Kenya’s M-Pesa proves that when people are empowered, they will use digital tech to innovate on their own behalf.

I have to say that in 1981, making those decisions, I felt like I was providing enough freedom for 10 years. That is, a move from 64k to 640k felt like something that would last a great deal of time. Well, it didn't - it took about only 6 years before people started to see that as a real problem.

We weren't trying to just go public and get rich. There was no near-term thing. It always was this many-decades thing where there were no shortcuts and we'd sort of put one foot in front of the other.

Taking a look back, one big reqret is, I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world. The appalling disparities of health and wealth and opportunity that condemned millions of people to the lives of despair. I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas and economics, and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences. But humanities greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.

In my view, investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation's future.

Talking to mothers, always brings it home because they're so anxious to do everything they can for their kids and so tragic for them.

Getting ready for a global pandemic is every bit as important as nuclear deterrence and avoiding a climate catastrophe.