College is not where you find a career. College is where you have fun and drink beer

[xoxoxoBruce]

Bill Moyers interviewed an economics dude a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn't catch the first part and don't know who he was. But what struck me as amazing is him telling how virtually every school has a separate staff and separate buildings (usually at opposite ends of the campus), for economics and business curriculums. The bottom line was, never the tween shall meet, which strikes me as ludicrous.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But what struck me as amazing is him telling how virtually every school has a separate staff and separate buildings (usually at opposite ends of the campus), for economics and business curriculums.

An Economist is the scientist of that discipline. A business school teaches science application. In all disciplines, the two are maintained separate.

Reason for Bell Labs (Murray Hill) success was that the Labs only did fundamental research. Application of the science was always done elsewhere (ie Allentown). Keeping the two sciences separate is essential.

Bell Labs was the source of communication theory (that makes the internet and cell phones possible), the transistor, computer voice and recognition, Unix (later called Linux, Windows, OSx, etc), Telstar (communication satellite), microwave communication, laser, C programming language, origins of the universe (ie big bang theory), and a long list of other inventions now considered standard products. Only possible because in the 1940s through 1990s, research was always kept separate from application.

Then AT&T and Lucent virtually destroyed the Labs by making scientists more productive - to do research that only had a purpose. Important is to keep scientific research separated from engineering applications.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by tw

Then AT&T and Lucent virtually destroyed the Labs by making scientists more productive - to do research that only had a purpose. Important is to keep scientific research separated from engineering applications.

Maybe if the people running the business knew more about economics that wouldn't have happened.
Lucent died of adding umpteen layers of middle management which bled them dry.