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當(dāng)我給安德魯·安納格諾斯特打電話時，他還在舊金山市中心的辦公室,，剛剛結(jié)束了一天的工作,。我對未能與他面談表示抱歉，因?yàn)槲覕?shù)天前才從灣區(qū)回來,。

他笑著說：“還好沒有面談，我正穿著健身服,，都濕透了,。（有電信軟件是真好啊。）”

說真的,，軟件開發(fā)商歐特克（Autodesk）的首席執(zhí)行官安納格諾斯特沒有理由流汗,。他的公司致力于為建筑師、產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)師和電影制作者開發(fā)軟件工具,，賺的錢比以前任何時候都要多,，公司2018財(cái)年的收入超過了20億美元，而且其市值也是再創(chuàng)新高,，達(dá)到了近300億美元,。

安納格諾斯特?fù)?dān)任公司掌門人一職還只有16個月，但他已經(jīng)對公司所發(fā)生的變化感到興奮不已,。今天早上,，他希望在拉斯維加斯舉行的歐特克大學(xué)會議上向客戶詳細(xì)介紹這一策略。以下是他向《財(cái)富》雜志透露的內(nèi)容,，為便于理解略作刪減,。

《財(cái)富》：雖然你在去年春天才出任歐特克的首席執(zhí)行官，但你已是公司的老人了,，已經(jīng)干了20年,。上任后哪些事情讓你感到始料未及？

安納格諾斯特：我在公司已經(jīng)待了很長的時間,，但我實(shí)際上是公司亞文化的一部分,，分屬于產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)和工程團(tuán)隊(duì)。這是一份截然不同的工作,。此前團(tuán)隊(duì)所在的領(lǐng)域有著異常激烈的競爭,。我們的競爭對手與歐特克相當(dāng)，或者比歐特克的規(guī)模更大,。因此,，我沒有必要遵循公司的主流文化,。

當(dāng)我升任自己不甚了解的頂級職位時，我并不確定自己能從中學(xué)到什么,。但是我開始意識到，要讓歐特克實(shí)現(xiàn)我們心目中的目標(biāo),，我們還有很多、很多的工作要做,。所有這些科技都能夠讓我們將這些設(shè)計(jì)融合在一起，并讓流程更加緊湊,。而這一切將改變我們的公司,。

云技術(shù)正在改變所有的軟件公司,。你可以直接與客戶互聯(lián),，并了解哪些方面做的不錯，哪些方面做的不夠好,。為了應(yīng)對當(dāng)前這個世界,，并獲得繁榮發(fā)展,，企業(yè)得創(chuàng)建一個全新的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng),、肌肉組織和結(jié)締組織,。要實(shí)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn),，我們還有很多工作需要做,。

我們隨后做出了多個決定,，并一度認(rèn)為我們要做就得做云端產(chǎn)品,。公司仍有一些老舊設(shè)備[基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施]需要升級,。我們實(shí)際上同時改變了業(yè)務(wù)模式和技術(shù)基礎(chǔ),。要成功地做到這一點(diǎn)很難。

很多人都聽過歐特克，但不知道公司是做什么的。你如今怎么形容公司,？

如今,，歐特克致力于為那些制造業(yè)從業(yè)者開發(fā)軟件，例如橋梁,、建筑,、產(chǎn)品,、道路、電影、游戲,。隨便說一個行業(yè),，歐特克都有一款針對該行業(yè)的設(shè)計(jì)和制造軟件，例如土木工程師,、機(jī)械工程師,、電影藝人,、結(jié)構(gòu)工程師,。這些人使用我們的軟件來設(shè)計(jì)和創(chuàng)造人們周圍的世界。

我們通常參與得最多的是其設(shè)計(jì)流程——例如它的外觀,，有什么功能等。但由于世界變得越發(fā)自動化,，而我們又能向所有人交付超級運(yùn)算能力,，因此我們能夠越來越多地參與一些深層次的流程，例如他們?nèi)绾谓ㄔ旖ㄖ约爸圃飚a(chǎn)品等,。我們涉獵的內(nèi)容更深了。如今，我們是一家“設(shè)計(jì)和制造”軟件公司,。

目前你打算重點(diǎn)發(fā)展的領(lǐng)域都有哪些,？以及不再重點(diǎn)關(guān)注的領(lǐng)域,？

我們正專注于盡全力進(jìn)入建筑行業(yè),，因?yàn)榻ㄖ袠I(yè)是經(jīng)典機(jī)遇之一,，其中,，云,、移動技術(shù)已經(jīng)做好準(zhǔn)備，而且客戶也已經(jīng)做好了準(zhǔn)備。建筑公司說：“我需要通過數(shù)字化來保持競爭力?！比缃襁@方面的產(chǎn)品已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)。因此我們斥巨資投資這一領(lǐng)域,，希望把制造領(lǐng)域的方法引入建筑行業(yè),。我們發(fā)現(xiàn),，建筑市場開始朝著飛機(jī),、汽車等行業(yè)在數(shù)年前所前行的方向邁進(jìn)。今后,，人們建造建筑和制造飛機(jī)的模式都是一樣的,。

每一個建筑項(xiàng)目都是一次性的，但這些項(xiàng)目如今不僅采用了預(yù)制構(gòu)件結(jié)構(gòu),，同時還在這一過程中使用了更多的工業(yè)流程,。這并不是選擇的問題,。未來二、三十年需要完成的項(xiàng)目數(shù)量正在上升,，但能夠完成這些項(xiàng)目的人力和物力卻很難跟上,。我們必須在從事這些事情時實(shí)現(xiàn)更高的效率，更低的浪費(fèi),。建筑業(yè)如今是浪費(fèi)最為嚴(yán)重的行業(yè),。

歐特克的服務(wù)對象涵蓋各大規(guī)模的項(xiàng)目，但公司業(yè)務(wù)的重中之重還是大型項(xiàng)目——垂直建造的建筑,。但技術(shù)創(chuàng)新將逐漸向供應(yīng)鏈后端延伸,，也就是向小項(xiàng)目延伸。

建筑業(yè)領(lǐng)域的技術(shù)和客戶目前還沒有完全到位,，其背后的支撐是制造業(yè),。3D打印技術(shù)和微工廠的崛起讓建筑行業(yè)發(fā)生了改變。這需要為不同的制造方法采用全新的設(shè)計(jì)方式,。因此,，我們正在開發(fā)適用于小規(guī)模設(shè)計(jì)流程的全新設(shè)計(jì)工具，以及高度定制化的產(chǎn)品,。大多數(shù)3D造型工具被用于支持特定類型的制造方法,；當(dāng)前的范例是基于3D參數(shù)化特征的造型。借助新工具,，人們便可以獲得新的可選方案,。

公司的AEC（建筑、工程和建造）業(yè)務(wù)約占業(yè)務(wù)總量的40%-50%,。另外30%-40%為制造,。其余的是媒體和娛樂。

能介紹一下公司從許可軟件銷售到訂購的業(yè)務(wù)模式轉(zhuǎn)型嗎,。

有人認(rèn)為,，同時做這兩項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)的轉(zhuǎn)型可能已經(jīng)給公司帶來了不必要的傷害。然而,，我們已經(jīng)做出了決定,，而且了解要做到這一點(diǎn)需要時間。我們深知,，我們必須做出改變,，要么整個轉(zhuǎn)型就無法實(shí)現(xiàn)。如果我們真的希望向未來邁進(jìn),，那么所有的業(yè)務(wù)都必須以未來為目標(biāo),。否則，我們將變成一無是處的大怪物,。

令人欣慰的是，對于我們這個行業(yè)來說，產(chǎn)品的采納需要很長一段時間,。即使Adobe改變了其業(yè)務(wù)模式,，它也于隨后開始打造云產(chǎn)品。Creative Cloud的云產(chǎn)品并不多,，而且要達(dá)到Office 365的那種程度還有很多工作要做,。

公司股價(jià)在2016年一路高歌。

人們終于意識到我們有能力做這件事情,。

他們以前不這么認(rèn)為嗎,？

這一點(diǎn)我不確定。我們的業(yè)務(wù)有90%都是間接業(yè)務(wù),。投資者曾經(jīng)對我們是否有能力完成轉(zhuǎn)型持很大的懷疑,。如今他們不再懷疑了。

讓我們先說說Adobe,。我情不自禁地想到了那家公司,，它成立于1982年，而且也是一家已經(jīng)向云端轉(zhuǎn)型的硅谷公司,。但Adobe的市值是歐特克的5倍,。

這是時機(jī)的問題。我們正朝著“設(shè)計(jì)與制造”轉(zhuǎn)型,。Adobe已經(jīng)是一家“創(chuàng)造和營銷”公司,。他們對Omniture的收購標(biāo)志著其營銷云的開端。如今,，他們又收購了Marketo,，借此擴(kuò)大了營銷云業(yè)務(wù)。在創(chuàng)意業(yè)務(wù)和營銷業(yè)務(wù)中,，我們把創(chuàng)意業(yè)務(wù)拿出來,，并面向世人發(fā)布。隨著我們公司業(yè)務(wù)的發(fā)展,，公司創(chuàng)意套件的價(jià)值會不斷顯現(xiàn),。Adobe目前在同時運(yùn)營著這兩套業(yè)務(wù)。

歐特克去年的營收達(dá)到了20億美元,，對于很多公司來說是個不小的數(shù)目,，但在硅谷軟件企業(yè)中依然不算高。是什么讓你做出了退步,，還是說以這種方式來衡量目標(biāo)市場是錯誤的,？

建造業(yè)今后將成為公司的一項(xiàng)數(shù)十億美元的業(yè)務(wù)，這是毋庸置疑的,。這個行業(yè)是巨大的,，而且正在迅速向前發(fā)展,。就制造行業(yè)業(yè)務(wù)而言，我們在未來五年內(nèi)可能能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)其規(guī)模的翻番,。我們在這一領(lǐng)域花了很多錢,。在建造行業(yè)市場，我們可能已經(jīng)投了15億美元,，而且市場中小公司收入總和已經(jīng)超過了5億美元,。這是個實(shí)實(shí)在在的機(jī)遇。

公司的服務(wù)對象遍布全球,。會受到什么宏觀趨勢的影響嗎,？

公司整體業(yè)務(wù)目前在各個地域都做的不錯。這有點(diǎn)不同尋常,。建造技術(shù)最大的市場依然在美國,。下一個最大的市場將是歐洲，因?yàn)檫@一地區(qū)擁有一些相當(dāng)先進(jìn)的總承包商,。在我們看來,，當(dāng)前的全球市場十分穩(wěn)健。

讓我們來探討一下人工智能,，它已經(jīng)進(jìn)入了科技行業(yè)的各個方面,。它是如何與歐特克的業(yè)務(wù)進(jìn)行結(jié)合的？

從根本上來看,，我們將其稱為自動化,。我們的首要任務(wù)是將“設(shè)計(jì)”與“制造”更為緊密地結(jié)合起來。

以建造流程為例,。建一棟樓有著非常特別的流程,。一名建筑師先提出設(shè)計(jì)構(gòu)想，然后進(jìn)行設(shè)計(jì),，例如螺旋形大樓,，然而交由承包商來建造：“也就是弄清楚具體結(jié)構(gòu)是什么樣的?！蔽覀冋趯?shí)現(xiàn)建筑師與總承包商之間對話的自動化,，并利用機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)洞見來了解建造這一建筑都需要什么。如果在這一過程中能夠盡早地獲取這一信息,，承包商就可以降低無法在預(yù)算內(nèi)完成建造工作的風(fēng)險(xiǎn),，并提升可選擇性。位于后臺的計(jì)算機(jī)會篩選和選擇信息,，為選項(xiàng)分析提供助力,，也就是如何解決特定的問題。目前人們并沒有采取這種方式,，但這正是我們努力的方向,。

例如,，我們進(jìn)行了大量的運(yùn)算來弄清楚某個建筑是否能夠站立，或者建筑師可以讓大樓最大化地接受自然光照,。我們非常希望能夠?yàn)榻ㄖ熖峁┻@些功能,。

我們最近與通用汽車共同開展了一個項(xiàng)目,，利用3D打印來重新設(shè)計(jì)座椅支架,。這是人類所無法想象的，但它直接滿足了設(shè)計(jì)要求,。我們能參與的領(lǐng)域非常廣泛,。

你是否對媒體報(bào)道的人工智能的負(fù)面影響感到擔(dān)憂。

我們對自動化持有樂觀看法,。當(dāng)我們審視周圍的建成世界時,，我們看到的是產(chǎn)能問題。我們沒有足夠的人手和時間來建造所有所需建筑,。全球中產(chǎn)階級仍在繼續(xù)崛起,。我們不能以整個地球?yàn)榇鷥r(jià)，建造所有所需的建筑,。我們發(fā)現(xiàn),，自動化這種方式既能夠讓建筑得到更好的建造，同時也大大減小了對世界的負(fù)面影響,。我們相信,，越來越多的人將進(jìn)入建造行業(yè)，因?yàn)楦嗟馁Y本將進(jìn)入這一行業(yè),。人類的創(chuàng)造力是寶貴的,。自動化將接手重復(fù)性的任務(wù)。

你常駐舊金山,。很多灣區(qū)科技公司今年因?yàn)樵竭^道德界限或傷害其客戶和社會而受到抨擊,。你如何看待最近的事件？我們需要相關(guān)法規(guī)嗎,？

在我看來,，不能放任技術(shù)滲透而不加監(jiān)管。一個比較嚴(yán)重的問題是,，美國目前沒有全國性的隱私立法,。我們需要這種立法，也需要對如何以一種可接受的方式使用個人數(shù)據(jù)以及如何獲得這方面的許可進(jìn)行定義,，并創(chuàng)造公平的環(huán)境,。目前，大家采用的都是基于廣告的業(yè)務(wù)模式,，而我們在其中歪曲了這些科技的某些效益,。歐洲通過GDPR的實(shí)施在一定程度解決了這一問題,。加州也有類似立法。但如果每個州的隱私保護(hù)法律都各不相同,，這對于公司來說無異于噩夢,。我們需要全國性的立法，但我們要的并不是擺設(shè),，而是行之有效的立法,。

我在不經(jīng)意間注意到，你的成長道路十分有意思,。你之前曾從高中輟學(xué),，但如今從加州州立大學(xué)北嶺分校拿到了機(jī)械工程學(xué)位，然后從斯坦福大學(xué)拿到了太空工程碩士和博士學(xué)位,。你為什么又重新接受正規(guī)教育,，而且恕我冒昧，為什么還要自虐一把,，參加十分耗時的博士項(xiàng)目,。

盡管年輕時我沒少惹麻煩，而且還輟了學(xué),，但我一直癡迷于做某些事情,。我希望參與太空項(xiàng)目，因此走上了歪路,。但后來我又回歸正軌,，而且再次開始努力工作，我開始覺得學(xué)習(xí)很有意思,。我是否能在這方面有所建樹,？能否成為影響力人物,？之所以拿博士學(xué)位,，是因?yàn)槲蚁脍s上別人，并獲取大量的知識,，從而成為一個有影響力的人,。當(dāng)時我對于并行計(jì)算非常感興趣,。此外，我真誠地感受到我對父母和家庭的那種責(zé)任,，因?yàn)槲以谀贻p時給他們帶來了不幸,，但他們的痛苦如今也得到了回報(bào)。

你還稱自己為“太空怪人”,。

我的職業(yè)生涯始于洛克希德,，然后供職于美國國家航天局埃姆斯研究中心。那是我兒時的夢想，我對此感到非常幸運(yùn),。但我意識到,，我很難在大型機(jī)構(gòu)中完成某些事情。我看到很多人一直都在為一個實(shí)際上從未完成的項(xiàng)目而工作,。這對于我來說是一個十分殘酷的現(xiàn)實(shí)——將自己的一生花在那些無法發(fā)生的事情上,。這一點(diǎn)也促使我進(jìn)入了軟件行業(yè)。

如今,，你的工作就是定期推出云軟件,。

我們推出了眾多的產(chǎn)品。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：馮豐

審校：夏林

When I call Andrew Anagnost at his office in downtown San Francisco at the end of a long work day, I apologize for being unable to speak with him in person, having traveled through the Bay Area mere days before.

“It’s a good thing we aren’t talking in person,” he says, laughing. “I’m wearing my sweaty gym clothes! ” (Thank God for telecommunications software.)

The truth is Anagnost, CEO of software maker Autodesk, has little reason to perspire. His company, which makes tools for architects, product designers, and filmmakers, is making more money than ever before—more than $2 billion in fiscal 2018—and is more valuable than it ever has been, worth nearly $30 billion.

Anagnost has held Autodesk’s top job a mere 16 months, but he’s already excited about the changes underway at the company—a path he plans to articulate to his customers this morning at his Autodesk University conference in Las Vegas. Here’s what he had to say to Fortune, lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Fortune: You took the top job at Autodesk last spring, but you were a 20-year company veteran. What did you find that you didn’t expect?

Anagnost: I’ve been at the company a long time, but I’m actually part of a subculture at the company—the product design and engineering team. It’s very different. The space that team competes in is highly competitive. Our competitors were as big or bigger than Autodesk. So I was not necessarily of the mainstream culture of the company.

I’m not sure I learned anything when I ascended to the top job that I didn’t already know, but what I came to appreciate was how much work there was to do to become the company we wanted to be. All of these technologies are allowing us to bring together the design and make processes closer together. And that’s going to change our company.

The cloud is changing every software company. You have instantaneous connectivity to your customer—what you do right, and what you do wrong. You have to build a whole new set of nervous systems, musculature, connective tissue to respond to and thrive in that world. That still requires a lot of work to get there.

We made several consequential decisions at one point that we weren’t going to make any products that weren’t cloud products. There’s still a legacy [infrastructure] that needs to be undone. We’ve actually changed our business model and our technological underpinnings at the same time. It’s really hard to do successfully.

A lot of people have heard of Autodesk but may not know what it does. How do you describe it today?

Today, Autodesk makes software for people who make things—bridges, buildings, products, roads, movies, games. You name it, Autodesk has a piece of software for how somebody designs and makes it: civil engineers, mechanical engineers, film artists, structural engineers. These people use our software to design and make the world around you.

Classically we were most involved in their design process—what it looks like, what functionality it has. But more and more, because the world is becoming more automated and we can deliver supercomputing power to anyone, we’re actually able to get deeper into the process of how they build the building, or manufacture the product. We’ve moved deeper. Now we’re a “design and make” software company.

Which areas of the business are you trying to emphasize? Deemphasize?

We’re focused on driving greatest penetration in construction. It’s one of these classic opportunities where the technology—the cloud, mobility—is ready. The customers are ready; construction companies say, “I need to digitize to stay competitive.” And the products are ready. So we’re doubling down in a big way. We want to bring manufacturing methods to construction. We see the construction market starting to move in the same direction as airplanes and cars moved years ago. You’re gonna make a building the same way you make an airplane.

Every building project is a one-off, but they’ll now not only be prefabricated but use more industrial processes to do things. This isn’t optional. The amount of projects that need to be done in the next 20, 30 years is going up but the capacity to do them—humans, materials—is not there. We have to move to a higher efficiency, lower waste way of doing these things. It’s the most wasteful industry today.

Autodesk serves the smallest projects to the largest, but our biggest emphasis is for the biggest projects—vertical construction buildings. But technological innovation will all move down the supply chain to smaller projects.

Coming up behind construction, where the technology and customer isn’t quite ready yet, is manufacturing. It’s going through change with the rise of 3D printing and microfactories? That’s going to require a whole new approach to designing things for different types of manufacturing methods. So we’re working on completely new design tools made for small design runs and highly customizable products. Most 3D modeling tools were built up to support certain types of manufacturing methods; the current paradigm is 3D parametric feature-based modeling. With new tools, you can unlock new optionality.

Our AEC business—architecture, engineering, and construction—is about 40% to 50% of our overall business. Another 30% to 40% is manufacturing. And the rest is media and entertainment.

Tell me about your business model transition from licensed software sales to subscriptions.

One could argue that doing both at the same time may have caused us unnecessary pain. But we made a decision and knew it was going to take time. We knew we had to change or this whole transformation wouldn’t work. If we really wanted to move into the future, everything had to move into the future. Otherwise we’d be some chimeric monster that didn’t do anything well.

Thankfully, it takes a long time for products to be adopted in our industry. Even Adobe changed its business model, then started building cloud products afterward. There wasn’t a lot of cloud in Creative Cloud, and it’s a long way away from looking like Office 365.

Your stock has been on a tear since mid-2016.

People finally believed that we could do it.

They didn’t before?

I’m not sure they did. Our business was 90% indirect. Investors were highly skeptical that we could get through the transition to the other side. Now they’re not.

Let’s go back to Adobe for a second. I can’t help but think of that company, which was also founded in 1982 and also a Silicon Valley company that’s made the cloud transition. But Adobe is worth five times as much as Autodesk.

It’s a timing thing. We’re on our way to be a design-and-make company. Adobe is already a create-and-market company. When they bought Omniture, it was the beginning of their marketing cloud. And now they’ve bought Marketo, which adds to it. The creative business and the marketing business, which takes the creative business and puts it out there. As we grow our businesses, you will see our creative suite become as valuable. Adobe has both sides of the business up and running right now.

Autodesk generated $2 billion in revenue last year, impressive for many companies but small in the world of Silicon Valley software companies. What’s holding you back, or is that the wrong way to think about your addressable market?

Construction’s gonna be our next billion-dollar business, there’s no doubt about it. It’s huge and moving quickly. Manufacturing, we’ll probably be able to double it in size in the next five years. Lots of money is being spent. In construction, there’s probably a billion and a half of investment going into that market, and it’s already generated over half a billion dollars in revenue across all these small companies. The opportunity is real.

The businesses you serve span the globe. Are there any macro trends affecting it?

Our whole business is doing well across all geographies right now. It’s kind of unusual. The largest market for construction tech is still the U.S. The next largest will be Europe because it has some fairly advanced general contractors. We’re seeing a fairly robust global market right now.

Let’s talk about artificial intelligence, which is seeping into every facet of the tech industry. How is it working its way into Autodesk?

We talk about it fundamentally as automation. The big thing for us is to bring “design” and “make” closer together.

Let’s look at the building process. Building a building is a very serial process. An architect comes up with a design, they’ll make a design—say it’s spiral—and dare a contractor to build it: “Figure out how the concrete structure is.” We’re automating the conversation between the architect and the general contractor, using machine learning insights to figure out what it will take to make that building. Get them early in the process, you decrease the risk that you can’t build it within budget, and increase optionality. The computer sits behind the scenes, picking and choosing information, facilitating option analysis—how they might solve a particular problem. It doesn’t work this way now, but it’s what we’re working on.

For instance, we do a lot of crunching to figure out if a building is going to stand, or if an architect can maximize the light exposure of a building. What if we’re able to provide architects with options like that?

We recently did a project with General Motors and redesigned a seat bracket as one 3D-printed part. It doesn’t look like anything a human would come up with, but it instantly matched the design requirements. We have a pretty broad space here to play.

Are you concerned about some of the negative aspects of A.I. that have been reported?

We’re automation optimists. When we look at our built world, all we see is a capacity problem—there’s not enough people or time for all the things that need to be built. The middle class is still rising in the world. We can’t build everything that needs to be built without destroying the planet. We see automation as a way to build all these things, better, and with a lot less negative impact on the world. We believe more people will be employed building things because more money will go to building things. Human creativity is valuable. Automation will take away repetitive tasks.

You’re based in San Francisco. A lot of Bay Area tech companies have taken a hit this year for overstepping ethical boundaries or otherwise doing harm to their customers or society. How do you feel about this recent narrative? Do we need regulation?

I don’t believe in unfettered technological proliferation without some kind of rational oversight. One serious problem is we do not have national privacy legislation right now. We need it. We need to define and level the playing field for what is acceptable for how we use people’s data and how we ask for permission to use it. Our ad-based business models right now, we’ve distorted some of the benefits of these technologies. Europe got it partly right with GDPR. And we have California. But it’s every company’s nightmare to have every state set a different version. We need real national legislation. Not some toothless thing; something real.

On a lighter note, you’ve had an interesting path to the CEO job. You dropped out of high school but now have a mechanical engineering degree from Cal State Northridge and then a Masters and Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford. What made you return to formal education and, if I may, engage in the self-flagellation of a lengthy doctoral program?

When I got into trouble as a young man and dropped out of things, I always had a passion for doing certain things. I wanted to be part of the space program and just fell off the rails. When I got back on the rails, though, and started working hard again, I started having fun learning. Can I be good at this? Can I make an impact? The Ph.D thing—you want to catch up and gobble up knowledge and make an impact. I was very excited by parallel computing then. And I honestly felt an obligation to my parents and family that the grief I gave as a young man, their suffering was not for naught.

You’re also a self-proclaimed “space geek.”

I started my career at Lockheed and went to work at NASA Ames. It was my childhood dream; I was very fortunate. But I realized it’s really hard to get things done in large bureaucracies. I saw a lot of people who worked on projects that never actually got done. That was a sad realization for me—spending my whole career working on something that might not happen. And that launched my career into software.

And now you launch cloud software for a living, on a regular basis.

We launch a lot of stuff.