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Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

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Re: Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

#91

Post by antonzabirko »

_gsgc wrote: post #44

Hi. I went through this journey myself. I have a CS master degree, and always wanted to transition into AI research (focus on probabilistic programming, deep learning and self-play, but also simulation, learning-to-learn, bayesian inference, genetic algorithms). The initial plan was to self-learn machine learning, deep learning and statistics. I did that for 1 year, with the hope of joining on of the big AI labs afte…

That's awesome! What year did you start if you don't mind me asking? Was it around the time btc jumped to 40k?

Re: Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

#92

Post by stickyricky »

_gsgc wrote: post #44

Hi. I went through this journey myself. I have a CS master degree, and always wanted to transition into AI research (focus on probabilistic programming, deep learning and self-play, but also simulation, learning-to-learn, bayesian inference, genetic algorithms). The initial plan was to self-learn machine learning, deep learning and statistics. I did that for 1 year, with the hope of joining on of the big AI labs afte…

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

#93

Post by Retric »

stickyricky wrote: post #92
_gsgc wrote: post #44

Hi. I went through this journey myself. I have a CS master degree, and always wanted to transition into AI research (focus on probabilistic programming, deep learning and self-play, but also simulation, learning-to-learn, bayesian inference, genetic algorithms). The initial plan was to self-learn machine learning, deep learning and statistics. I did that for 1 year, with the hope of joining on of the big AI labs afte…

[flagged]

Very likely BS, but it is at least consistent with a prior Who is hiring? post.

[link redacted]

Re: Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

#96

Post by JabavuAdams »

tlb wrote: post #35
nerdponx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fickle to want to make a decent living from your hard-earned and valuable skills.

No, but there's often a trade-off between making a decent living as a cog in a machine, or living on ramen and working on what you want to work on. I've chosen both at various phases of life.

Was just talking about this with a post-doc in the lab I've joined. He was saying there's poor and then there's poor. Without downplaying the fact that post-docs are underpaid, there are many benefits. You get to work on something you're interested in; in many labs you have almost complete schedule freedom; you typically have good medical benefits, etc. So there's a lot of freedom. As in industry, a lot of the experience depends on whom you're working for, but moreso due to the recommendation requirements and power differential. If it's a bio-lab that expects butts in seats pipetting 9-6, that's outside of my experience.

Re: Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

#97

Post by akhann »

an_opabinia wrote: post #87
nerdponx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fickle to want to make a decent living from your hard-earned and valuable skills.

Indeed, with a point of view like: > as I am currently acquiring some real estate that I want to put to good use in Germany > space to work rent-free > LLC-like structure It sounds like the poster's head is not in the game at all. Like what instead of buying a literally useless building, you just pay people?

Hi, not to go into too much detail on a public forum. In part of a larger deal for real estate that I do have commercial use for, some other buildings will be included that I could either rent out or use for a charitable purpose. It's all or nothing for the deal. I actually contemplated renting them out and using the proceeds to donate to another institution. If this can instead be used to provide young PhD students with a place to live rent-free there is no taxation inbetween, which would be subtracted from what they might receive via another institution. Honestly, I mostly want to do some good with this in a way that has limited downside, and hope for the general concentration of creative career-starters with some communal infrastructure to result in a great place to live for everybody involved.

Re: Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

#98

Post by screye »

3 anecdotes that might be useful.

1. TTI Chicago

The holy grail? It is relatively new (15 yrs old) and does top notch research. Super prestigious in certain areas. It is kind of related to UChicago, but also not really.

A key learning is that you can start your institute by borrowing some prestige. Split some of your funds with a prestigious university while allowing some of your researchers to hold adjunct positions at UChicago. The researchers get their academic prestige, and you get the researcher to work at your institute.

Eventually your institute will gather enough prestige that your researchers will call themselves members of TTIC first, and UChicago second.

2. Allen AI (The tempting example you want to avoid)

You are not Paul Allen. You do not have $2b to spend on your deathbed. You don't have every important person in the world on a quick dial. Your name isn't gilded in prestige as Paul's was. It's like trying to start a space exploring company by following in Bezos's footsteps.

3. Wadhwani AI (https://www.wadhwaniai.org/founders/)

I haven't personally worked with them, but attended a seminar about them once. At surface level it seems like something doable for a rich HN type. Decent but not impossible funding ($30m), clear vision, small but lean and seemed to be doing good work.

___________________

At some point I want to start a fully independent educational institute. But so far, my goal is to focus on education (K12) rather than research. (that's when I get to it. I'll languish as a tech worker making castles in the sky for now)

Re: Ask HN: Anybody Started a Research Institute?

#100

Post by DonHopkins »

donohoe wrote: post #8
bigth wrote: post #7

I started a research institute. Our goal was to find out how to center divs in css.

Sir, I find this of great interest and a noble pursuit. I would very much like to invest large sums of my newly created cryptocurrency in this. Have your people contact my people.

Hi, I'm Richard Brain, a farce for good in this world, and I want to shovel piles of my new POS CraptoCurrency "HOAX", the first high interest blockchain certificate of despotic (CD) offered to “stalkers”, into your centralized div laundering company!
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