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Xerox PARC invented a lot of stuff we now take for granted, network computers, the GUI, object oriented programming, etc. And it wasn't cheap, and almost all o
by spc476 11y ago
Xerox PARC invented a lot of stuff we now take for granted, network computers, the GUI, object oriented programming, etc. And it wasn't cheap, and almost all of it has nothing to do with the core mission of Xerox.
But one invention that popped out of PARC did---the laser printer. That one invention paid for Xerox PARC many times over (maybe a hundred times over---PARC spent a few million but the laser printer pulled in a few billion).
Fundamental research is expensive in the short term, but it pays off handsomely in the long term (unfortunately, longer than Wall Street will allow it seems).
- booop 11y ago> maybe a hundred times over---PARC spent a few million but the laser printer pulled in a few billion Difference being Xerox made billions after spending a few million on research. Alphabet/Google on the other hand have poured in billions into what are now called their 'Other Bets' over the past two years and despite what impact they've made the revenues have been dismal and growth was stagnant last year.
- AnthonyMouse 11y agoYou're looking at it on the wrong timescale. Two years is nothing. This is, again, the failing of modern business school and investor logic. If you spend a billion dollars a year to produce something that will go on to generate ten billion dollars a year in profit forevermore, but produces nothing for the first five or so years, looking at it on a two year timescale is clearly not going to produce an accurate picture of its long-term profitability.