Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

madned.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 109 posts

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#51

Post by lobsterthief »

appplication wrote: post #30
zck wrote: post #3

It's interesting thinking about this. In my career, I would not think nearly anything I've done resembles research. Just pumping out development tasks. The one thing I can think of that was like research was really enjoyable. I should think about how to get more of this in my career. Even making personal projects isn't exactly "research".

I was on a moonshot team in a previous role. Research is a lot of fun to get paid for certainly doesn’t necessarily imply academic (being a DS lends to a bit more of this than typical SWE). In my experience it’s big open problems that no one really expects you to solve, and rarely would there be any top down direction on how to do so. And those problems aren’t always e.g. mathematical. It could be figuring out how a…

This sounds right up my alley. Any suggestion on roles/titles/companies to keep an eye out for? I’ve been a SWE for 20+ years and have a background in mechanical engineering

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#52

Post by appplication »

lobsterthief wrote: post #51
appplication wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was on a moonshot team in a previous role. Research is a lot of fun to get paid for certainly doesn’t necessarily imply academic (being a DS lends to a bit more of this than typical SWE). In my experience it’s big open problems that no one really expects you to solve, and rarely would there be any top down direction on how to do so. And those problems aren’t always e.g. mathematical. It could be figuring out how a…

This sounds right up my alley. Any suggestion on roles/titles/companies to keep an eye out for? I’ve been a SWE for 20+ years and have a background in mechanical engineering

Research scientist is one common role I’ve seen, but there are often supplemental engineering roles for these as well. Another way to find these is look for moonshot projects at any major company. Basically divisions that are outside of the core product and business operations. Some risk in these though, since they can be the first cut in a bad economy.

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#53

Post by harimau777 »

williamcotton wrote: post #40
calamari4065 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire industry of CAD

What does that have to do with implementing a 2D model of a room with movable furniture? How is paper not accessible? Do people not have note paper? What about junk mail? The last few pages of a book? You can make a scale ruler with any uniform markings.

This doesn't necessarily apply to every situation, but drawing, cutting out, and positioning paper takes more manual dexterity (and potentially artistic ability) than moving things around on a computer.

Pieces of paper are also likely to shift if you need to move things around frequently.

In a small apartment, surface space could be limited.

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#54

Post by harimau777 »

appplication wrote: post #30
zck wrote: post #3

It's interesting thinking about this. In my career, I would not think nearly anything I've done resembles research. Just pumping out development tasks. The one thing I can think of that was like research was really enjoyable. I should think about how to get more of this in my career. Even making personal projects isn't exactly "research".

I was on a moonshot team in a previous role. Research is a lot of fun to get paid for certainly doesn’t necessarily imply academic (being a DS lends to a bit more of this than typical SWE). In my experience it’s big open problems that no one really expects you to solve, and rarely would there be any top down direction on how to do so. And those problems aren’t always e.g. mathematical. It could be figuring out how a…

What does the acronym DS mean? Digital Systems?

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#55

Post by appplication »

harimau777 wrote: post #54
appplication wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was on a moonshot team in a previous role. Research is a lot of fun to get paid for certainly doesn’t necessarily imply academic (being a DS lends to a bit more of this than typical SWE). In my experience it’s big open problems that no one really expects you to solve, and rarely would there be any top down direction on how to do so. And those problems aren’t always e.g. mathematical. It could be figuring out how a…

What does the acronym DS mean? Digital Systems?

Oh, my mistake for assuming familiarity! Data Science in this case.

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#56

Post by ok_dad »

rm445 wrote: post #32

Nothing in this article pertains to actual research - development has always included elements of design. Interesting article otherwise though. I've been in an organisation that was actively winding down the research side of R&D. Lots of chemists and physicists let go, or at least not replaced. Projects that had gone nowhere for years canned; people with no output for years canned. More focus on product roadmaps. Wha…

> people with no output for years canned

Often I see this happen, and the result is the company loses out somehow. I think maybe metrics for “output” are wrong in many cases, and you’ve just canned someone who had a useful or even critical role you didn’t know about. A lot of people who are important to company operations are invisible!

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#57

Post by Kamq »

araes wrote: post #13
coffeebeqn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Soviet civil disobedience. You can’t break the rules or you’ll get punished but you can do things literally and not get punished. You’re not paid to think after all

> You’re not paid to think after all This is an unfortunate issue with most of modern society. It's often compared to communism, yet how many capitalist bosses really want you to do much other than implement their "vision?" > When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist. - Hélder Câmara

> yet how many capitalist bosses really want you to do much other than implement their "vision?"

Most of them? Or, more accurately to my knowledge, most of the ones I've had. I mean, hell, even when I delivered pizza, they didn't really get all bent out of shape when I tried to do things differently as long as it was something vaguely towards the goal they wanted.

In my experience, unless someone is really hardwired for micro-management, people cool of and let you do things your way once you have a couple months at the place and have demonstrated some competence (this includes in some very traditionally corporate environments).

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#58

Post by harimau777 »

ncallaway wrote: post #25
lumost wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more likely to kill the parent organization than enact change. This may not be a problem for the individuals in an organization if they have reasoned that 1. Personal Growth is limited, or further upward movement is undesirable. 2. They intend to be with the organization a finite remaining time, or would welcome an early exit A proper strike can be differentiated from a lazy workforce, self-sabotaging work canno…

Work to rule can be differentiated from a lazy workforce if it’s done well. Typically, work to rule is used to highlight specific bad rules, regulations, or enforcement practices at a company. Say a company expects employees to do non-rule “glue” work to keep the company functioning. But, randomly and capriciously the company punishes workers for doing this “non-rule” work. A union can then announce that they will on…

It can also be a rational response to a company that follows "management to rule". For example, I was once on a team where almost all of my time was spent coordinating with other teams and helping other developers instead of developing myself. When performance reviews rolled around I was told that none of that stuff mattered; only the number of tickets that I completed matter.

So I switched my focus to completing tickets. A few weeks later I overheard my manager complaining about a breaking change made by another team that I had previously been coordinating with: "Why is this happening so much? We didn't used to get surprised by these sorts of problems."

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#59

Post by doctorpangloss »

coffeebeqn wrote: post #7
zck wrote: post #3

It's interesting thinking about this. In my career, I would not think nearly anything I've done resembles research. Just pumping out development tasks. The one thing I can think of that was like research was really enjoyable. I should think about how to get more of this in my career. Even making personal projects isn't exactly "research".

In your average job instead of “research” it’s really “discovery”. which is trying to decipher what some business guy at your company or a customer really wants

If people are asking you to do something that doesn't make sense, there's still nothing to discover. There are only a finite number of holistic social needs, simply do all of them.

Re: When the "R" goes missing from R&D (2021)

#60

Post by Prcmaker »

I've seen a surprisingly low rate of research conducted 'R&D' roles through my admittedly short career. The research segment of any work had been limited to testing of ideas that are highly likely to work, the bulk of the work is product or prototype development. The R&D technologists employed tend to act as rapid response personnel for tasks not predicted by project managers or systems engineers.
Post reply on HN