Inventive research requires exploring ill-structured spaces that aren’t yet readily articulable. A researcher with an inkling about some direction likely can’t yet explain it clearly—or maybe they can explain part of it, but it’s not the interesting part that’s animating them. Given these constraints, it’s not really possible to “manage” such researchers, because their aspirations can only be articulated to others with high amounts of loss. It’s best, instead, to fund such people based on their broad sense of taste and tendencies, then to let them pursue what they find interesting.
I don’t run CDG, I visit it. Xerox PARC founder Robert Taylor didn’t want to hire anyone who needed to be managed. That’s not the way it works. I have people on my list who are already moving in great directions, according to their own inner visions. I didn’t have to explain to these people what they would be working on, because they already are. Bret Victor has already hired four people that I didn’t know about. I wanted people to fund, not manage.
Related: Fund people, not projects.
Alan Kay on CDG: “I wanted people to {fund}, not {manage}.”
Alan Kay on CDG: “I don’t {run} CDG, I {visit} it.”