R&D shouldn't be a salaried position anywhere, because it's too experimental so the work output hard to quantify. but people who dedicate themselves to it should have some financial security. the same might be said of the arts.
you need to have people who fuck around and find out. and they're not all going to be good at filing grant paperwork. if you start adding formalities to it, you fuck it up.
@drtifftaft one is trying to fit a very complex and unpredictable process that may or may not yield the desired results within a framework of compensating hours spent for deliverables for the "customer"
i don't think these systems are entirely compatible.
i worked professionally as a computer programmer for 15 years and even that's not entirely compatible with it. when the manager asks for an estimate, who the hell knows what the answer is? imagine having deadlines for solving puzzles...
@drtifftaft one research team may work for years and nothing comes of it except a null result. one had a thesis and it was disproven. the other team makes a breakthrough.
any illusion a woman may have had of being a graceful rose that never farts goes out the window when she has to give birth. it's just not going to be your most glamorous moment.
