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I’ll note at the end of the last century I worked at IBM research which had a budget of 6 Billion dollars. Management was trying very hard to get better return

I’ll note at the end of the last century I worked at IBM research which had a budget of 6 Billion dollars. Management was trying very hard to get better return on that investment. Even today IBM though often ridiculed in the tech space (sometimes they do deserve it) spends a lot on R&D.

NordStreamYacht 6mo ago
Lucent at the same time went through the same issue: how to monetise Bell Labs. Bell Labs greatest work came out when AT&T was a monopoly. Once they were broken up (1984?) they started feeling the pain. When the Lucent spinoff took place, the new entities had no Monopoly money to fund unconstrained research while management's behaviour never changed. I don't know how BL fared under Alcatel and now Nokia, but haven't heard of anything interesting for years.
- Zigurd 6mo ago
  I've been to the Holmdel office in the decline years. It was very sad. A fraction of the former staff was rattling around in what could've been used for a post apocalyptic sci-fi set. In its heyday it must've been magnificent. Imagine taking an entire great research university and putting it into a single architectural masterpiece. I've also been to Nokia HQ after Elop ruined the place. Also sad.
  - 7402 6mo ago
    > could've been used for a post apocalyptic sci-fi set Of course, it was! AppleTV show “Severance” https://www.newsweek.com/lumon-building-severance-real-visit-real-life-2041285 https://www.newsweek.com/lumon-building-severance-real-visit...
  - neal_jones 6mo ago
    Could be mistaken but isn’t that building used for the Severance tv show?
rvba 6mo ago
Did anything come out from those billions?
- swiftcoder 6mo ago
  > Did anything come out from those billions? Per wikipedia: IBM employees have garnered six Nobel Prizes, seven Turing Awards, 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame, 19 National Medals of Technology, five National Medals of Science and three Kavli Prizes. As of 2018, the company had generated more patents than any other business in each of 25 consecutive years.
  - xienze 6mo ago
    > the company had generated more patents than any other business in each of 25 consecutive years. A couple things about those patents, from a former IBMer who has quite a few in his time there. First, not all patents are created equal. Most of those IBM patents are software-related, and for pretty trivial stuff. Second, most of those patents are generated by the rank and file employees, not research scientists. The IBM patent process is a well-oiled machine but they ain't exactly patenting transistor-level breakthroughs thousands of times a year.
    - fao_ 6mo ago
      Why do you need to generate transistor-level breakthroughs multiple times a year? Those breakthroughs are hard to generate, but they're important and industry-spanning. The problem is we've mostly stopped generating them.
      - xienze 6mo ago
        I wasn't saying anything about that, I was just pointing out that yes, IBM produces a ton of patents, but they're mostly trivial junk that regular employees generate en masse in order to earn accomplishments and make up for the insultingly low bonuses.

NordStreamYacht 6mo ago

Lucent at the same time went through the same issue: how to monetise Bell Labs. Bell Labs greatest work came out when AT&T was a monopoly. Once they were broken up (1984?) they started feeling the pain. When the Lucent spinoff took place, the new entities had no Monopoly money to fund unconstrained research while management's behaviour never changed. I don't know how BL fared under Alcatel and now Nokia, but haven't heard of anything interesting for years.

Zigurd 6mo ago
I've been to the Holmdel office in the decline years. It was very sad. A fraction of the former staff was rattling around in what could've been used for a post apocalyptic sci-fi set. In its heyday it must've been magnificent. Imagine taking an entire great research university and putting it into a single architectural masterpiece. I've also been to Nokia HQ after Elop ruined the place. Also sad.
- 7402 6mo ago
  > could've been used for a post apocalyptic sci-fi set Of course, it was! AppleTV show “Severance” https://www.newsweek.com/lumon-building-severance-real-visit-real-life-2041285 https://www.newsweek.com/lumon-building-severance-real-visit...
- neal_jones 6mo ago
  Could be mistaken but isn’t that building used for the Severance tv show?

rvba 6mo ago

Did anything come out from those billions?

swiftcoder 6mo ago
> Did anything come out from those billions? Per wikipedia: IBM employees have garnered six Nobel Prizes, seven Turing Awards, 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame, 19 National Medals of Technology, five National Medals of Science and three Kavli Prizes. As of 2018, the company had generated more patents than any other business in each of 25 consecutive years.
- xienze 6mo ago
  > the company had generated more patents than any other business in each of 25 consecutive years. A couple things about those patents, from a former IBMer who has quite a few in his time there. First, not all patents are created equal. Most of those IBM patents are software-related, and for pretty trivial stuff. Second, most of those patents are generated by the rank and file employees, not research scientists. The IBM patent process is a well-oiled machine but they ain't exactly patenting transistor-level breakthroughs thousands of times a year.
  - fao_ 6mo ago
    Why do you need to generate transistor-level breakthroughs multiple times a year? Those breakthroughs are hard to generate, but they're important and industry-spanning. The problem is we've mostly stopped generating them.
    - xienze 6mo ago
      I wasn't saying anything about that, I was just pointing out that yes, IBM produces a ton of patents, but they're mostly trivial junk that regular employees generate en masse in order to earn accomplishments and make up for the insultingly low bonuses.