot of efforts, but the different company culture is too big. Soon I saw that everything had to be done by my own company.

Happily, things went well. Since then, the company has been developing well, has been more than 18 years, and continued profitability. I am still the CEO, has been trying to keep the company small, the core part of the company is only about 350 people.

Although small, but the company works very well. Over the past 17 years, with the help of Mathematica, countless new discoveries and new products have been made, most of the world's top developers are accustomed to using it, and many others are using it.

(Figure nine: In 1990, the Mathematica Monthly magazine began publishing.) ）

We have invented a lot of new technologies. I formed a stable team with a lot of talented people, and I really enjoyed working with them.

1991, the company has a good profit, it can be listed. But I decided not to go public. I hope it will always be my own company, so I can do what I want to do----those long-term projects, such as my scientific research.

I plan to spend a year in basic research. But like the first time people used telescopes, I put Mathematica into calculations and immediately saw a variety of unexpected and exciting discoveries. This has been going on for 10 years.

It sounds a little crazy. I get up late every day and manage the company remotely, it's already afternoon. Then, all night for scientific research.

I have gradually created a new subject. I wrote it systematically into a book that was eventually published in 2002.

(Fig. 10:2002, book a New Kind of science published.) ）

New science allows us to see a lot of the secrets of nature, and through the use of technology, we will do many things that we cannot imagine now. It's exciting and I'm glad I can do it in my life.

It is not easy to get to this point today. I was very fortunate to have been quite successful in science when I was very young, which allowed me to easily devote my life to scientific research.

I always wanted to be my own, making it inevitable for me to set up my own company. There is an exchange relationship, and if you are willing to do more boring things, you may earn more money, and if you don't care too much about money, you may get more intellectual pleasure.

I'm very happy with the situation: I'm doing something really interesting, and I'm making enough money to keep doing it.

(Fig. 11:1994, 35 years old, burying the manuscript.) ）

Since 2002, as my research has been published, I have focused on research tools, namely Mathematica.

As you know, Mathematica is built on a number of deep ideas about computation. Over the past decade, we have come to realize that these concepts and algorithms can be used not only to build Mathematica, but also to build something bigger. The final outcome will be very exciting, and I think it's more exciting than the first edition of Mathematica.

It's important that you really care about what you're doing. Recently, I spent a lot of time every day designing Mathematica, its language, its features, its interface, and so on. I'm trying to figure out the basic nature of these things, which I think is as difficult as scientific research. I try to do the basic things right, to be as concise and powerful as possible.

I'm looking for someone who can work with me. I give a lot of responsibility to others. However, if you want to keep the whole system coordinated and unified, then there are some things you have to do yourself. I insist on really understanding everything. You know, every time I do not understand, there will be a mistake.

I think this is a style of my management company. At first, everything is done by the CEO, slowly, and when you understand these things, you hire someone else to do it. But if you don't understand, delegating responsibility to other people, things can get worse.

Inevitably, companies (especially private companies) have a bit of a leader's personality. So, my company is a little weird, there are a lot of smart people, everyone is actually engaged in the creation, there is no pure sense of the manager. Everyone (including me) spends most of his time on creating new things.

(Fig. 12:2002, 43 years old, signed for the new book.) ）

That's my personal experience.

My experience is that you have to have something you really love and then you should be committed to driving it forward. If you're smart, you'll probably have the knack of running a company. To make your business successful, you need to find someone who really cares about the company to lead it. However, you cannot entrust the company's core motives to other people.

Stephen Wolfram's Readme