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Funny that you cite two projects that are still very "academic" (read: not market ready) as triumphs of PhDs. I don't think PhDs are useless and I know Google h
by fixxer 14y ago
Funny that you cite two projects that are still very "academic" (read: not market ready) as triumphs of PhDs. I don't think PhDs are useless and I know Google has some very good ones... but I'll bet dollars to donuts that they were good long before anyone called them "Doctor". For a pre-Google example of awesome projects not dominated by PhDs, consider Skunk Works.
- rayiner 14y agoYou mean this Skunk Works, headed by Alton D. Romig, PhD? http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2018245979_inpersonromig21.html http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2018245979_i... ("Education: B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in materials science and engineering from Lehigh University.") It's true that Ben Rich and Kelly Johnson had "only" masters degrees, but Skunk Works was started back at a time when that was a common terminal degree for research engineers. There is of course nothing magical about the PhD. What's magical is working within a research institution that has real resources to do real research. You generally don't have access to those resources if you go off on your own.
- fixxer 14y agoAgain, your basis for making this "magical" statement is questionable. I'm in a research institution with considerable resources and it ain't magic. It is, however, a lot of bureaucracy and poor resource management (and 60% overhead! talk about an innovation killer!).