If I go to start a personal project, I very rarely get anywhere unless I'm approaching it from the perspective of solving a specific need. I have to hold that n

If I go to start a personal project, I very rarely get anywhere unless I'm approaching it from the perspective of solving a specific need. I have to hold that need in mind and let it carry me through to completion, otherwise the inspiration gets blunted when yak-shaving turns into distraction. Just going home one day and saying, "I'm going to work on something" and then looking for something to work on never yields anything of use at the end of it. A need has to burn before I can make appreciable progress on it. And once it's burning, it has my undivided attention until I can call my intervention complete and I can relax. Companies can waste all kinds of money on building things that don't yet have burning needs. But if they want to be efficient with their spending, they need to treat that sort of thing with the same kid gloves as any other kind of research. As money you probably won't ever get back and won't lead to immediate revenue growth. As something you don't understand but hope to as a result of the process. Because building 'infrastructure' is planning for a future that doesn't exist yet. Either solve a need, or go looking for one. The two should never be conflated because they require different mindsets.