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"Moonshot" is a Google term for "we are going to put some money into this really long-shot idea, with the hope that even if we don't achieve the stated objectiv
by dguaraglia 11y ago
"Moonshot" is a Google term for "we are going to put some money into this really long-shot idea, with the hope that even if we don't achieve the stated objective we'll get some cool technology/IP out of it." Take a look a Project Loon and (initially) Google Fiber for other "moonshots."
That said, Google projects benefit from having a huge infrastructure and amazing academic links (you can collaborate with Stanford/MIT/etc. to generate research.) It's not just a startup starting from scratch with $50m, but an established player with deep pockets and amazing connections. Wanna collaborate with the leading specialist in this field? Google can make it happen. Wanna try some algorithm in 20k cores for a few weeks? Go for it. Wanna lobby around to get government involvement? There's a whole department for that.
- mikeash 11y agoBut it's an analogy to Apollo, right? Which wasn't just a long shot, but one with enormous funding. Maybe they should pick a new term if they want to describe a long-shot that gets almost no funding.
- randcraw 11y agoHow about "Shot in the Dark"? Or "1024:1 Shot"?
- mikeash 11y ago"Long shot"? English already has a good shot-based idiom here.
- dguaraglia 11y agoI actually don't know the timeline. I wonder if people were using the expression "shooting for the moon" before Apollo happened, or if the moon race was what generated the phrase?
- mikeash 11y agoFrom what I can dig up casually, it looks like "moonshot" is from the space race, dating to 1958, but "shoot for the moon" might be earlier. And according to this, "shoot the moon" means to leave without paying rent: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=&search=shoot+for+the+moon&searchmode=none http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=&search... Which is kind of funny.