People I (Mostly) Admire 6. Nathan Myhrvold: “I Am Interested in Lots of Things, and That's Actually a Bad Strategy”
112 snips
Feb 7, 2026 
Nathan Myhrvold, inventor and former Microsoft CTO known for founding TerraPower and writing Modernist Cuisine, shares wide-ranging pursuits. He discusses studying with Stephen Hawking, creating radical clean-energy ideas like TerraPower and ocean-cooling pumps, the science behind high-temperature pizza baking, and how to nurture gifted kids while deciding when to quit and pivot.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Founding Intellectual Ventures
- Intellectual Ventures was founded to invent new technology and tackle broad problems like climate solutions and pizza optimization.
- The firm pursues diverse projects from airplane wing efficiency to AI in health.
Cool Surface Water To Defang Hurricanes
- Hurricanes derive power from very warm, unmixed surface water, so cooling or mixing that layer reduces storm intensity.
- A large floating pump concept—"Salter sink"—could mix cold deep water up to weaken storms, though adoption stalled.
Solve Practical Problems In Broken Systems
- Focus on problems where small, robust improvements save many lives, especially in broken systems.
- Work pragmatically within constraints to produce implementable solutions for the developing world.