I know it's TPB so I should have known this, but beware of this link at the office. If you don't have a good ad-blocker installed it will throw up some non-HR friendly popups!
I was lucky to get Graham as a professor for an undergrad discrete math course at UCSD. He's incredibly funny and besides his ability to juggle can also speak a fair amount of Mandarin. Definitely one of my more memorable classes.
I don't think it's the cost he's referring to. The fact that you could personally could be treated differently because of patent law would have a profound impact on the public perception of patent law. That could help lead to real reform of the system.
It's really sad that this is the case, but in the lab I worked for at a UC many of our costs were complete BS made up so that we could use up the full amount of our grant. The system encourages this behavior. The logic is completely flawed: If you don't use the money, then you obviously don't need it. Next time you won't receive the full amount from your grant. When your grant is millions of dollars over a few years, you end up having a lot of very nice dinners paid for with money that was meant to be used for research and education.
His answer the 1996 interview question with Wired about technology revolutionizing our lives definitely seems at odds with what we've listened to him tout about such things as the iPad.
I'm guessing you are referring to this passage, but I can only guess since you forgot to specify:
"Q: What's the biggest surprise this technology will deliver?
A: The problem is I'm older now, I'm 40 years old, and this stuff doesn't change the world. It really doesn't.
Q: That's going to break people's hearts.
A: I'm sorry, it's true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It's been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much - if at all.
These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I'm not downplaying that. But it's a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light - that it's going to change everything. Things don't have to change the world to be important.
The Web is going to be very important. Is it going to be a life-changing event for millions of people? No. I mean, maybe. But it's not an assured Yes at this point. And it'll probably creep up on people.
It's certainly not going to be like the first time somebody saw a television. It's certainly not going to be as profound as when someone in Nebraska first heard a radio broadcast. It's not going to be that profound."
15 years later...yeah, probably not an accurate call on "the web". But I think I sort of understand what he's trying to say. And am mindful that he was trying to be a bit provocative.
"Having children really changes your view on these things."
Did he? In true Apple form, we (at least I) know absolutely nothing about his private life. Only hint of offspring is on his new house blueprint marked "playroom".
I agree with this. Especially as we drift further away from Tim Berners-Lee's web towards the web as the evolution of network television and the entertainment industry.
