[Rhodes22-list] Chaos

[Bill Effros]

Thanks, Ron,

How do they handle fraud and favoritism?

How can they keep coming up with program managers who don't cheat?

Or is that tolerated in the system in return for service?

B.

Ronald Lipton wrote:
> DARPA operates under a different model than the usual federally funded
> research grants. There are a small number of well-respected program 
> managers.
> It is the managers responsibility to identify areas of opportunity, 
> propose programs
> to the DARPA director, and then provide grants to researchers to execute 
> the
> research.  Much of the overhead and bureaucracy is eliminated.  There 
> are only about
> 150 technical staff to handle $3 billiion of funding.  There is also 
> tolerance for
> failure, something that is almost unheard-of nowadays in funding 
> agencies like
> DOE.  This serves to encourage high risk/reward research without the 
> fear of
> failure that now permeates many research ventures.  So:
>
> - They have lots of money
> - Excellent program managers recruited for few-year terms who identify 
> areas
>   of opportunity and execute the programs.
> - They free researchers from much of the bureaucracy
> - They have focussed projects with well-integrated collaborations
>
> Lack of formal peer review is a small part of the overall picture. 
> Managers are expected
> to have the judgment to pick the right mix of grantees.
>
> Ron
>
>
> Bill Effros wrote:
>   
>> Ron,
>>
>> Why do you think it works better?  (Not a challenge, an honest 
>> question.)  What is who doing that makes it work?
>>
>> Bill Effros
>>
>> PS -- I'm happy to thank anyone who helped.
>>
>>
>>
>> Ronald Lipton wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> As long as you are thanking DARPA, you should also thank Particle 
>>> Physicists
>>> and CERN, which invented and promulgated the HTTP protocols and web 
>>> standards.
>>>
>>> I have been working on projects related to some DARPA-funded initiatives 
>>> and have been
>>> impressed by how focussed and effective much of the DARPA-funded work 
>>> is.  It
>>> is very different then the usual peer review system for funding grants.  
>>> The government
>>> funded work is also one of the only things keeping at least some high 
>>> tech industry
>>> onshore.
>>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>>
>>> Bill Effros wrote:
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> Brad,
>>>>
>>>> It is really remarkable that we can have an open conversation like this 
>>>> all over the world virtually simultaneously at no cost.
>>>>
>>>> (Thank you big government and DARPA -- some of this shit works!)
>>>>
>>>> Have you read Chaos by James Gleick?  I am totally absorbed by it, and 
>>>> it is changing my life (as my best friend who has been trying to get me 
>>>> to read it for the past 20 years told me it would.)
>>>>
>>>> The name is good for selling books, but bad for describing the concept.
>>>>
>>>> It is all I've been thinking about lately--the election is just a side-show.
>>>>
>>>> Bill
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>     
>>>>       
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