Interview of John Chen (VP of Tech and Foundry Management, NVidi

1.  Just go have a cup of coffee (difference between a manager and a leader):

  * mangers tell you what to do

  * leaders inspire/influence you (relationship, trust, etc.)

2.  Try (to apply for things like management/MBA programs), it does not hurt.

3.  AI (third time coming to us):

  * We are not asking machines to "do" (things) this time

  * We are asking machines to "think" for us (even tougher: to "feel" for us)

4.  TSMC vs NVDA (He worked at TSMC for 10 years and started the TSMC R&D when no other foundries were doing R&D)

   1)  Both are great companies with commonalities

   2)  Both hold integrity/intelectual integrity as #1 rule

   3)  Diffs:

       a) TSMC has less tolerance toward mistakes (nature of the business --- yield) (but its R&D is just like NVDA --- risk taking and tolerance toward failures)

       b) NVDA is very tolerant for mistake (has to innovate or will die anyways, so must take risk tolerate failures)

5.  Do right things at the right time (visionary)

   a) Bill Gates: do PC when nobody is

   b) Steve Jobs: do tablet when people laugh at him

  c) TSMC: do foundry when people think he is crazy

  d) NVDA: do "CPU computation with GPU's power" 12 years (year 2009) when nobody does it (ahead by 12 years!)

 

Q&A session:

  1.  Education: when I was not internalizing the management knowledge at school.  But later on in my career when I look at the notes and the books, they became the foundation of my leadership skills!

  2.  Universities have a very close relationship with, and pay attention to, the industries.  But as professors, their focus should be on teaching!  Today's professors are over-drawn to industries to make money with their Ph.D students rather than teaching!

  3.  Professors: Academic teaching is more important than application-driven research

   (Peter Yeh: well, Bell Labs, IBM research, academic research funding are down.  So we need what you said, not to replace those that are down)

  4. AI will not kill human being(because it did not invent us).  But like a-bomb, we need leaders to have the ethics.   --- China has done exceedingly well in Sci and Tech and Economics.  But I keep worrying if their ethics is progressing the same way?

  5. Advice to young people:

  a) dont work too hard.  Have fun but be a nice person (USA was like that 30 years ago.  Drawn to USA not because of standard of living or economics)

  b) dont focus on loboring as AI-maching can do that.  Focus on intelligence and innovation

  c) Holistic view:  never understimate the intelligence of people not in your field of expertise.  They can sometimes bring in excellent solution to your problem.

  d) dont let robot play gold/sing karoke.  You do it!

 6.  Is computer science a must-have for people entering AI field?

   a) I feel that "science + art" is something AI can shine on!

   b) AI/Deep-learning training what everyone needs

   c) Learning w/o thinking, you will be confused.  Thinking w/o learning, your thinking will dryout quickly (學而不思/思而不學）

 7.  NVDA has transformed from IC component company to IC Chip-platform company

 8.  Learn less, think more:

    - 20-40% people in companies are wasting their time --- they are just doing w/o thinking

   -10% people in companies are counter-productive