3 ms·

I can't speak for the previous commenter but it does seem there is a different character to the research work happening at FAANG-scale companies (which is still

by treyd 3y ago

I can't speak for the previous commenter but it does seem there is a different character to the research work happening at FAANG-scale companies (which is still generally in service of their corporate strategy) vs the work that happened at Bell Labs back in the day (which was more abstract and less directly-commercializable). Bell Labs was more of a large team of brilliant researchers with ample resources to support their work, and it just had to be useful to somebody rather than be part of a product/service that could be sold directly.

shortrounddev2 3y ago
You're right. The invention of the transistor was a multi-decade effort by scientists working outside of regular hours, essentially inventing the field of solid state physics. It's hard to imagine such a technology coming out of a publicly traded company like Google or Apple, whose year-to-year or even quarter-to-quarter behavior is as sensitive to changes in interest rates and short term market conditions as a balloon in the wind.
deleted 3y ago
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throwaway7868 3y ago
> which was more abstract and less directly-commercializable Related acecdote: Charles Townes described that after the invention of the maser, he had to make a case for Bell Labs to patent it, against some resistance. As he described it, the eventual winning phrase was: "Well, it could be used for telecomunication".