Spain as 51st state | 54 comments (54 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Spain as 51st state (4.00 / 2)

If you carefully examine MicroSoft you'll find all of their breakthrough products were bought or developed outside of the company.

Msdos? The product that made the company what it is today? Bought from Seattle Computer Products.

Excel? Bought.

Windows? Developed at PARC (1970-1975,) developers hired by Apple for the Lisa (started in 1978,) and MicroSoft copied it and jumped in with Windows 3.0 ... in 1990.

There are some first class people doing first class work but management insistence on a 3 month pay-back time horizon shoots the ability to sit and think and fail. Which is the sina qua non of research.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Mon Dec 13th, 2010 at 10:11:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spain as 51st state (none / 1)

ATinNM:

There are some first class people doing first class work but management insistence on a 3 month pay-back time horizon shoots the ability to sit and think and fail. Which is the sina qua non of research.

You could say the same about academia - in this case the payback being publication.

Of all the ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today — Mervyn King, 25 October 2010

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Dec 14th, 2010 at 04:08:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spain as 51st state (none / 1)

Nah, academia has a payback horizon of about 12 months.

Besides, one of the dirty little secrets of publication is that as long as your paper is intelligible, you can usually find a journal that will publish it after a couple of tries. In a pinch, you can submit it as a conference poster. So there are safety valves for failed projects, although of course they should not be called upon too often.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Dec 14th, 2010 at 04:19:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Spain as 51st state | 54 comments (54 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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