In the episode, Ajay draws on three famous institutions to think about how to build a research team. Bell Labs, the research arm of an American telephone company, invented the transistor in 1947. RAND, a think tank founded after the Second World War, became a centre for game theory and policy analysis. At the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, J. J. Thomson discovered the electron and, decades later, Francis Crick and James Watson worked out the structure of DNA.
None of these places succeeded by accident. Each built a culture and a set of incentives that made deep work more likely. Here are some of the factors people often point to.
What makes a place think well
Long time horizons
Researchers were given years, not weeks, to work on hard problems. What would you attempt if you had five years?
Mixing disciplines
Physicists, mathematicians, engineers and chemists worked side by side. Who outside your subject could help with your questions?
Choosing problems carefully
Picking a problem that matters, and that you can actually make progress on, is half the work. How do you decide which questions to pursue?
Honest criticism
Ideas were argued over hard, and weak ones were dropped. Who tells you when your work is wrong?
The right incentives
People were rewarded for real progress rather than for looking busy. What does your school or team actually reward?
The same ideas apply to a study group or a student society. Culture is mostly what people do every day, not what is written down.
Think about it
- Which of these factors is strongest in your school? Which is weakest?
- Why might a company today be less willing to fund a lab like Bell Labs?
- If you were starting a research team with your friends, what one rule would you set?