Being of the 'lone-wolf' variety of inventor (or as the interns sometimes jokingly refer to me: 'a mad scientist') can be daunting when it comes to R&D projects. I don't have a whole department of geniuses I can hand some task to and say 'please explore this and have a feasibility report in XX months'. I have Igor, and sometimes I will get lucky and we will have the services of a gifted intern for a few months or however long they stay. Even the duration of these internships is yet another task that I trust Igor manages through the colleges; if I had to balance that and what R&D I do manage (on top of all the creature making stuff) I would find myself sorely tested in the level durability of my patience. I'm great at multitasking as long as the tasks at hand are of a holistic nature.
Not to say I can't contract out work, as I have often done. But that work is all finalized and there really is no analytical component or creativity on the part of the contractor. They get a blueprint, order to build and funding, and a due date. Sometimes bonuses if they complete it early. Now I am toying with an idea to maybe try to contract out theoretical development stuff. Of course, I leave myself wide open to the scamsters: oh sure, a flying car? "No problem, doctor; it's a privilege to work with you." Twenty years later: "well, doctor, any day now, you've seen the video and the brief, all we need now is another deposit to cover this issue, as outlined in the last brief. We feel that a stabilized whatsis is workable within months." That's 'workable', but not 'operable' - as in the car now needs another framitz thing somewhere else that cropped up when the stabilized whatsis was made 'workable'. It's like quicksand, I'll bet. The more funds I commit to their struggle the deeper I would sink. Forget it.
Not to say I can't contract out work, as I have often done. But that work is all finalized and there really is no analytical component or creativity on the part of the contractor. They get a blueprint, order to build and funding, and a due date. Sometimes bonuses if they complete it early. Now I am toying with an idea to maybe try to contract out theoretical development stuff. Of course, I leave myself wide open to the scamsters: oh sure, a flying car? "No problem, doctor; it's a privilege to work with you." Twenty years later: "well, doctor, any day now, you've seen the video and the brief, all we need now is another deposit to cover this issue, as outlined in the last brief. We feel that a stabilized whatsis is workable within months." That's 'workable', but not 'operable' - as in the car now needs another framitz thing somewhere else that cropped up when the stabilized whatsis was made 'workable'. It's like quicksand, I'll bet. The more funds I commit to their struggle the deeper I would sink. Forget it.
The odd thing is.. Igor himself really has accomplished some rather remarkable feats of engineering in a wide array of scientific disciplines with no more input than his own observations and the beatings I have administered upon his person. Well, I suppose I can no longer credit the beatings, seeing as how I stopped doing them years ago; it was pointless. Regardless, I can no longer easily count all the major innovations that were the product of Igor's creative thinking and initiative. I'm really quite lucky to have him. Slavery would never have gone out of style if all slaves had been as deranged as Igor.
Our relationship has evolved to the level of what the populist
Our relationship has evolved to the level of what the populist
shrinks call 'a symbiosis', though I would be loath to admit it out loud. If I said anything Igor would just start into some 1930's horror movie pantomimed routine of 'the hunchback assistant' complete with lurching clubfoot walk and speech slurred by way of tongue struck between the foreteeth. He does it for the interns to make them laugh when things in the lab start leaning a little closer to the realm of 'hard science'. Addressing me as 'Master': "yes, master"; "no master"; "if it is your wish, master" and so forth. If I was as clever as Igor I could go into some kind of 'mad scientist' routine but I have a back burner suspicion that a few of the interns do see me this way even if they aren't joking about it, as I mentioned earlier. Maybe their jokes mask some real actual anxiety that my work inspires in them. This is where an R&D department would come in especially handy, with a certain level of expected professional autonomy (meaning I wouldn't expect them to model themselves on what behaviour they observe in Igor) I could possibly go to them and tap one on the shoulder: "Say, Gunther, could I ask you something? Do I put out a kind of 'mad scientist' vibe at any time?"
Of course, these sociological interests would have to fall secondary in importance to what I would be paying them to do. I have what looks like a pretty good idea for a genuine honest-to-god electronic brain.
