Megan Smith Quotes

Having everyone get exposed to brainstorming, prototyping, thinking about a problem, that's a best practice. One of the things I love seeing is how genius people are. You'll be thinking about some area that needs improving, and then someone just comes in and gives you that little bit of energy. Free online education doesn't solve everything, but you open the window and you build on each other.

To look back at history, during WWII, Rosie the Riveter and all that, when women needed to get to work, the US opened a LOT of daycare centers very fast. When we have the will, we do it; we're capable of doing these things. Continuing to raise awareness is important.

Tech companies like to set stretch goals, like we'll try to be the best company for women and minorities, and we have to ask, "What does that really mean?" By setting a goal like that, it makes all of us pay attention to that idea and try to innovate around it, to understand the underpinnings. One piece is being transparent, saying "Hey, we have an issue, we're open to innovation on it." It's important for innovation to prove that more diversity makes better products.

It's a mistake to get too narrow too fast. Kids today, many of them will live past 100, and you cant predict what you might work on. The things you're passionate about and interested in, get experience with them by going deep on projects. I would encourage science projects, plays. Pursue science, math, writing, history - the 21st century demands a lot of cross-disciplinary thinking.

I can conquer the world with one hand, as long as you are holding the other.

Compromise is just a fancy term for losing.

Google is a place filled with open-minded, innovative people from all over the world. It's a fun place to work, and it's a place where different kinds of skills come together. As we grew from a startup, I remember our founders saying that people don't want us to change our culture, but we need to keep making it better. It's an attitude: "We are the ones we've been waiting for." Silicon Valley in general, tech in general, means using technology to solve big problems in the world.

Just remember everything happens for a reason. We just have to pick ourselves up, and look on the bright side of life.

Science is taught like the history of science, and it's boring. Doing science fair, anything that's project-based learning, that involves field trips, that's really valuable.