Welcome to the Blog

I like to write.  And most days I actually do write a lot.  But most of it is not visible to the world at large.  Hundreds of internal emails and documents.  Pieces of content inside Wolfram|Alpha or Mathematica.  The occasional unsigned public webpage or other document.

My purpose in this blog is to have a visible outlet for a little more of what I do, and what I think about.

I’m constantly thinking about new things.  Coming up with new ideas. Getting new perspectives.  Thinking of new possible projects to do.

Usually I don’t talk much about things until or unless I’ve actually done something real with them.  Which can take years, and sometimes decades—if it happens at all.

But I’ve decided it’s time I started writing a little more about what I’m thinking about—rather than always waiting to have a complete, finished, project or product.

I’d also like to write about some of the things that happen in my life.  In some ways my life is delightfully simple and ordinary.  But in others I’ve chosen to make it pretty far out on the curve.

Some of the wildest and juiciest things that happen I won’t be able to write publicly about, typically because they’re someone’s corporate or personal secrets.  Or because, frankly, I don’t want to tell the world about some things I’m doing before I’m ready.

I’m a great believer in the value of history, not least because I think it’s the best way to have an informed view about the future.  I’ve also been a collector of stories—often as a participant.  Sometimes the stories aren’t appropriate for public consumption, at least at the time.  But I’ve now been around long enough that it’s beginning to be OK to tell pretty much any of the earlier ones.  So I hope to have a chance to do that on this blog.

There’s a lot that I could write—about all sorts of topics.  Some of it is timely; some of it I just think I should write down sometime.

I’ll enjoy writing whatever I end up writing.  But if people want to request particular topics, please contact me. I suspect there are a lot of things where I might have something interesting to say, but I’ve never realized it.  So ask me!

Posted in: Other

12 comments

  1. Welcome to the blogosphere! 🙂

  2. Dear Sir,

    I am from Bangladesh. I am very much grateful to you to give us an opportunity to use such good website (www.wolframalpha.com) without any cost. Here I have to mention that, we don’t have any opportunity to pay a penny in abroad due to Bangladesh Bank’s regulations.

    I just wrote you to show my gratitude for your huge contribution to the math world.

  3. Dear Stephen,

    Thanks for this nice blog post, telling and sharing with us some other aspects of your life.Related to this post and other than this , I have some questions:

    What kind of history and story book you love to read?
    What is the main motivation and inspiration behind all your work?
    It would be great , if you share some of the nice experiences of your life.

    Kindest Regards,

    Imtiaz
    LSMRC

  4. I am looking forward to your thoughts! Thanks for sharing here and on your Wolfram Alpha site.

  5. >> I’m constantly thinking about new things. Coming up with new ideas.

    Stephen

    You should work for NASA! As Bruce Willis said, that is what they do!

    Welcome to the blogosphere. I look forward to your contributions.

    I love the Wolfram|Alpha site and the fact you added the “Search the Web” link to pass the query onto other search engines. However, please note that I am not willing to pay for the iPhone app. More folks might explore it if it were free. Just my two cents worth…

    -ski

  6. Stephen,

    Is there anything you would like to comment on regarding the Golden Rectangle or divine dimensions?

  7. Dr. Wolfram,

    It’s a pleasure to see you joining the blogosphere with the idea of talking about yourself. Needless to say that it a great example of how we can learn a lot and share the knowledge in a moment, so that we, students, can advance the science into new horizonts. Thanks again and hope to see more posts here!

  8. Doorway and window, linked by you. Good choice!

  9. Great to hear! Looking forward to reading about some of the things you’re thinking about.

  10. In the name of future generations of historians I would urge you to please keep writing and communicating, whenever possible. Whether the subject is your ordinary life or any of your amazing, enlightened ideas, or anything else, in writing or in video, please continue to share with us for the record. Thank you!

  11. You’d already had some sort of blog, A Scrapbook is somewhat of a picture blog, isn’t it. I wish you would enlighten on some of those moments, your time with Richard Feynman for example, that would be plain wonderful. Thank you very much for Mathematica.

  12. Hey Stephen, I’m really looking forward to reading more from you. I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed so keep those posts coming.

    Thanks