Quotes from Megan Smith

The things you're passionate about and interested in, get experience with them by going deep on projects. I would encourage science projects, plays. Pursue science, math, writing, history - the 21st century demands a lot of cross-disciplinary thinking.

Just remember everything happens for a reason. We just have to pick ourselves up, and look on the bright side of life.

The more people we can attract to science and technology - men, women, everybody - the more economic opportunity we have as a nation.

Across our great nation, we've begun to see an acceleration of the power of data to deliver value.

I was lucky that science fair was mandatory at my high school in inner-city Buffalo.

For those of you who are underrepresented in technology, know that you've always been here. Look in photos and see yourself reflecting back.

I have been able to attend many technology conferences around the world over the years, including some of the largest, like Google I/O, Microsoft's Developer Conference, Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference, Oracle World, Le Web, and more.

Thinking through how to make sure we're bringing incredible toys and experiences and that to our girls and our boys at some point is really important for this country for the world in general.

People can get into very bad habits of arguing ideas and shutting them down.

Science class is traditionally taught as science history class - you learn all these facts that someone else discovered, which you need to know, but that's not really an inspiring way to learn science.

Americans really expect to interact with our government digitally.

What was so special about the Mac, we all know, was the graphical computer interface.

To me, there's so much talent in the world that's locked out for the wrong reasons, whether it's innovators at the highest end where we need to change the regulation systems, or whether it's the talented people who work here who the bureaucracy's holding back, or the amazing American people.

It's very difficult to solve a lot of problems from the top down.

Flipping our classrooms into active learning spaces really is important and having these convenient spaces where people feel comfortable.

You've got Americans who are making Amazon and Facebook and Twitter. That level of American needs to run future government.

We know that diversity can sometimes be more uncomfortable because things are less familiar - but it gets the best results.

I like to work at the beginning of projects. Once they get stable, I'll hand them off.

I'm on the MIT board, and a lot of our buildings now have daycare centers; it's becoming a standard.

The mandate for the CTO's office is to unleash the power of technology, data, and innovation on behalf of the nation. The CTO's office is really trying to bring best practices, possibilities, pilots, and policy advising.

There's this fabulous innovation ship called Unreasonable at Sea, where I'm a mentor. One of the companies there was called Protei, and they're an open hardware ocean exploration and monitoring idea.

It's much easier to fail when you're in the pilot, early stage, when it's less expensive and you're exploring than when you're way out the door and you've spent all this money. Industry is smart: structured to have skunkworks and pilot phases.

The American government will be whatever we all make of it.

There are several places in Vietnam where they're teaching computer science from second grade in class, so they don't have a gender divide because everybody is expected to program.