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they also do a lot of commercialization of stuff for which the early-stage R&D was done in academia, at government research labs, etc. So they turn it from som
by byrneseyeview 16y ago
they also do a lot of commercialization of stuff for which the early-stage R&D was done in academia, at government research labs, etc.
So they turn it from something of theoretical value to something that actually improves people's lives--to the point that they're willing to part with money to have it? That seems to add a lot more utility on the margin. Of course, it wouldn't mean anything if there weren't inventions to subsidize.
- _delirium 16y agoYeah, I'm not arguing that commercialization isn't useful; it's the main way theoretically valuable ideas get actually produced. But I think it can be very helpful to innovative industries to have this big stock of theoretically-valuable ideas waiting to be mined for commercialization. Otherwise you either only get incremental advances, or you need big firms with their own R&D groups (like Microsoft Research). You can also have startups based on blue-skies research in some areas (especially pharma), but investors in most areas are pretty wary of funding a startup that has too much basic research in their critical path, due to the high risk.