@fabio Your point about the relative brutality of academia, especially for junior researchers, is very important.

I spent my early career (the most productive, high-energy years) at Bell Labs. The most important thing, aside from great colleagues and resources, that the Labs gave me was *freedom*. I spent my time actually doing research instead of writing grant proposals, teaching classes, serving on committees, and all the other distractions that eat the majority of a junior professor's time.

@fabio I think I was in the last generation where it was possible to have a career like this, and it gave me a huge advantage. There's no job I've held since then that has been as nurturing and protective of my time and energy.

@mattblaze @fabio I am not sure that your point applies merely to academia. I worked for Pixar, which through the 1990s was actually interested in pushing the boundaries of what was possible, both in technology and in art. But increasingly as it became part of Disney, profitability became the driving force, increasingly at the expense of the people who bought into the creative vision. By the time I left, it was clear that they had ceased to value individuals and their contributions.

@brainwagon @fabio There was a golden age of corporate-sponsored research that seems to have ended with the 20th century. Xerox PARC, DEC SRC, HP Labs, IBM Research are all either gone or shells of their former selves.

@mattblaze @brainwagon @fabio mmm. I was at GE-CRD when Neutron Jack took over. Suddenly everything became “what profit did you make?” Even for corporate R&D (directly, not the profit other divisions made off of the things research provided..) This was at the end of the 1980’s

@mattblaze @brainwagon @fabio (A different kind of R&D vs the ones driven by the military industrial complex..)

@scanner @brainwagon @fabio Basic research, as opposed to product-directed R&D.