tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post317934738571534762..comments2023-11-03T08:02:25.369-04:00Comments on AmericanScience: A Team Blog: Touring The Idea Factory....or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bell LabsDavid Roth Singermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841041983824755867noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post-80640070172898929372012-07-26T19:39:06.095-04:002012-07-26T19:39:06.095-04:00Hank:
From where I sit, the discrepancy you menti...Hank:<br /><br />From where I sit, the discrepancy you mention is a consequence of the very large shadow that Bell Labs and the linear model have cast upon the discourse of American innovation. Firms like Google and Facebook may frame themselves as modern day Murray Hills. (Google, Gertner notes, has gone so far as to reinstate the old Bell Labs tradition of encouraging workers to devote up to 20% of their time to undirected research.) But none of them is in a position where it can, for all intents and purposes, ignore the pressures of an ever expanding, increasingly globalized market. The only way to survive in such an environment is to recruit the smartest people on the block, and the most effective means of accomplishing that task is to present oneself as, to borrow a phrase from Mervin Kelly, “an institute of creative technology.” While executives may therefore shudder at the prospect of sponsoring fundamental research to the same degree as Bell Labs, they can take comfort in the fact that adopting aspects of that model will benefit their company, either directly (i.e. through the creation of a new technology) or indirectly (i.e. through the cultivation of a highly trained workforce).Bennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post-53779604459437619952012-07-26T12:08:26.938-04:002012-07-26T12:08:26.938-04:00Hear, hear. So, here's what interesting to me:...Hear, hear. So, here's what interesting to me:<br /><br />It seems like you can tell a racing-mechanical-mice-through-mazes-while-betting-on-the-results story as part of an argument (1) that institutions (or "institutional culture") drive innovation, (2) that particular individuals (who create said culture) drive it, *or* (3) that isn't about "what drives innovation" at all. <br /><br />Which is to say: human/institution, agency/structure questions only have to get answered if you ask them, and lots of books don't – they either ask other questions, or just tell a good story. <br /><br />Ben, here's a question: how do we square the cultural similarities between Bell Labs and more recent SV firms (Google, Facebook), which more or less consciously imitate the climate of BL with a rhetoric of "insulating" creative (at least in part) from the demands of short term profits? <br /><br />Has BL's fun basic-research culture actually been "incorporated" into the system from which it was formerly insulated? If so, is it still seen as important to pretend like it's all fun and games, or is there now a way of squaring profit-speak and just-for-fun-research-speak within the firm?Hankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02841787256060612291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post-76435194464859549502012-07-26T11:46:27.052-04:002012-07-26T11:46:27.052-04:00...would be on the same level as this blog...
But......would be on the same level as this blog...<br /><br />But let's not get side-tracked from Ben's great questions. Was it the man or the institution that built <a href="http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2010/3/16/In-Their-Own-Words-Claude-Shannon-Demonstrates-Machine-Learning" rel="nofollow">Theseus, the maze-solving robot mouse</a>? I do not recall where I read it, but I think Shannon and his colleagues spent many an afternoon racing mechanical mice through mazes while betting on the results. Now that's an institutional culture!Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05217832960135325575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post-17699644931561204742012-07-25T16:42:14.913-04:002012-07-25T16:42:14.913-04:00But Dan, any club that would have you as a member,...But Dan, any club that would have you as a member, &c.Hankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02841787256060612291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post-4781102066811186332012-07-25T16:31:17.932-04:002012-07-25T16:31:17.932-04:00Ben: this is fascinating. Thanks for contributing....Ben: this is fascinating. Thanks for contributing. I appreciate the opportunity to hear about Gertner's choice to abandon the technology as an organizing device in favor of individuals. (And I love Claude Shannon!) But I also appreciate the central tension you identify in many industrial histories: how to balance the larger institutional story against the work of individuals. Inevitably we use individuals to tell our stories (they're more interesting), but it's crucial to remember how much individuals are shaped by their institutions.<br /><br />It occurs to me that I really need to join some self-identified club---the X club, Metaphysical Club, Young Turks...They're all so cool.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05217832960135325575noreply@blogger.com