The computer dictates how you do something, whereas with a pencil you're totally free.
We’re taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven’t, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that’s very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path. It’s exciting, actually. To me, solving problems is a bit like a drug. You’re on it, and you can’t get off.
Stumbling upon the next great invention in an 'ah-ha!' moment is a myth.
Hire inexperience. This year we plan to hire 200 engineers - half of whom are recent grads. Young people are not burdened by years of experience. They haven't learned - or been told - what is right or wrong. With engineering, there is no tried and tested path. You try, and fail, and fix, and fail again.
An inventor's path is chorused with groans, riddled with fist-banging and punctuated by head scratches.
Don't listen to experts.
I just want things to work properly.
We have to change our culture so you can create wealth from making things and don't just try to make money out of money
I want entrepreneurs to be engineers and scientists and designers; they don't necessarily have to be Internet entrepreneurs or retail entrepreneurs.
Failure is an enigma. You worry about it, and it teaches you something.
Anger is a good motivator.
Far too few designers put any thought into usability, ending up with a great product that's completely inaccessible.
If robots are to clean our homes, they'll have to do it better than a person.
Engineering undergraduates should not be charged fees. They should receive grants, not student loans, and the government will get the money back long-term from increased exports.
Children want the challenge of difficult tasks - just look how much better they are than their parents on a computer.
Britain's great strength is its innovative, design and engineering natural ability and we're not using it.
Business is constantly changing, constantly evolving.
So I think the winners in recession are the people who produce new technology that does things better, which people really want.
As a modern employer you have to treat people well.
If you didn't have patents, no one would bother to spend money on research and development. But with patents, if someone has a good idea and a competitor can't copy it, then that competitor will have to think of their own way of doing it. So then, instead of just one innovator, you have two or three people trying to do something in a new way.
Failure is so much more interesting because you learn from it. That's what we should be teaching children at school, that being successful the first time, there's nothing in it. There's no interest, you learn nothing actually.
The way the world is going, it's technology driven. And it isn't just driven by the old super powers, it's driven by the far east and new emerging economies.
If you invent something, you're doing a creative act. It's like writing a novel or composing music. You put your heart and soul into it, and money. It's years of your life, it's your house remortgaged, huge emotional investment and financial investment.
Designing aircraft and racing cars is an extremely exciting thing.
[M]anufacturing, science and engineering are ... incredibly creative. I'd venture to say more so than creative advertising agencies and things that are known as the creative industries.
