I imagine Bell Labs would have been an incredible place if only based on people that worked there. I wonder how close IBM and HP were at their research peaks.

I imagine Bell Labs would have been an incredible place if only based on people that worked there. I wonder how close IBM and HP were at their research peaks. Also, I should mention that I wasn't intentionally picking on yc companies and perhaps that was the wrong choice. Some of the technology coming out of a few of them seems to be more interesting than some of the best labs. I know that isn't the goal, but it certainly isn't bad side effect! I really only meant to pick on the droves of obscure, uninteresting <insert social aspect here> startups.