Passionate Research

       Innovation in computer science over the last fifty years has stemmed from big businesses allowing computer scientists to explore their passions. FORTRAN was developed mostly at night by eager programmers at the IBM research labs. Unix was simply a pet project worked on by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson at Bell Labs eventually leading to the creation of C, the most common programming language in the world. Years later at Bell Labs, Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++, the first language to implement object oriented features. All three of these revolutionary projects started as research projects simply because the inventors wanted to push new technology to the limits and expand the bounds of human knowledge.

       In order for innovation to continue to occur, passion needs to be explored, not deterred. Both FORTRAN and C were developed in research facilities where people were hired with the explanation, “You come and we'll give you excellent equipment and you will work with nice people and in a year, you will tell us what you did. (“Go To”. Steve Lohr. ch. 6. pg 112). Most of these employees had more lucrative offers elsewhere but chose to go where their passion could be explored.

      As the lure of money has grown, we have seen less and less business environments where researchers can follow their passions. When you are hired, you are working to put money in the bosses' pockets. With deadlines to meet and strict guidelines to follow, people are less likely to take the risks of innovation. Over the last 20 years, the number of computer scientists has grown exponentially but the rate of innovations has not. This will change quickly if big businesses decide to let brilliant minds follow their passions as they were once allowed.