The addition of @Convergent_FROs to the R&D ecosystem has been a game-changer. But fundraising for new FROs is a bottleneck. Today’s FreakTakes outlines a model to help ambitious field strategists with vision build FRO-like orgs with less upfront capital.

Any ideas on what you'd hope to see done with this lab space? . (Shocked that they just speculatively built this without much of a plan. Real estate confuses me.)

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Bookstore people are always surprised, upon hearing I'm a history nerd, to learn I don't like bookstores. 1) I read my books alone in a dark corner of my home, away from people and sunlight, like an adult. 2) Bookstores rarely have the books I need. You know who does? Amazon.

RT @KumarAGarg: Finally caught up on this excellent episode. Love the idea of agencies having ethnographer(s) to capture what their top p….

I am maybe a product of my environment…

I don’t necessarily think they’d all resist the temptation better than we do. Eg many scientists I read about couldn’t resist the timeless urge to ramble about political events they knew little about. Many resist it today. But there was less to resist back then.

One inkling I get reading history is that the # of absolute grinders per capita feels like it used to be way higher. To stack one conjecture on top of another, I think it’s probably TV/the internet. I think the amt of time people spend on their main hobby would double absent them.

I appreciate their candor. And FreakTakes has worked out — people now offer me neat academic opportunities, too. But FreakTakes is similar to things I'd write during undergrad. They didn't care. Makes me wonder how dynamic econ/polsci could be w/ different selection processes.

As a college senior, I was interested in getting a PhD in PoliSci. The guy who ran the Stanford program told me I was a "very unattractive" candidate — mediocre GPA. An economist said the same thing. I figured they might be right. In hindsight, the criteria just seem lazy 1/2.

RT @DavidAMarkowitz: This piece deserves more attention.

RT @tsmilton_amodo: @ARIA_research wants more Amodos! There is no better vote of confidence in our thesis than ARIA launching a programme….

RT @jujulemons: Really amazing to see that after all these years @eric_is_weird has done it. Here’s to another generation of BBNs!.

RT @tkalil2050: Congrats to @ARIA_research and @eric_is_weird for launching this initiative! The world needs more metascience entrepreneur….

@ARIA_research @tkalil2050 @KumarAGarg @RonitKanwar @stuartbuck1 @GoodSciProject @Convergent_FROs It's been a pleasure to work with the can-do team @ilangur et al. have assembled at ARIA. @Pranay_Shahh has been a better point person than I could have dreamed of!. Ty @emmacap25 for being the FRC ops wizard & teaching me a bunch. Ty @Ben_Reinhardt for coming up w/ the name FRC.

RT @Pranay_Shahh: So pumped to be supporting this! . We’ve seen with Amodo Design what FRC organisations can do to unlock ARIA’s programmes….

RT @maryxw: Congrats Eric! So excited for the BBN—oh wait, FRC Launchpad!.

RT @KumarAGarg: UPDATE: I am really excited to announce our latest program offering. If you have heard @eric_is_weird talk about BBNs (an….

RT @RonitKanwar: Announcing the FRC launchpad which will incubate "Frontier Research Contractors" in the UK! These are ambitious orgs purs….

@JacquesCarolan And curious! Highlights include:. @bscwang probing me on "the difference between Licklider's DARPA and Heilmeier's DARPA". @techclaire introducing herself and immediately having new org ideas. @ObadiaAlex reaching out w/ a blog on 'BBN funding mechanisms' before we'd even chatted.

A great pleasure of this work has been getting to know the ARIA PDs and staff. Some of them are such wildly creative thinkers when it comes to their space. @JacquesCarolan and Gillian Koehl came up with ~4 ideas for new orgs in our first 30 minutes of chatting.