John Hennessy is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and academic known for his significant

contributions to computer architecture. He co-developed the risk architecture, which revolutionized

modern computing by enabling faster and more efficient processors. Hennessy served as the president

of Stanford University from 2000 to 2016 and later

co-founded MIPP's computer systems and atheros communications.

Currently, he serves on the board of the Gordon and Bettimore Foundation and is the chair

of the board of Alphabet.

John received the 2017 Turing Award for, quote, pioneering a systematic, quantitative approach

to the design and evaluation of computer architectures with enduring impact on the microprocessor

industry. In this episode, he joins Kevin Ball to talk about his life and career.

Kevin Ball, or K. Ball, is the vice president of engineering at Mento and an independent coach for engineers and engineering leaders.

He co-founded and served as CTO for two companies, founded the San Diego JavaScript Meetup, and organizes the AI inaction discussion group through latent space.

Check out the show notes to follow KBall on Twitter or LinkedIn or visit his website, kball.l. LLC.

John, welcome to the show.

Thanks. Delighted to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to dig in. So, I mean, somebody with your

background, you get introduced all the time. It kind of speaks for itself and you've got so many

things you could say. I'm actually curious, if you were designing your own introduction,

how would you introduce yourself to an audience?

That's a good question. I'd say I have been extremely fortunate to have entered the computer

field in its early days and to be able to do incredible things because of the remarkable

advances that have been made in the field.

And that's been just incredibly exciting. And I'm so glad I decided to be a computer person.

...