This is an excellent piece of writing. And it describes a very troubling situation.

I am contemplating creating a new form of R and D organization, as I have previously mentioned. I might post some descriptions of some of its features here on Heterodox STEM.

The basic principle is that technical staff should be more like actors, after the studio system collapsed, or sports figures with free agency. They should control the institutions, rather than the institutions controlling them. And they should get to eat what they kill, basically, and self-endow.

If someone cannot or will not produce anything of value, they are gone.

I personally have had large amounts of my "funding" (well over 95%) effectively "stolen" by the institutions I was working for. And I have been lied to and my signature forged on legal documents. I was in an 8.5 year lawsuit where the judge was paid under the table. The institution I was suing collapsed into bankruptcy after spending upwards of 30 million dollars in mid-1990 dollars to destroy me. I have been repeatedly physically assaulted and threatened. So I know a little bit about the game that is played. I have watched my colleagues go through similar stuff. Our current R and D systems are a nightmare.

Now working quietly on a startup, I am far more productive than I ever was as part of a big glamorous institution. And I was at some well-known institutions: MIT, Princeton University, Bell Labs, University of California, Livermore Labs, FFRDCs, etc.

We better start thinking of ways to reform ourselves as STEM professionals, or we will be relegated to the dustbin of history.

I favor an experimental approach. Let's try a bunch of different new structures for R&D, and watch them carefully. Let's make observations about how they perform. And let our findings guide us.