Star Simpson
I like building physical things and making tools. I like ideas.
I fly gliders whenever I can.
I studied electrical engineering at MIT.
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Photo by Adafruit (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)
The baby photo — Hawaii, 1990

Let me tell you how much I still love a good mango.

A specialist is a barbarian whose ignorance is not well-rounded.
Stanislaw Lem, "His Master's Voice"
In the beginning, hardware was open. Early consumer electronic products, such as vacuum tube radios, often shipped with user manuals that contained full schematics, a list of replacement parts, and instructions for service. In the 80′s, computers often shipped with schematics. For example, the Apple II shipped with a reference manual that included a full schematic of the mainboard, an artifact that I credit as strongly influencing me to get into hardware. However, contemporary user manuals lack such depth of information; the most complex diagram in a recent Mac Pro user instructs on how to sit at the computer: "thighs slightly lifted", "shoulders relaxed", etc.
I don't believe in free will, even though I use it. Kind of like petroleum.
Tim Anderson (in personal communication)
Richard Gabriel, "The Art of Lisp & Writing"
“Is it worth it?” asked the system administrators. “Is your precious science worth the costs?” Is it? I would argue yes. While running climate simulations on a machine using megawatts of power to pin down climate change may seem a tad ironic, the reality is these machines are also powering simulations informing our nuclear fusion and alternative energy research. And astrophysics? That I’ll be talking more about, of course, but my basic belief is that pursuing a subject like theoretical physics, pushing the boundaries of human knowledge of the cosmos ever beyond our imaginations, is one of the things that make our climate and humanity so precious. In Robert Wilson’s words: “Senator, particle physics research is not likely to aid in the defense of our nation, but it will make our nation worth defending.”

But I will take the system administrators pleas to heart. While the support community tackles the greening of the infrastructure, out of financial and environmental necessity, I can do my part by always being mindful of the consequences of my code design and implementation, however abstract it may be at the inception. A bad algorithm or a poor debugging strategy is a waste of an afternoon on the smaller scale, but on the petascale can have a serious negative environmental impact.
"I said, 'I'm paying my tuition to have the entire faculty as business consultants. I recognize that is not consistent with your model, which is, You know better than I and I have to take this much math and these electives, and all that stuff is valuable, but right now I'm focused, I'm allowed to make a rational decision, I can pay you this tuition and avail myself of this extraordinary faculty, but I'm not going to waste my time in class because the opportunity costs would be too high.'"
"At the time we started Genentech, there was no such thing as genetic engineering. I said, 'what if God or Darwin won't let us make a new life form?'"
Tom Perkins, "Something Ventured" (2011)
Gilbert Keith Chesterton via The Atlantic
"Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong. People know what they are not good at more often — and even there people are more often wrong than right. And yet, one can only perform with one's strengths. … There is only one way to find out: the feedback analysis. Whenever one makes a key decision, and whenever one does a key action, one writes down what one expects will happen. And nine months or twelve months later, one then feeds back from results to expectations. I have been doing this for some fifteen to twenty years now. And every time I do it, I am surprised. And so is every one who has ever done this.
Peter Drucker, "The Essential Drucker"
Grace Hopper
Why did I leave MIT, move to San Francisco, and start a reality TV show with three guys I barely knew? I wish I could say I had some preconceived idea that it would turn into a great company, which it ultimately did, but that was just luck.

The truth is that I was sold on the opportunity to build cool hardware. My due diligence on the team consisted of googling Justin and Emmett to make sure they weren’t business school predators or serial crackpots.
Taking a real job is almost like a paid vacation from startups.
Rhett Creighton (in personal communication)
A symptom to look for is the recurrent "crisis," the crisis that comes back year after year. A crisis that happens a second time is a crisis that must not occur again.
Peter Drucker, "The Essential Drucker"
I show up in my writing room at approximately 10 a.m. every morning without fail. Sometimes my muse sees fit to join me there and sometimes she doesn't, but she always knows where I'll be. She doesn't need to go hunting in the taverns or on the beach or drag the boulevard looking for me. Sitting around waiting for inspiration is for amateurs. If you're a professional, you go to work every day, even though frequently it seems more like play than work, which is what keeps me doing it.
Tom Robbins, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"
Chris Knight, ("Real Genius", 1985)
- Monomania is a prerequisite of success
- Lack of charisma can be fatal
- Protect me from what I want
Jenny Holzer, various installations
You'll never make the grade unless you are decisive: even a timely wrong decision is better than no decision. The final thing you'll need to know is: don't half-heartedly wound problems — kill them dead. That's all there is to it.
Kelly Johnson, via "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed"
If you can see a bandwagon, it's too late to jump on.
James Goldsmith, (source sought)
Jack Canfield, "The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be"
Ira Glass
Confidence. The study of an unknown bioluminescence system is not routine work. During the study, the work will encounter various difficulties and problems that need to be solved in order to make progress. Some of them might be easily solved, but some might take weeks or months to resolve, although all difficulties will eventually be overcome if one persists. If you persist and manage to solve a difficult problem, you will build confidence in yourself, which will empower you to solve further difficulties. Therefore, it is important to solve the first difficult problem you encounter. If you give up once, you will probably give up the next time.
Osamu Shimomura, "Bioluminscence: Chemical Principles and Methods"
M: How much should you write in a day?


M: All right.

E.H.: Always stop when you are going good and donʼt think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start. Once you are into the novel it is as cowardly to worry about whether you can go on to the next day as to worry about having to go into inevitable action. You have to go on. So there is no sense to worry. You have to learn that to write a novel. The hard part about a novel is to finish it.
Ernest Hemingway on overcoming writer's block; "Monologue to the Maestro: A High Seas Letter"
This sentence is made of lead (and a sentence of lead gives a reader an entirely different sensation from one made of magnesium). This sentence is made of yak wool. This sentence is made of sunlight and plums. This sentence is made of ice. This sentence is made from the blood of the poet. This sentence was made in Japan. This sentence glows in the dark. This sentence was born with a caul. This sentence has a crush on Norman Mailer. This sentence is a wino and doesn't care who knows it. Like many italic sentences, this one has Mafia connections. This sentence is a double Cancer with a Pisces rising. This sentence lost its mind searching for the perfect paragraph. This sentence refuses to be diagrammed. This sentence ran off with an adverb clause. This sentence is 100 percent organic: it will not retain a facsimile of freshness like those sentences of Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe et al., which are loaded with preservatives. This sentence leaks. This sentence doesn't look Jewish... This sentence has accepted Jesus Christ as its personal savior. This sentence once spit in a book reviewer's eye. This sentence can do the funky chicken. This sentence has seen too much and forgotten too little. This sentence is called "Speedoo" but its real name is Mr. Earl. This sentence may be pregnant. This sentence suffered a split infinitive - and survived. If this sentence has been a snake you'd have bitten it. This sentence went to jail with Clifford Irving. This sentence went to Woodstock. And this little sentence went wee wee wee all the way home.
Tom Robbins, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"
Have specific questions? Want to get in touch?

Please introduce yourself — I'm stars@mit.edu

Star Simpson 2012