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> The usual order is "find a problem, build a solution", not "find a technology, build a solution, work out who has a problem it can solve". Well, there is a w

> The usual order is "find a problem, build a solution", not "find a technology, build a solution, work out who has a problem it can solve". Well, there is a whole industry of universities of finding a technology and then licensing it out or spinning a company off to do something with it. It may be that it's very hard to do if you don't have all the things a university does going for it, but it does work in some cases. Another way to look at it is to consider that if a technology excels at offering capabilities in a certain domain, and a certain industry is known to require capabilities in a certain domain, if there is a good fit for it, it will probably eventually be deployed there. But if you can be first, there's likely money to be made. In that respect, I imagine a "CEO of a medical blockchain startup which is trying to find actual meaningful use cases" is really just someone (or a small group of people) doing intensive research to try to locate the match if it exists and be the first to provide it. A gamble, but one okay odds given the potential payoff.

JohnFen 8y ago
> there is a whole industry of universities of finding a technology and then licensing it out or spinning a company off to do something with it. Kinda sorta, but that's a difference in kind. Most university research tends to be "basic research", meaning that it tends to be focused on understanding how things work rather than developing anything that is immediately useful. In the course of doing that, sometimes something immediately useful is developed -- but that's not the most common case. This sort of research is not "finding a solution, then looking for a problem to solve". It's simply trying to figure out how our world works.
- kbenson 8y ago
  If you look at all their research, sure, but then you might as well include all their education too, which muddies it more. They definitely seem to also go for directed advances in specific areas. For example, battery technology. Usually, what's developed isn't something to replace the current best choice for most applications, but sometimes it does have features that make it extremely useful for specific applications (such as a very quick charge or discharge time). Was the university research intended to increase the understanding of the topic overall? Likely. Were they also hoping to develop something they could make some revenue from? Surely.
  - JohnFen 8y ago
    > Were they also hoping to develop something they could make some revenue from? Surely. That depends on who you mean by "they". The researchers themselves generally don't give this any thought. The university administration, however, is always hoping for additional revenue streams.

JohnFen 8y ago

> there is a whole industry of universities of finding a technology and then licensing it out or spinning a company off to do something with it. Kinda sorta, but that's a difference in kind. Most university research tends to be "basic research", meaning that it tends to be focused on understanding how things work rather than developing anything that is immediately useful. In the course of doing that, sometimes something immediately useful is developed -- but that's not the most common case. This sort of research is not "finding a solution, then looking for a problem to solve". It's simply trying to figure out how our world works.

kbenson 8y ago
If you look at all their research, sure, but then you might as well include all their education too, which muddies it more. They definitely seem to also go for directed advances in specific areas. For example, battery technology. Usually, what's developed isn't something to replace the current best choice for most applications, but sometimes it does have features that make it extremely useful for specific applications (such as a very quick charge or discharge time). Was the university research intended to increase the understanding of the topic overall? Likely. Were they also hoping to develop something they could make some revenue from? Surely.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > Were they also hoping to develop something they could make some revenue from? Surely. That depends on who you mean by "they". The researchers themselves generally don't give this any thought. The university administration, however, is always hoping for additional revenue streams.