kottke.org

...is a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0 edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998 (archives). You can read about me and kottke.org here. If you've got questions, concerns, or interesting links, send them along.

2 kottke.org posts about nathanmyhrvold

 

Nathan Myhrvold in the north

Nathan Myhrvold, billionaire polymath, recently wrote a series of three posts for the Freakonomics blog about his trips to Iceland and Greenland.

I'd like to say that global warming was evident during my visit, but that is not really the case. Indeed, [my guide] Salik tells me that he and most Greenlanders are pretty skeptical about it. The local fishing industry used to be based on arctic prawns, but the sea temperature has changed just enough that the prawns are much further north, so now they fish for cod.

But, as Salik points out, this cycle has happened several times in living memory. The same with the glaciers: yes they are retreating, but at least in his area, they have yet to reach the limits that the locals remember them. Objective measurements do show that climate change is happening. Nevertheless I was amused that the locals don't seem to think it is such a big deal.

The photos are worth a look by themselves.

Ideas in the air

In last week's New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell talked about inventions, scientific discovery, and how it's possible to "manufacture" ideas.

In 1999, when Nathan Myhrvold left Microsoft and struck out on his own, he set himself an unusual goal. He wanted to see whether the kind of insight that leads to invention could be engineered. He formed a company called Intellectual Ventures. He raised hundreds of millions of dollars. He hired the smartest people he knew. It was not a venture-capital firm. Venture capitalists fund insights -- that is, they let the magical process that generates new ideas take its course, and then they jump in. Myhrvold wanted to make insights -- to come up with ideas, patent them, and then license them to interested companies.

Myhrvold believes that scientific discovery is largely "in the air" and inevitable, not the product of individual genius. Given the thesis of the piece, as Kevin Kelly notes, it's odd that Gladwell tells the story of this new idea as not one that was "in the air" but as stories like these are traditionally told, through the insight of one man, Nathan Myhrvold.

kottke.org, quickly...

The best way to get a sense of what kottke.org is all about is to head to the front page or check out some random entries from the archives.

Looking for work?

See more on the Job Board.

Tags, tags, tags

Many posts on kottke.org have been "tagged" with keywords, which activity results in collections of related posts like sports, infoviz, or best of.

Recently popular tags (last 3 weeks)

this is a metaphor for something (5)    The 2000s (8)    post updates (37)    video (734)    science (629)    photography (817)    books (731)    food (659)    art (387)    music (402)    lists (638)    movies (1062)    weblogs (354)    sports (484)    NYC (693)

All-time popular tags

movies (1062)    photography (817)    video (734)    books (731)    NYC (693)    food (659)    lists (638)    science (629)    design (610)    sports (484)    music (402)    art (387)    business (381)    best of (368)    TV (367)

Useful favorites

photography (817)    economics (199)    lists (638)    best of (368)    infoviz (163)    food (659)    NYC (693)    firstworldproblems (4)    cities (135)    restaurants (187)    video (734)    timelapse (2)    interviews (255)    language (272)    maps (231)    fashion (162)    NSFW (62)    remix (204)

Random tags

oliversacks (2)    berndandhillabecher (3)    dvr (2)    comics (36)    windupbirdchronicle (2)    Jeff Veen (11)    marijuana (3)    Blogger (10)    cancer (6)    dungeonsanddragons (2)    scottrosenberg (2)    hotels (7)    nicholascage (2)    Flying Spaghetti Monster (6)    jessethorn (2)