Inform your scientist that he cannot build his next toy until he proves that his last one works. Tell him that the only way he can prove it works is empirically (this is a very important word that you must use, and use correctly, with your scientist), by using it to make a new product that people will pay folding money for.
You will probably have to get engineers involved here, and they are a whole different species, but if you fancy yourself a cutting edge corporation, you cannot get innovation out of bureaucrats.
Interesting, Slate just had an article on a TV show called The Big Bang Theory. It's about 4 science nerds that live together in an apartment, & a cute girl moves in next door. When the show debuted, I thought, OK, I get it, they're all worked up, Big Bang, lame pun. Never watched it. But the Slate article makes it sound like it might be worth a look, because the writer based it on his own experience working with programmers & it sounds like he writes with wit.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I mention it here is that one of the characters refers to engineers as "semi-skilled labor" - [spit-take]WAAAAH HAAA HAAAA HAAAA....
Alice and I watch the show. It's hilarious, and uncannily accurate - sometimes hits a little too close to home. It still amazes me that it's on the air, it caters to such a specialized subculture.
ReplyDeleteThe show got a favorable write up on Slate or Salon focused on one character's apparent Asperger's Syndrome behavior. I'll try to watch it tonight, although I have work to do...
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