Shifting the impossible to the inevitable: A Private ARPA user manual • Hacker News Board

Re: Shifting the impossible to the inevitable: A Private ARPA user manual

#11

Post by sideshowb » Fri, May 07, 2021, 12:02 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #6

sideshowb wrote: post #5

This puts a lot of importance on a hybrid non-profit/for profit structure, yet many universities have this already. I agree there is a gap in innovation to be filled but I'm guessing this org would do well to study why university hybrid structures don't deliver that already.

I'd blame the other hybrid structure - being a hybrid research/education facility :). My current belief[0] is that most of the financial waste we observe in universities - the deep layers of middle-level administration, the expensive sports facilities, etc. - all have to do with attracting and managing students. Eliminate that requirement, and a big money sink goes away. -- [0] - Though low-confidence, as I haven't s…

True, but also a big money earner goes away. The question is which one was bigger!

Re: Shifting the impossible to the inevitable: A Private ARPA user manual

#12

Post by jimmyswimmy » Fri, May 07, 2021, 12:22 PM UTC

If you're going to create a new ARPA, don't forget to put strict limits on the tenure of your PMs, and high expectations on the outcomes of their projects. This will ensure the usual DARPA program has unreasonable and unachievable schedules. For bonus points make sure your PMs treat their performing contractors as disposable.

I've worked several programs for DARPA and do not recommend it. The roughly 5 year maximum tenure of a PM there forces ridiculous schedules which culminate in a project that is passed on to the next PM to take the role. The new PM is busy with her own ideas and is completely uninterested in the old one's project. It's not that satisfying to work for these guys despite the fading cachet of their name.

Re: Shifting the impossible to the inevitable: A Private ARPA user manual

#13

Post by mkoubaa » Fri, May 07, 2021, 12:32 PM UTC

Agree with the general sentiment about wordiness and I hope the author can condense his thoughts in future iterations of this. One quote I want to point out:

"concretely stating "I think doing this will work" opens you up to the terrifying possibility of being provably wrong"

I wish people didn't think this way. Be confident about your ideas and be willing to accept that they will be catastrophically wrong. It doesn't mean you're dumb it just means you were wrong

Re: Shifting the impossible to the inevitable: A Private ARPA user manual

#14

Post by whatshisface » Fri, May 07, 2021, 3:20 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #4

jacobobryant wrote: post #2

I read parts of this over the weekend after finding it via "We need a career path for invention"[1], another good article. Both of them focus on the idea that there's an unfilled space right now between research and entrepreneurship. From the latter: > The bottom line is that if a young person wants to focus their career on invention—as distinct from scientific research, corporate engineering, or entrepreneurship—the…

This makes me think of something that's been sitting in my quotes file for years: "What one wants is to be able to talk with a diverse club of smart people, arrange to do short one- off research projects and simulations, publish papers or capture intellectual property quickly and easily, and move on to another conversation. Quickly. Easily. For a living. Can’t do that in industry. Can’t do that in the Academy. Yet in…

It's impossible to have a system where inventors can capture intellectual property "quickly and easily," because after about a year there will be so much captured intellectual property floating around that every engineer has to become a patent lawyer and licensing negotiator to keep their own addition to the pile from infringing.