All of Matt Gilliland's Comments + Replies
AMA: Matt Clancy, Open Philanthropy
What are the primary characteristics you think an effective "culture of progress" would have?
Do you see any concrete, meaningful steps being taken to get to such a culture? Any opportunities in that direction that you see that you wish were being worked toward right now but aren't?
41yAmong other things it's important that people think that of themselves as having
the agency to solve big problems; that innovation and entrepreneurship -
basically just pioneering new paths - is one of the things that it's normal to
do with your life. I have written a bit about that here
[https://www.newthingsunderthesun.com/pub/uhudflze/release/8?readingCollection=9f57d356]
and here
[https://www.newthingsunderthesun.com/pub/3h93inee/release/6?readingCollection=9f57d356]
.
You can try to do that at scale by trying to impact pop culture, and I don't
doubt that works to some degree. But I think the challenge is you are trying to
convince someone that people like you can innovate too; and there is an inherent
distance between what's in pop culture and yourself for most people, simply
because most people are not the subject of movies, TV shows, profiles, etc. More
effective if it's your brother or classmate or coworker who models the
innovative career path, since it's a small leap to think "if they can do it, why
not me?"
Tyler Cowen AMA
What's the lowest-hanging fruit you see in Progress Studies? What are the research topics or programs that are sitting there, waiting on the right people? If it's important to the answer, who are the right people?
21yImproving science policy? I wrote a bit more about this in another answer. Maybe
Heidi Williams will lead the charge. I am optimistic.
Announcing the incoming CEO for The Roots of Progress
Sounds like a great addition! Congrats to both Roots of Progress and Heike =)
Love seeing the experimentation in research models, as well as nanotech projects specifically! I was very excited to see the announcement, and will be looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I'm late to the party, but a couple of questions if you get to them:
I'm guessing the work most of your projects will be doing will (if successful) generate some patent output. Is that correct, and if so do you have a concrete plan for those?
You mentioned experimenting with new ways of managing research. Do you have ideas for management experiments you're excit... (read more)