MemeStreams | Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?

Name an industry that can produce 1 million new, high-paying jobs over the next three years. You can't, because there isn't one. And that's the problem.

From last year's best-of:

Any technology that is going to have significant impact over the next 10 years is already at least 10 years old.

Richard Hamming:

If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.

Doug McIlroy:

In 1997, on his retirement from Bell Labs, Doug McIlroy gave a fascinating talk about the "History of Computing at Bell Labs."

Michael Griffin:

It is clear that an understanding of the broad issues, the big picture, is so much more influential in determining the ultimate success or failure of an enterprise than is the mastery of any given technical detail.

The Economist:

Under [Vannevar] Bush's plan [of the 1940's], universities researched basic science and then industry developed these findings to the point where they could get to market. The idea of R&D as two distinct activities was born. Firms soon organized themselves along similar lines, keeping white-coated scientists safely apart from scruffy engineers.
This approach was a stunning success. AT&T's Bell Labs earned six Nobel prizes for inventions such as the laser and the transistor.

Robert M. Siegmann:

When we net it all out, competition in the telecommunications industry has come at a tremendous cost -- our country has lost its crown jewel.

Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?