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Thanks for the rabbit hole. It made me discover an interview [0] with Googles captain of moonshots. In it he also discusses other interesting moonshot management strategies, besides the monkey-pedestal one.

[0] https://www.wsj.com/video/astro-teller-on-moonshots-for-alph...

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I worked as a contractor at X for two years and one thing that really contributes to their success is the fat dump trucks of money they have to spend on things. Astro is a super nice guy, but I worry that X gives themselves lots of credit for being master innovators when in reality their secret may be that they have a firehouse full of hundred dollar bills they can point at things and see what sticks.

Tbh I may be way off base but I was really surprised at how much money they spent on things.

I also worked at an institute which badgered us to go after 'low hanging fruits' and build a whole bunch of pedestals and ended up with a tv screen and a CGI monkey reciting Shakespeare on a shoestring budget.

I'd would have worked on training the monkey to press buttons the same way they domesticated the fox in siberia, but it would take too long and they didn't want to deal with the hard regulatory stuff.

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