Google X's Astro Teller: Why the Biggest Breakthroughs Start with Failure | EP167
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Radical innovation almost always doesn't work. Anyone who pretends differently is telling you a just-so story after the fact.
Dr. Astor Teller is the co-founder and captain of Moonshots, the CEO of Google X and Alphabet's Moonshot Factory.
Who is Astro Teller and what is Google X's mission?
He leads the creation of breakthroughs, technologies, innovation, like Waymo. We're going to geek this out a little bit.
The breakthrough technology that gives us a sense that there's at least a glimmer of hope in the early days. We were having Googlers who used them for their commute. And we said, hands right by the steering wheel. We're going to have cameras in the cars looking at you. We saw people getting into the back seats, doing their makeup. One of them fell asleep. It was never our job to make and sell a car. Our job is to make the world's best driver.
This was fascinating.
How did Astro become CEO of the Moonshot Factory?
I could probably talk to you for hours. Dr. Astor Teller is the co-founder and captain of Moonshots, the CEO of Google X and Alphabet's Moonshot Factory, where he leads the creation of breakthroughs, technologies, innovation, like Waymo, the self-driving cars, which by the way, we're the biggest fans, just FYI. Google brain wing, which is redefining how bold ideas become real world impact. I mean, so cool. But before that, he was also like, he's a serial entrepreneur. He's a scientist. He's a former Stanford professor. Astro has built, exited multiple companies, holds numerous patents. He's recognized as one of the leading voices in innovation and future thinking overall. Like, it's just incredible that we get to hear him on the show.
Thank you, Astro, for coming here.
Alana, thank you for having me. I've really been looking forward to this conversation.
It's going to be really fun. And for everybody here listening, this is going to be a fascinating conversation about how, first of all, you got into Google X, but also how they created not only, you know, real self-driving cars finally, but also we'll talk about drones and AI and the future and so much more. And also remember, once a week, We choose a question from our YouTube channel in Alip Academy with Ilan Golan and I answer it here live at the end of the conversation. And today I actually want to invite Astro to answer this with me because the question from Greg was, what do you think is around the corner that we are not aware of? And I love that question. So Astro, let's do this together.
Let's do it.
Okay, but first I'm going to have to take you back in time a little bit because with all your extensive career and all the things that you achieved and all the things, can you like give us a really quick recap? How do we even get into Google? Like why does Sergey come to Astro and says, come to Google? Like what happens there?
I'll give you a few different kind of vectors in. So one of the ways to think about it is that Google is known for giving people the opportunity to work on 20% time things. And they actually, inside of Google, now Alphabet for a long time, have talked about 70% is the work, 20% is the adjacent work, and then there's 10%, which is the really much farther out there kind of stuff. And they had a position open for quite a while called the director of other, which was meant to be like taking care of that 10%. And they interviewed me and I think several other people and didn't fill the role. But Larry and Sergei had been thinking about for a long time. Before Alphabet was created, the fact that there's like a physics to businesses, and as they get larger, they get more complicated.
It's nobody's fault. It's just the physics of businesses. And they wanted to make sure that what they imagined as Alphabet, even before it had that name, would be able to keep stretching itself outside its comfort zone. And so... X, the moonshot factory, was set up 16 years ago with that as our mission. Don't solve Google's current problems. Google's good at solving Google's current problems. Go find big new problems in the world that we could be really proud of solving and then hopefully find some world-changing solution to those problems.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:16
2
Who is Astro Teller and what is Google X's mission?
0:16–0:48
3
How did Astro become CEO of the Moonshot Factory?
0:48–22:59
4
What exactly defines a 'moonshot' at Google X?
22:59–36:37
5
Why does Google X celebrate killing projects and how do they normalize failure?
36:37–58:05
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
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