Tech Superstars & Their Productivity Commonalities

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Tech Superstars & Their Productivity Commonalities

Stanford University, Palo Alto, California

For nearly 40 years, Stanford University’s Computer Systems Colloquium (CSC) has excited high-level academic/corporate tech circles in the United States by presenting speakers who embrace the future’s edge. Among their ranks have been at least two MacArthur Fellows, major corporate CEOs, inventors of devices and systems that have changed society, venture capitalist superstars, world-famous electronic musicians, and a generous sprinkling of oddball theorists and developers.

The Colloquium, sponsored by Stanford’s Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and open to the public, was begun in 1969 (before the microcomputer had been invented). “In retrospect,” says Dennis Allison, who has run the Wednesday-afternoon class since 1986, “the class provides a panoramic snapshot of the computer industry’s growth. But our speakers transcend mere technology; they have always addressed ideas, trends, and devices that were two years—or more—in the future.”

For instance, in 1998 a guy named Craig Newmark came to speak about an online community he was creating to help buyers and sellers of goods and services find each other (CraigsList was soon a household name in the U.S.). In 2002, Wikipedia co-founder Lee Sanger talked about why an online encyclopedia was important, thus marking the beginning of the end for the world’s major paper encyclopedias. In 1999 I was present when a four-person panel debated whether electronic books could ever succeed; today, the ebook market is growing at a lightning-fast pace.

Just a few of the illustrious many who have addressed the class over the years:

Brian Eno, acknowledged as the “father” of ambient music
Al Alcorn, inventor of Pong, the first video game
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google (at the time they were still Stanford students; many speakers went on to found successful and even wildly-successful companies based on the technology they discussed at the Colloquium)
Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems
John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the world’s leading venture capitalists
John Hennessy, Stanford President and founder of MIPS Computer Systems
Lisa Palac, editor of Future Sex magazine
Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse
Persi Diaconis, two-time winner of the MacArthur Fellowship, known for solving mathematical problems involving randomization (i.e., shuffling cards, coin flipping)
Stephen Schneider, a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, celebrated for his work on modeling of the atmosphere and climate change

I spoke with the Colloquium’s organizer, Dennis Allison, this week. Among other things, I asked him two questions that might interest readers of this column.

They know how to define their Master Goal…

First, I asked him to speculate on what qualities the CSC speakers share that result in such spectacular accomplishments. “Intense curiosity,” he replied without hesitation. “Curiosity about absolutely everything going on around them. They wonder about everything. They have a willingness to learn about new things. They’re always looking for better understanding of the world around them and what it constitutes. They’re curious about ‘why.’ They’re always asking that question: ‘Why?’ They’re not always very social, but they’re very curious.”

He also cited the commonality of a strong shared social sense about the way the world should work. “They want things to be the way they ‘ought’ to be,” Allison says. “Quite often their thinking along these lines runs contrary to the way most others think, but they’re not afraid to take positions against the mainstream. They have a vision of the way the world should be and they try to move it forward.”

Third and last was the fact that, quite often, such people are not primarily motivated by financial gain. “They tend to be more part of a gift culture than a money culture,” Allison told me. “They want to give to other people what they know and understand, and don’t necessarily think about profiting from it.”

Naturally, my thoughts turned to how such gifted people organized themselves to be productive. So I asked.

“All these people are list makers,” Allison responded. “They write down and articulate their goals and express how to get from Point A to Point B. They know how to define their Master goal, break into points, and then into sub-points, and then into sub-points again—until they can manage it. You see that all the time.” *

Allison emphasized the common need his guest speakers have to put a list into writing. “They’re extremely busy mentally,” he explained. “They’re taken up with big ideas and thinking, and they just don’t have the memory bandwidth to keep in mind all the details of what needs to be done. They run the risk of forgetting if it’s not written down. A list becomes a solid mechanism to keep them focused on the goal.”

In summary, Allison noted that “people who are intensely creative tend to be just ordinary people who have learned how to channel their energy and focus on what’s important to them. The difference between someone who runs a billion dollar company and someone who doesn’t may or may not be anything but luck. I think the skill set to do that may exist in almost anyone—but execution requires not only a certain amount of luck but the ability to harness intellectual and physical capabilities. Most of the speakers I’ve seen in the Colloquium are able to harness both those capabilities exceedingly well.”

* Note: When Dennis Allison made that remark about breaking a goal into points, I assumed he was an adherent of GTD. I was surprised to learn that he’d never heard of it. “Well,” he said, shrugging, “it just makes sense to break a goal into parts you can work with.” Perhaps this approach comes with scientific or technical training.
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© Suzanne Rodriguez
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