Bob Metcalfe answers some seriously hilarious questions asked by fans of Reddit's AMA (Ask Me Anything). Learn what he thinks about Jennifer Lawrence and Chipotle.

1. Pay it.
What's your view on Chipotle charging extra for guacamole?
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

2. Did your invention make you wildly rich? :)
Selling,
not inventing, Ethernet left
me with a fortune which is a
significant fraction of a milliGates.
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

3. I do not know who that is.
What do you think about Jennifer Lawrence?
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

4. Ethernet cables should be yellow.
And that's that.
Bob, I use black CAT5 in my systems. Opinions?
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

5. Just
back from hiking Patagonia...
As for profit, it is not a four-letter word.
Profit is proof of added value. Make
some money today...
What do you think about [Yvon Choinard’s] business philosophies? Like“At Patagonia,
making a profit is not the goal because the Zen master would say profits happen 'when
you do everything else right'.”
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

6. Trick is
not to think of failure as failure.
Trick is to expect negative results on
many experiments. Fail often and fast.
[Take] course corrections.
…How many times did you have to fail before you actually produced results and what do you
suggest for staying optimistic and keep on working when progress is very slow?
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

7. Maybe you can tie them
up better with Cat5?
We are cat people. We like having two of them at a time. We try to keep them inside, but unfortunately
they escape occasionally, and sometimes they get run over, so we are now on our fourth and fifth cats. It
was my turn to name the newest cat member of our family, and I chose the name Cat5. Thank you.
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

8. Was your invention intended to be as huge as it was?
Depends on which year. At the
start, in 1973, the goal was mainly to print
on our new laser printer. By 1980, world
domination was the goal
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

9. My Network II teacher talks of you as a god. His name is Dr. Bainum
and I was wondering if you can ask him to give me an A in his class.
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet
Dear Dr. Bainum,
Although I do not know him from
Adam, ImaginaryTrend strikes me as a
Network II student deserving of an A.
/Bob Metcalfe, UTAustin Professor of
Innovation

10. Did you purposely design the clips on the Ethernet cables to break when pulling them out?
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet
That was some other
inventor of Ethernet.

11. Why is commercially available networking still such a pain in the a**?
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet
I am sorry for that.
Try to forgive me.

12. Bob, I love you! If you had to fight one inventor from history who would you choose
and… also side question, do you think you could win in a fight against BJ Novak?
Careful, bar fighting
is one of my hobbies.
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

13. What's your favorite internet pun?
Internet
evangelist Vint Cerf goes around
saying "IP on everything."
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet

14. You’re not a very good network technician.
Hey, enough with that. Back off.
Ask Me Anything with Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet