Curiosity is already a very strong motivator, we just need to enable it and get out of the way. Give scientists funding without making them narrowly constrain their goals, dial down their ambition, or spend half their time writing grants. Then give them the research freedom to pursue that curiosity wherever it leads. It’s not easy but it is pretty simple.
I agree with that. But having seen IBM ARC up close in person in the 1990s, my gut is that there is some critical mass of curiosity—a threshold number of curious researchers all working in the same place—that leads to a kind of magic you don’t see when the same people are more distributed geographically.
Curiosity is already a very strong motivator, we just need to enable it and get out of the way. Give scientists funding without making them narrowly constrain their goals, dial down their ambition, or spend half their time writing grants. Then give them the research freedom to pursue that curiosity wherever it leads. It’s not easy but it is pretty simple.
I agree with that. But having seen IBM ARC up close in person in the 1990s, my gut is that there is some critical mass of curiosity—a threshold number of curious researchers all working in the same place—that leads to a kind of magic you don’t see when the same people are more distributed geographically.
Good point, I agree! Something important to creating the right research lab team and culture.