R&D

[ksmith]

I’m not sure I agree with all of Lowe’s arguments, but I do believe this is the funniest description of R&D that I have ever come across:

R&D, on the other hand, is not the profitable side of the business. Far from it. We are black holes of finance: huge sums of money spiral in beyond our event horizons, emitting piteous cries and futile streams of braking radiation, and are never seen again.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Made me wonder if he actually did the research, or just wrote the grant proposals....

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Lowe, or the profs he takes to task?

I recall reading a stat that 95% of basic R&D fails. Not that you don't learn anything from failure. Maybe "doesn't result in commercial success" is a better way to put it.

I spent 6 years working on a molecule that wound up failing in the marketplace. With current screening methods, it probably would never have gotten as far as it did. But at the time, we thought we would succeed. Sometimes you don't know until you know.