Astro Teller Quotes

Powerful Astro Teller for Daily Growth

About Astro Teller

Astro Teller, born Christopher James Teller in 1967, is an American computer scientist, engineer, entrepreneur, and author, best known for his work as the Captain of Moonshots at X (formerly Google X), a secretive unit within Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. Born to mathematician parents, Teller's early years were heavily influenced by their intellectual environment. He graduated from Harvard University with an undergraduate degree in engineering and applied mathematics, followed by a master's degree from Stanford University. His academic journey culminated in a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Teller's career took off when he joined Google as one of the first employees, working on various projects before founding Google X in 2010. Here, he leads a team tasked with developing 'moonshot' projects - ambitious, high-risk, and potentially groundbreaking technologies. Some of his notable works at Google X include Google Glass, Project Loon (balloons providing internet access), and Waymo (autonomous vehicles). In addition to his professional accomplishments, Teller is also an author and public speaker. He has published several papers in the field of computer science and is known for his engaging and inspiring talks about innovation, creativity, and problem-solving. His quotes often revolve around the importance of taking risks, embracing failure as a learning opportunity, and fostering a culture that encourages curiosity and creativity. Astro Teller's life and work embody a relentless pursuit of innovation and a belief in the power of audacious ideas to change the world. His influential role at Google X and his thought-provoking quotes continue to inspire and shape the tech industry today.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The key is not to avoid failures, but to use them as a stepping stone."

This quote by Astro Teller emphasizes the importance of learning from failures rather than aiming to avoid them entirely. The implication here is that every failure presents an opportunity for growth, reflection, and improvement. Each setback can act as a stepping stone towards achieving success in the long run, as it provides valuable insights about what didn't work and offers a chance to adjust strategies accordingly. By embracing failures as part of the learning process, individuals can foster resilience, creativity, and adaptability, ultimately enabling them to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals more effectively.


"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

This quote emphasizes the idea that instead of passively predicting or waiting for the future, one should actively shape it. It encourages proactivity, innovation, and creativity in shaping our own destiny rather than being mere bystanders in the progression of time. Essentially, it advocates for making changes, taking action, and creating solutions to steer the course of what lies ahead.


"Inventing the impossible doesn't mean doing what's never been done before; it means doing what can't be done at the moment."

This quote emphasizes that innovation isn't solely about accomplishing feats that have never been done (the unprecedented), but also about overcoming current limitations or obstacles (the improbable). It suggests that true inventiveness lies in pushing beyond existing knowledge and capabilities to achieve what was previously considered impossible.


"The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."

This quote emphasizes the importance of taking calculated risks in an ever-changing world. The risk of inaction or avoidance of risk-taking can lead to stagnation and failure, as it prevents progress and innovation. To survive and thrive, one must be willing to step out of their comfort zone, embrace uncertainty, and adapt to new situations. By taking risks, we create opportunities for growth, learning, and development, ultimately setting ourselves up for success in the long run.


"If you have a problem and you don't know how to solve it, you should try changing the problem first."

Astro Teller suggests that when encountering an unsolvable problem, instead of exhausting resources trying to change the solution, one should reconsider the problem itself to uncover new avenues for progress or more appropriate problems to tackle. By reframing the issue, we may discover different solutions or gain a fresh perspective that leads to the resolution of the initial challenge. This quote promotes an innovative mindset and encourages us to approach problems with flexibility and adaptability in our pursuit of finding effective solutions.


We've got rings, glasses, we wear things for armor, for protection from the elements, to signal our status to other people. And we're going to co-opt a lot of those things, where wearables are going to end up being the interface between us in the world.

- Astro Teller

Protection, Other, Wear, Interface

Every day, hundreds of millions of people stab themselves, bleed, and then offer, like a sacrifice, to the glucose monitor they're carrying with them. It's such a bad user interface that even though in the medium-term it's life or death for these people, hundreds of millions of people don't engage in this user interface.

- Astro Teller

Death, Every Day, Bad, Interface

There is no law of physics that says just because we're connected, there has to be this schism between our physical lives and our digital lives.

- Astro Teller

Law, Digital, Lives, No Law

The real goal of AI is to understand and build devices that can perceive, reason, act, and learn at least as well as we can.

- Astro Teller

Goal, Reason, Act, AI

Failing doesn't have to mean not succeeding. It can be, 'Hey we tried that. We can go forward, smarter.'

- Astro Teller

Forward, Mean, Tried, Smarter

When you try to do something ten per cent better, you tend to work from where you are: if I ask you to make a car that goes 50 miles a gallon, you can just retool the engine you already have.

- Astro Teller

Miles, Cent, Tend, Engine

The moonshot for Google Glass is to harmonize the physical and digital worlds. It is specifically to find a way to help people be naturally, elegantly situated, physical and digitally, at the same time.

- Astro Teller

Digital, Glass, Worlds, Specifically

If software's the only thing in your bag of tools, I'm not going to give you great odds.

- Astro Teller

Software, Give, Going, Odds

I'm a compulsive storyteller, an avid reader, and have always nurtured the secret goal of spending my life as a writer.

- Astro Teller

Goal, My Life, Always, Compulsive

The great decision was the Explorer program. The thing we did not do well is that we allowed and somewhat encouraged too much exposure to the program.

- Astro Teller

Decision, Allowed, Program, Explorer

The Explorer edition of Glass wasn't for everyone, but the Explorer program pushed us to find a wide range of near-term applications and uses for something like Glass.

- Astro Teller

Glass, Wide Range, Wide, Explorer

We are proposing that there is value in a totally new product category and a totally new set of questions. Just like the Apple II proposed, 'Would you reasonably want a computer in your home if you weren't an accountant or professional?' That is the question Glass is asking, and I hope in the end that is how it will be judged.

- Astro Teller

Accountant, Proposing, Proposed

The cycling helmet can save your life, but it doesn't look good and tends to ruin your hair.

- Astro Teller

Hair, Cycling, Save, Helmet

Every time you drop the price by a factor of two, you roughly get a 10 times pickup of the number of people who will seriously consider buying it.

- Astro Teller

Drop, Will, Pickup, Roughly

Really great entrepreneurs have this very special mix of unstoppable optimism and scathing paranoia.

- Astro Teller

Optimism, Special, Very, Paranoia

Moonshots live in that place between audacious projects and pure science fiction.

- Astro Teller

Fiction, Projects, Audacious, Science Fiction

When technology reaches that level of invisibility in our lives, that's our ultimate goal. It vanishes into our lives. It says, 'You don't have to do the work; I'll do the work.'

- Astro Teller

Goal, Ultimate Goal, Lives, Vanishes

Find some fun way to get a little more oil on your hands or mud on your boots. Sometimes, that's what it takes to take down some of the really big problems.

- Astro Teller

Hands, Big, Some, Boots

I started my second company in 1999. BodyMedia was set up to take advantage of the future of wearables - sensors and computing worn on our bodies in any and all ways that could make our lives better.

- Astro Teller

Bodies, Our, Second, Sensors

Really, having people who have different mental perspectives is what's important.

- Astro Teller

Important, Mental, Having, Perspectives

If you want to explore things you haven't explored, having people who look just like you and think just like you is not the best way.

- Astro Teller

Think, Best Way, Having, Explored

Glass is the world's worst spy camera. If you want to surreptitiously take photos, I would not use Glass.

- Astro Teller

Want, Glass, Use, Spy

Our culture already has a number of well known stories about artificial life and non-human intelligence. In 'Exegesis,' I've tried to not only tell a new and engaging story but also to comment on those well known stories through the details of my novel.

- Astro Teller

Through, Tell, About, Comment

It comes up over and over and over again that a ten times increase in the weight-oriented density of batteries or the volume metric, the space-oriented density of batteries, would enable so many other moonshots that that's one that just constantly comes up over and over again, and we will start that moonshot if we can find a great idea.

- Astro Teller

Other, Idea, Constantly, Metric

Most ideas don't work out. Almost all ideas don't work out. So it's okay if yours didn't work out.

- Astro Teller

Okay, Almost All, Almost, Yours

Going from an error rate of 25 meters in GPS to 2.5 meters is huge. Going to 25 centimeters is going to matter just as much.

- Astro Teller

Matter, Going, Error, Just As Much

I grant that people are generally uncomfortable with how fast privacy issues are changing in the world, but Google Glass is not going to move the needle on that.

- Astro Teller

Glass, Going, Move, Grant

Ultimately, a timeless story has to be about the human condition.

- Astro Teller

Human Condition, Condition, Timeless

Doing exercise without monitoring yourself will be rare in the future of wearable technology.

- Astro Teller

Future, Doing, Will, Monitoring

There's this open question of what Google is going to be a decade or more from now. Google X isn't the only answer to that question, but it was built as a place to do some of the exploration to find some great new problems for Google to tackle.

- Astro Teller

New, Some, Decade, Tackle

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