NW: Getting off the subject for a bit, what do you feel is the future of large-scale projects?
RK: There's room for all size projects [and] there's a tremendous amount of capital available for all size projects. Certainly there's a tremendous explosion of little companies that are exploring all kinds of creative ideas. As some of them show viability they have opportunity to attract very large sums of capital. The Internet together with emerging computational resources are definitely going to transform all the old business models. Virtually every company has had to restructure itself, so the entire economy is at the disposal of these new technologies. There's plenty of opportunity to do very large-scale projects. But there's also the ferment of tremendous amounts of creative effort by thousands of little projects. The real scale of it is thousands of times greater than it was twenty-five years ago when I first started.
NW: What low tech devices do you still use that people might not expect you to use (for instance, a Filofax instead of a PalmPilot)?
RK: I keep my to-do list on a piece of paper. I word process it periodically. I have it on several sheets of paper. I highlight them, I check them off, and I write some new items in pen. Maybe once a month I'll go back and update this file… I tried a PalmPilot, which I though was hopelessly slow at data entry. I think when we get viable voice recognition on these hand-held devices it might be viable but it's just incredibly slow at data entry. The device is just too slow and the screen too hard to read. I do make a habit of trying new technology just as part of being a student of technology. I just didn't find the PalmPilot satisfactory.
NW: What do you feel are your responsibilities are to Nerds Worldwide?
RK : I try to do projects that have worthwhile cultural or social purpose. What excites me is not so much abstract formulas. What excites me is the sort of link between dry formulas on a blackboard and actually having some transforming effect on people's lives. The projects I've taken on are focused on changing some aspect of our social or cultural lives. I've also tried to build organizations where people really enjoy working… We try to put together teams where everybody loves to be a part of it and are devoted to the mission and who work well together. Teams we've put together are still together.
NW: Do you have any special clothing, music or other talismans that you use to inspire your creative work?
RK: Well, I'm not usually wearing anything when I do my creative work [laugh]. I [do] have a specific approach to doing creative work that I've used for several decades. When I go to sleep I assign myself a problem, it can be any kind of problem. It could be some algorithmic solution to some formulas, it could be some business strategy problem, it could be an organizational problem, and it could be an interpersonal problem. I specifically try not to solve [the problem] because that would drown the creative process, but I do try to think, "What do I know about this? What attributes would a solution have? What am I looking for? What are some of the constraints?" I just review what I know about the problem and then I go to sleep. Two things happen. One, when I get up I'll invariably have some new insight into the issue. Freud said that when we're dreaming, our senses are relaxed and we basically shut off those portions of our mind that tell us what we're not allowed to think about. So a lot of taboos will emerge in our dream and we'll do and think things we don't allow ourselves to do while we're awake; sometimes we don't even remember them because the taboos are so strong against even thinking about some of these things. Some of these taboos [impose] constraints on why you can't solve a problem a certain way. A lot of professionals in every field - engineers, doctors, lawyers - learn to shut down certain creative approaches to problems due to the constraints of professional thinking in their field.
By thinking about problems without those senses you can really find creative solutions to them. But what's really effective is that period of time when you're awakening. You realize you're conscious and you could will yourself to get up, but you choose not to and you're really still in a dreamlike state. It's a period of lucid dreaming. You dream can even continue, but you now also have your conscious faculties. One of the advantages of this dreamlike state is that your senses are relaxed, but the disadvantage is that your rational faculties are not operating. In this lucid dreaming state you have both. You're conscious enough to have your logical faculties but you're also still in the dreamlike state where you've relaxed the restrictions to creative thinking. I really try to stay in that state as long as I can. I find it [to be] a fantastically creative time. I've come up with inventions in that state and solved difficult problems, whether they were formulas or business strategies, I've written speeches in a few minutes in that state. I can really get a tremendous amount done and have great clarity of thought. So then after I do get up, all I'm doing is really just carrying out the decisions I've made in this dream state. I would say most of my creative thinking is done in that state.
NW: And now for a taste of James Lipton…Favorite word?
RK: Singularity.
NW: Most hated word?
RK: Compromise.
