People care a lot that the USA is well run, and people globally expect us to do things in upgrading science and more.

Good stuff tends to happen gradually, whereas violence or catastrophes are deemed more newsworthy.

With polio, we've gone several years with no polio in all of Africa, but now with this we're having to go and mop up in that whole region, so it's a bit of a setback for polio. So in parallel we have to go back and get rid of those cases.

The only definition by which Americas best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.

The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating systems.

Software substitution, whether it's for drivers or waiters or nurses ... it's progressing. ... Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill set. ... 20 years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don’t think people have that in their mental model.

It's easier to add things on to a PC than it's ever been before. It's one click, and boom, it comes down.