Here’s video of my speech to the 2016 USA Science and Engineering Festival.
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Video of my speech to the 2016 USA SEF
21 thoughts on “Video of my speech to the 2016 USA SEF”
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Can’t wait to be inspired if I’m not inspired thou I want my money back 🙂
Bravo, Wil !
Awesome speech! I imagine you inspired many. Good on you.
Amazing, thoughtful speech! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
Great speech! You mistake RAM with flash memory but, as a PhD. in computer science and engineering, I endorse each and everyone of your words. Very insightful and very inspiring. Overall, a very very very important message. Thank you 🙂
RAM or Random Access Memory describes an access method not a memory type. FLASH memory is a type of NV-RAM (NV=Non Volatile) while FLASH is a label for the storage process used to change the memory data values. So FLASH is a type of RAM even though the term RAM has become associated in most peoples minds with volatile memory only.
I’m afraid that’s not how it works. First of all, if you say “non-volatile RAM” to a memory guy, he’ll think about STT, ReRAM, MRAM and the like, never about NAND-flash, which is the technology used in most pendrives.
Also, if you consider that memory is RAM simply because you can access data randomly, then everything but tapes are RAM, and that’s not right, is it? Likewise, if you go to the strict meaning of the words one by one, very few (if any, nowadays) ROMs are actually ROMs; in fact, words like EEPROM, which appear in the datasheets (and you can’t be more technical than that) are an oxymoron. In fact, if you use your non-canonical semantics for “RAM” then the Atari 400 didn’t have 4KB of RAM; it had 14KB because it also had a 10KB ROM which, incidentally, can also be accessed randomly.
Whenever someone is talking about the RAM of a computer is always undoubtedly talking about main memory. Not the boot “ROM” (notice the quotes), not the secondary storage: always the main memory, and that’s not a “most peoples minds” thing, it’s a non-ambiguous technical term, you’re talking about a more or less wide range of technologies with a very specific role in a computer. When you compare the main memory of a computer (4KB in an Atari 400) with the storage available in an external device, you are comparing apples and oranges.
You can’t reduce the meaning of words to whatever you like, semantics doesn’t work like that. For instance, the word bizarre comes from the Italian “bizzarro”, which doesn’t mean “weird” but “irritable”. Still, the semantics is more complex than pure etymology. Likewise, the meaning of these nominalized acronyms can’t be reduced to the original meaning (back in the early days of electronics, when you actually had RAM that was different from any other type of memory just because of the access method, and I’m talking way before the 70s). If RAM were simply memory that can be accessed randomly, it would be an absolutely useless term, which is far from the truth 🙂
Thank you for posting your awesome speech for the rest of us to see. As an engineer and programmer I have always regarded my work as equally artistic and scientific. Looking back at what has been created over the last three decades I cannot even imagine what the next three will hold. But I am very excited to see as much as I can.
Thanks for this Wil. As someone with a foot in both the arts and STEM, I love seeing more and more people pushing for the STEAM route. My employer has joined in and I couldn’t be happier about the results. Keep spreading the word, brother.
Wil, I just got the chance to listen to your speech—so inspiring! My granddaughter is just graduating high school and then will be attending Montana State where she is going into Chemical Engineering and is very excited about the possibilities for her in science….and yes, she also loves to draw and Larp and create characters so in her life she has made Stem into Steam. Having that artistic outlet has been very good for her.
Thank you for posting the video–it was great to watch you so genuinely enthused about what you were talking about. You convey so clearly what is important–well done, you!!
I read your speech when you posted it earlier, but it’s impact is much greater when I can see your face and how excited you are and how much you truly believe what you’re saying. Whenever I watch videos of YOU speaking I always enjoy it, because it’s more. I don’t know how to expand on that. It’s just more, more you, and more fun, and more heartfelt, and more honest. It’s just more. You enthusiasm only makes you point stronger and more poignant. Can’t wait to see and hear more from you.
P.S. Just finish listening to Ready player One, AMAZING performance of an amazing book. Can’t wait for the film, hope Spielberg is able to capture the scope of Cline’s amazing world. And also hope that you at least get a cameo if not a major role, heck I’d love it if you were Parzival, even if you are a couple years older than the character.
This was a great way to start my day. Thank you for the wonderful uplifting speech.
In the area where I live, the colleges and schools are phasing out art classes. It makes no sense when everyone is trying to build better science classes. I’ve known for a while that art and science are linked.
For the last ten years I’ve been making plans of building a Tiny home. They are illegal out here. Because of your speech, I’m thinking of taking college classes so I can make my house eventually when I can afford it.
I forgot to also tell you that MIT has opensource college material online for FREE.
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
Wil, you have always been my hero. This speech is something that as a counselor-in-training I want to show to my future advisees and their parents so that they understand what they can do. Thank you. <3
Thank you for tweeting this link again. I did miss it the first time ’round. Prince just died, and I needed this inspiring diversion from THAT news. #STEAM!
Thank you so much for posting this, Wil. I really enjoying listening to your speech and it does inspire, even though I’m one of the older people in the world. It gives me that determination to go one and fight.
I am so HAPPY you shared this
As a woman who has worked in a biological lab for almost 20 years, I have been proud to work for a drug company that has been small enough to be extremely innovative and create big achievements in the scientific community. When we have been presented by limitations either by the biology of our work or by the machines we use to help us, we always think outside the box to make science work for us and answer our questions. Don’t think/talk about it but DO it. So much so that this mentality has become part of our culture.
We have a CEO who proudly supports our local community STEM and STEAM programs for there is definitely an art to science. We have a Chief Scientific Officer who always says “Stay Innovative” just like you would say “Play More Games”. Even though it is a job and the day to day grind can be challenging, I am extremely proud to be a part of this company and hope my contributions help touch lives in some form.
An excellent pep talk for us in the lab as well Wil. Thank you.
Wil, I want to start out by saying that you are my hero and I am a huge fan of yours.
Anyways, I am 13 and this speech really inspired me. It is perfectly written and just fabulous. When I am an adult, I am going to be a theoretical particle physicist (for some reason when I tell people this, they give me a weird look). Recently, a STEM class has been added to my school, but to have time for it we had to sacrifice art class. The STEM class is great, but I find it sad to have to give up one for the other. I still draw as often as possible.
Well, I sure hope you read this. If you did, it wouldn’t make my day, but my entire LIFE, if that makes any sense. Thank you for posting that beautiful speech.
-Sarah
P.S.
I can’t really say what exactly encouraged me to get into science, but I think it had something to do with Star Trek.
Wil, thank you for an inspiring speech. I loaded it into my 11-year old’s iPod, and he claimed to watch it. Let’s hope so! He’s a creative kid, just starting to figure out the world, and I hope he learns to appreciate and explore all of his interests.
I’m an artist now, and like you, my first artistic tool was really my computer — a used and well-loved Apple II. Creating worlds, games, and tools with that machine was my introduction to both creativity and technology. They have always been two sides of the same coin to me, and was what inspired me to be a web designer, then a photographer. Today I see my kids exploring that same space, but instead of coding in BASIC, they use Minecraft, Photoshop, iMovie. Blending technology and creativity to make their weird and wonderful ideas come to life.
Well done, Wil. This was fantastic!