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Ben_Reinhardt's profile
Ben Reinhardt
Ben Reinhardt
Ben Reinhardt
@Ben_Reinhardt

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Ben Reinhardt

@Ben_Reinhardt

Accelerating Innovation, Intelligence Augmentation, Space, Superpowers. Past: AI @MagicLeap, Space Robots @NASA + @Cornell, medieval history @Caltech

Singapore
benjaminreinhardt.com
Joined November 2013

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    Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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    1/ Did you know that Vannevar Bush (you know, the guy who helped enable everything from radar to the manhattan project, the NSF to memexes) wrote an autobiography? Turns out that yes he did, it's been out of print since the 70's, and it's *excellent* BOOK REPORT THREAD

    7:05 AM - 30 Jan 2020
    • 188 Retweets
    • 896 Likes
    • Zaheer Baloch Fenton Wood Gani Mendoza Joseph Melton zioolek Austin Green Vladimir Yashnikov krm.txt David Shi
    30 replies 188 retweets 896 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        2/ Before you even start, it has one of the best forwards I've ever read* and like much of the book, doesn't feel dated at all. "I have drawn on the wealth of the vocabulary of the youth of our times. Theirs is a pungent stock of words, and action marks most of them"pic.twitter.com/fktWwkYIww

        4 replies 16 retweets 124 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        3/ Bush is the king of precision and nuance. Studying history can be *both* good (learn from the past) and bad (it can devolve into mythologizing.)pic.twitter.com/KMOBJAZzdj

        2 replies 3 retweets 62 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        4/ Sometimes it gets super meta. He doesn't do a chronological tale of his life at all - instead he cherry picks stories he thinks are the best to learn from.pic.twitter.com/P3J3Kls9Vp

        1 reply 1 retweet 40 likes
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      5. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        5/ More meta - "yes, I realize there are a bajillion books on the Making of the Atomic Bomb and the Radar* so I will skip those" *I recommend The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Tuxedo Park if you are interestedpic.twitter.com/1i5v0eZwvu

        5 replies 2 retweets 46 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        6/ What *is* dated is his oft-repeated concerns about overpopulation. It's a wonderful reminder of how many things we thought would bring about the end of civilization that are now (arguably) non-issues.pic.twitter.com/5EKKWiUJmw

        7 replies 4 retweets 47 likes
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      7. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        7/ It's also fascinating which breakthroughs he thought were just around the corner, and which were not even on his radar. Why did he think general antivirals were imminent? Why weren't they? (Would certainly be nice to have right now)pic.twitter.com/0l6xOwZMiS

        2 replies 2 retweets 30 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        8/ Individuals making the difference between success and failure of critical technologies and programs is a huge theme.pic.twitter.com/BU10OJzTwB

        3 replies 4 retweets 42 likes
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      9. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        9/ Specifically, he repeats the theme of innovations only happening because individuals went against the system. Which raises the uncomfortable question - in order to get more amazing sci-fi shit, how do you systematize going against the system?pic.twitter.com/lpnYCWW5Bg

        7 replies 15 retweets 77 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        10/ Tons of detail about how they structured organizations like the NRDC and *why* Feels like he's basically giving blueprints for people who want to follow that are easy to understand and hard to execute.pic.twitter.com/lnvAth0kTY

        1 reply 4 retweets 41 likes
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      11. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        11/ He describes the *massive* shift in how science and research was done in the US during WWII. This is where our modern system was born - both the good parts and bad.pic.twitter.com/gvkr8gM1BT

        1 reply 0 retweets 33 likes
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      12. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        12/ Today, university administration is basically bloatware. But it actually started as a valuable labor aggregator so researchers could focus on research.pic.twitter.com/LreSR9HTUQ

        2 replies 5 retweets 55 likes
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      13. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        13/ This is the moment that Universities began to depend on federal research dollars. I think this started as a good thing, but the relationship has metastasized.pic.twitter.com/OpJuhFsnCr

        1 reply 1 retweet 35 likes
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      14. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        14/ From what I can tell, Bush was a *great* manager.pic.twitter.com/HWsIBu11n7

        1 reply 0 retweets 34 likes
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      15. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        15/ Also, apparently F.D.R. was a good manager too. 🤷‍♂️pic.twitter.com/FY8LsJDJJP

        1 reply 1 retweet 35 likes
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      16. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        16/ They could review a project in a week and get work started on it *the next day.* More fodder for @patrickc 's https://patrickcollison.com/fast pic.twitter.com/NUcojhHsrF

        1 reply 4 retweets 45 likes
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      17. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        17/ Bush earns his reputation as the person who can go between Military/Government, Academia, and Industry. He gets both how the structures of each of them make sense in their own context, but then clash when they interface.pic.twitter.com/LyrluRGsPy

        2 replies 1 retweet 40 likes
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      18. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        18/ SO FASTpic.twitter.com/Q3i8keE8Gw

        1 reply 3 retweets 28 likes
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      19. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        19/ Trust in lines of communication is underrated as a goal to strive for.pic.twitter.com/Pma21zfbpj

        2 replies 1 retweet 41 likes
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      20. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        20/ The consequences of these organizational structures today - NASA changes it's goals every 4 or 8 years ...pic.twitter.com/GzmqFiFisW

        2 replies 0 retweets 23 likes
        Show this thread
      21. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        21/ I'm still not sure if Bush or Jewett was right ... Deserves more digging!pic.twitter.com/mFajpWsuHJ

        3 replies 0 retweets 20 likes
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      22. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        22/ Many of the stories emphasize @SafiBahcall's point in Loonshots about the need to manage the transfer of technology from the people who create it to the people who use it. Also hi Millikan! I love how random science heroes just drop into the story.pic.twitter.com/3iyT2WPoT6

        1 reply 0 retweets 24 likes
        Show this thread
      23. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        23/ "I am a hog on the ice - see how I slide!"pic.twitter.com/761HyQHw9P

        3 replies 0 retweets 21 likes
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      24. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        24/ Committees can actually be good: when there are two groups who think very differently but have a common goal.pic.twitter.com/b0p15cyQTy

        1 reply 0 retweets 24 likes
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      25. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        25/ Made me think a lot about the value of coordinating efforts vs. letting a thousand flowers bloom. Where I came down is that you should absolutely have parallel efforts but there is an optimum amount of coordination that isn't zero. Were that optimum lies an open questionpic.twitter.com/n6RoKMsebI

        1 reply 0 retweets 28 likes
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      26. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        26/ War may be one of the few situations where *massive* numbers of people all have a real stake in the outcome.pic.twitter.com/iuOIJg3XWB

        1 reply 4 retweets 24 likes
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      27. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        27/ Innovations appearing outside the organizations which find them useful is still a huge problem today.pic.twitter.com/QIDhROCAVt

        2 replies 0 retweets 24 likes
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      28. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
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        28/ To be written of like this: LIFE GOALSpic.twitter.com/YvlgYAkDbc

        1 reply 0 retweets 19 likes
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      29. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        29/ There are so many things that fall into this category: the concept is straightforward so it's not 'novel' but it takes a ton of R&D and grinding to even get it to the point of a proof of concept.pic.twitter.com/LOaVmCF08K

        1 reply 0 retweets 14 likes
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      30. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        30/ I think Bush was a truly kind person. This is the story of what he did for civilians who kept sending him ideas for inventions they thought were desperately important to the war effort.pic.twitter.com/cnAOFPNhZE

        1 reply 0 retweets 16 likes
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      31. Ben Reinhardt‏ @Ben_Reinhardt Jan 30
        • Report Tweet

        31/ The duality of command - sometimes commanders need to be obeyed no questions asked, and sometimes they need to be challenged. I love the idea of having a literal physical signal for it. Apparently businesspeople used to use their ties for this too. We've lost these signalspic.twitter.com/TaosaS7Dat

        2 replies 4 retweets 47 likes
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      32. 25 more replies

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