Ben Reinhardt | Learning from DARPA
Bio: Ben Reinhardt is currently working on how to enable more amazing sci-fi things to become reality. He also hosts the Idea Machines Podcast where he has long form conversations with experts in different innovation systems. In the past he was an EIR at Entrepreneur First in Singapore where he helped ambitious people build teams and companies. Before that he was a different kind of EIR Susa Ventures and tried to use robots to help older adults stay at home longer. Deeper in the past, he taught computers to understand the world at Magic Leap. He used to build tractor beams for space robotics at Cornell. He's been a plumber, an archer, a waiter, a nazgul, and an oregano salesman.
Summary: Ben Reinhardt is working to enable a sci-fi future, faster. His in-depth research process spans both science and technology and his "intellectual exhaust" — tweets, blog posts, interviews — are wonderful resources for the rest of us. We go deep on his process as well as his essay: How DARPA Works.
Hypothesis: there is a class of project that is too research intensive to be a startup, but requires too much engineering and focus to be an academic project. We're missing out on important innovations due to institutional limitations. pic.twitter.com/pLLeB00QVt
— science better (@scibetter) January 28, 2021
On the difference between NSF program officers and DARPA program managers: pic.twitter.com/A06Zi3xoqA
— science better (@scibetter) January 28, 2021
Pay-it-forward science tithing.
— science better (@scibetter) January 28, 2021
"If you or your company has benefitted from research in the past... you should think about funding forward so we can discover the next thing." pic.twitter.com/pKrpIoCpBS