Areoform explains why Bell Labs worked:
Alexander Graham Bell was prolific. His interests spanned hydrofoils (see footage above), metal detectors, optical data transmission, aviation, genetics, acoustics and early electrification. Bell used his first big liquidity event to start Volta Laboratory and Bureau, a lab that Bell led with an enlightened management style that would become Bell Labs’ signature. “[Bell] suggested the basic lines of research, furnished the financial resources, and then allowed his associates to receive the credit for many of the inventions that resulted.”
Mervin Kelly, the man who built Bell Labs, shared this attitude. Starting in the late 1920s and accelerating in the 1930s, Kelly went about scouting and (indiscriminately) assimilating every talented person he could find. From The Idea Factory:
It was curious, in a way, who they were, these men coming to Bell Labs in New York. Most [...had been flagged by professors...] and their names had been quietly passed along to Kelly or someone else at the Labs. [Typically, these recruits grew up] with a peculiar desire to know more about the stars or the telephone lines or (most often) the radio, and especially their makeshift home wireless sets. Almost all of them had put one together themselves, and in turn had discovered how sound could be pulled from the air.
Bell Labs’ antecedent was founded by a prolific maker and researcher, and it was led from the very start by makers and researchers. As a working scientist, Mervin Kelly understood the golden rule, “How do you manage genius? You don’t.” And it worked.
During WW2, Bell Labs reversed engineered and improved on the British Magnetron within 2 months. Helped create the “Bazooka.” Built an electronic computer that semi-autonomously controlled anti-aircraft guns, invented an acoustic homing torpedo, proximity fuzes, echo-ranging SONAR, pulse code modulation, the first anti-aircraft missile (the Nike) and the klystron.
By all accounts, Kelly stayed true to his philosophy. None of these projects were micro-managed by Kelly. People did things because they wanted to do them. And they kept doing them after the war.
Bell Labs is the furnace wherein the American century was forged.
[…]
The reason why we don’t have Bell Labs is because we’re unwilling to do what it takes to create Bell Labs — giving smart people radical freedom and autonomy.
The freedom to waste time. The freedom to waste resources. And the autonomy to decide how.
[…]
The Bell Labs formula can be briefly described as,
- Use good taste to find great, ambitious people.
- Surround them with other great, ambitious people.
- Hire smart, technical makers to be around them.
- Cross-pollinate between the two groups as necessary.
- Make sure people talk to each other every day.
- Create a school so they teach one another.
- Encourage everyone to study and improve.
The compartmented technology developers are still humming along. What they make, however, never sees the light of day.
Bell Labs formula: “Make sure people talk to each other every day.” This does not sound like a wholesome work from home environment, lol.
University faculty are very smart, and receive very little supervision. However, they have to generate the resources they need for their research by themselves, and they are rated almost entirely by their success in doing so.
The massive cuts in research funding in the “Big, Beautiful, Bill” will crush STEM education and research.
Bob Sykes, don’t worry, the Ivy League will ensure that the US will maintain a lead in critical gender studies.
*The compartmented technology developers are still humming along*
This is the classic cope of every dying regime. The sorcerers will fix it!