11–20 of 62 posts
Is Google X anything more than a PR heavy version of Xerox PARC or any other R&D lab that tech companies have had?
My former boss (CTO of Panasonic) once told me that the only way to do real R&D is to have a monopoly that allows you to hide the margins in cutting edge R&D. Everyone else was doing just product development. Google X is amazing in that it is about the only one left doing true bluesky R&D. Everyone else is just doing product development.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My former boss (CTO of Panasonic) once told me that the only way to do real R&D is to have a monopoly that allows you to hide the margins in cutting edge R&D. Everyone else was doing just product development. Google X is amazing in that it is about the only one left doing true bluesky R&D. Everyone else is just doing product development.
What about Microsoft Research?
what about them?
Is Google X anything more than a PR heavy version of Xerox PARC or any other R&D lab that tech companies have had?
My former boss (CTO of Panasonic) once told me that the only way to do real R&D is to have a monopoly that allows you to hide the margins in cutting edge R&D. Everyone else was doing just product development. Google X is amazing in that it is about the only one left doing true bluesky R&D. Everyone else is just doing product development.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about Microsoft Research?
http://www.eweek.com/it-management/microsoft-lays-off-2100-c... what about them?
http://research.microsoft.com/apps/catalog/default.aspx?t=pe...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about Microsoft Research?
http://www.eweek.com/it-management/microsoft-lays-off-2100-c... what about them?
Is Google X anything more than a PR heavy version of Xerox PARC or any other R&D lab that tech companies have had?
Well, at least three of its products are being used in the real world (Glass, Loon, Self-driving cars) and at least one is actually being sold (Glass), so yes.
PARC in specific gave us Ethernet, which I think is safe to describe as "being used in the real world."
Google has a long way to go; so far, all of its real contributions have been in software, and all of their hardware R&D has seen very little "real world" deployment. Otherwise it's very much just a well-marketed implementation of traditional corporate R&D.
Is Google X anything more than a PR heavy version of Xerox PARC or any other R&D lab that tech companies have had?
My former boss (CTO of Panasonic) once told me that the only way to do real R&D is to have a monopoly that allows you to hide the margins in cutting edge R&D. Everyone else was doing just product development. Google X is amazing in that it is about the only one left doing true bluesky R&D. Everyone else is just doing product development.
This idea is from Joseph Schumpeter. The same guy who coined the phrase "creative destruction."
Ironically, if he has left to concentrate on Udacity, my own belief is that he is a poor teacher. Of course it depends on which pedagogical teat you are sucking from, but my experience of Thrun's delivered Udacity courses is poor. Many of his video segments seem to involve him slavishly following his 'script', occasionally hissing out encouraging phrases such as 'Isn't this great!'. He hasn't sequenced a series of lo…
Ironically, if he has left to concentrate on Udacity, my own belief is that he is a poor teacher. Of course it depends on which pedagogical teat you are sucking from, but my experience of Thrun's delivered Udacity courses is poor. Many of his video segments seem to involve him slavishly following his 'script', occasionally hissing out encouraging phrases such as 'Isn't this great!'. He hasn't sequenced a series of lo…
Udacity has done what any good start-up should and launched a solid MVP and iterated on it, delivering free, in-demand courses in a short amount of time. No, the materials and scripts have not always perfect but they are still more valuable than many college courses I've taken. If he is in fact leaving to focus energy on Udacity, isn't that a positive move in regards to your critiques?