DARPA explores the art of the possible. DIU is more like YC with deeper pockets. Replace Paul Graham with Ash Carter. They have government customers with requi

DARPA explores the art of the possible. DIU is more like YC with deeper pockets. Replace Paul Graham with Ash Carter. They have government customers with requirements and their job is to find companies who are capable of building them. They are more interested in the people than the product. They don't care about the prototype MMPRG that pits cats vs dogs on your cell phone, they care about the distributed systems engineers who built it. So DIU is staffed by scientists, engineers and military operators who have proven their ability to execute at an exquisitely high level. Ash Carter was Obama's last SECDEF. He got a Rhodes scholarship and instead of going to Oxford to get a master's, he went to Oxford and got a PhD in theoretical physics (in 3 years). He was instrumental in the MX missile basing decision, the Nunn-Luger denuclearization deal, correcting the mistakes that bogged down the F35 deal, and much of the weapons developments, nuclear and conventional, in the DoD for the last 40 years. On his way out the door he created the Defense Innovation Board, which led to the development of the JAIC and continues to guide both DIU and the JAIC.