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As is becoming abundantly clear, the world is run by politicians with little to no understanding or respect for science. These people, like most, believe in the
by FD3SA 13y ago
As is becoming abundantly clear, the world is run by politicians with little to no understanding or respect for science. These people, like most, believe in the "genius" theory, where an Einstein just magically appears and make a huge breakthrough once every hundred years. They don't understand that science is a slow, incremental process which happens over hundreds of years, and requires steady investment for progress to continue.
As it stands, the politicians could care less if we entered another dark age. All they care about are votes, and power.
I hope the best for this initiative at YC, but having known brilliant scientists, they are the furthest thing from entrepreneurs. They are intrinsically motivated, and don't care much for fame, money or prestige. As such, most are terrible at making sales pitches.
Sam makes it abundantly clear that there won't be another Bell Labs. Sadly, that is precisely what we need. The real breakthroughs will require extremely slow, deep thinkers which have the autonomy and time to work on very hard problems without interruption in the form of sales pitches, VC meetings, demo days, and above all a constant scramble for funding.
This [1] is the closest I've seen to a modern day Bell Labs.
1. http://janelia.org/ http://janelia.org/
- DaniFong 13y agoYou would find it fascinating, illuminating, and mind changing to read David Wootton's biography of Galileo. An outstanding scientist, and a relentless hustler like you would not believe. There are schleps involved in doing great work of all kinds. People capable of true greatness overcome them.
- danelectro 13y agoBy schleps I assume you don't mean people, but tasks. Such as filling hundreds of test tubes or soldering as many connections as you can do, or writing code that is necessarily huge but represents a small concept. Hustling is one of those tasks surely too. You have to be able to balance the selling and/or delivery in some way to keep the ball rolling. Not many scientists, especially researchers, are entrepreneurs but those that have lived by their own technology might just be the ones that have the abilities that would be good for investors. Still may not be very "brilliant" compared to working for an institution. Depends on the person. >most are terrible at making sales pitches. Oh, well. Given capital, a breakthrough entrepreneur can turn a used car salesman into a technical representative, there will always be a time or place when persuasiveness is critical. Looks like Musk could use a number of car dealers about now. It's supposed to be easier to find sales talent than accomplished scientists. Bell Labs I always thought was exactly what Bell needed, since they were living on their own technology. Has anybody here worked for 2Wire? I've got some interesting theories. I think it's no Bell Labs but I could be wrong. That could be another thread. >The real breakthroughs will require extremely slow, deep thinkers which have the autonomy and time to work on very hard problems without interruption in the form of sales pitches, VC meetings, demo days, and above all a constant scramble for funding. Two ways of doing this are to be really big or be really small. Janelia does look interesting but who owns the product of your research? Probably whoever builds the lab. I druther build my own lab. How many well-equipped non-institutional researchers are there any more anyway? I thought so. Odds are pretty slim. If you don't do it your dang self it just might not get done. But genius, the exceptional individual, "Great Man" or "Great Woman", is not just a theory, Einstein & Curie did appear. And true quantum leaps were made.
- FD3SA 13y agoI am a huge fan of extroverted scientists such as Galileo and Feynman. But assuming all great thinkers are extroverted is doing scientific progress a disservice [1][2]. YC bases its model on picking winners who are excellent self-promoters. I believe there should be another way to support research for those who are not extroverted, but are extremely talented such as Perelman or Henry Cavendish. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cavendish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cavendish
- comatose_kid 13y agoWozniak's genius might never have been exposed to the broader world had he not paired with a Steve Jobs.
- FD3SA 13y agoPrecisely. It seems to me insane that there are Wozniaks out there who are undiscovered. We shouldn't need to depend on a Jobs to find an introverted genius. Woz could have done wonders at a Bell Labs or equivalent. He was successful regardless due to his interests being aligned with the growing microcomputer industry at the time, but he would not have been as lucky had he been born in another era. My point is that we need research institutions with stable funding over long periods for talented people to push the boundaries of science, without relying on the circuses of VCs and Wall St.
- comatose_kid 13y agoOkay, thanks for the clarification. Definitely agree that research institutions have an important role (alongside VCs) in fostering innovation.