{"id":2014,"date":"2014-09-23T13:40:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T17:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/?p=2014"},"modified":"2017-01-12T11:41:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T16:41:59","slug":"microsoft-svc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/?p=2014","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft SVC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now, the news that Microsoft abruptly closed its Silicon Valley research lab—leaving dozens of stellar computer scientists jobless—has already been all over the theoretical computer science blogosphere: see, e.g., Lance<\/a>, Luca<\/a>, Omer Reingold<\/a>, Michael Mitzenmacher<\/a>. \u00a0I never made a real\u00a0visit to Microsoft SVC (only went there once IIRC, for a workshop, while a grad student at Berkeley);\u00a0now of course I won’t have the chance.<\/p>\n

The theoretical computer science community, in the Bay Area\u00a0and elsewhere, is now mobilizing to offer visiting positions to the “refugees” from Microsoft SVC, until they’re able to find more permanent employment. \u00a0I was happy to learn, this week, that MIT’s theory group will likely\u00a0play a small part in that effort.<\/p>\n

Like many others, I confess to bafflement about Microsoft’s reasons for doing this. \u00a0Won’t the severe damage to MSR’s painstakingly-built reputation, to its hiring and retention of the best people, outweigh the comparatively small\u00a0amount of\u00a0money Microsoft will save? \u00a0Did they at least ask Mr.\u00a0Gates, to see whether he’d chip in the proverbial change under his couch cushions to keep the lab open? \u00a0Most of all,\u00a0why the suddenness<\/em>? \u00a0Why not wind the lab down over a year, giving the\u00a0scientists time to apply\u00a0for new jobs in the academic hiring cycle? \u00a0It’s not like Microsoft is in a financial crisis, lacking the\u00a0cash to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n

Yet one could also view this announcement as a lesson in why academia exists and is necessary<\/em>. \u00a0Yes, one should\u00a0applaud those companies that choose to invest a portion of their revenue in basic research—like IBM, the old AT&T, or Microsoft itself (which continues to operate great research outfits in Redmond, Santa Barbara, both Cambridges, Beijing, Bangalore, Munich, Cairo, and Herzliya). \u00a0And yes, one should\u00a0acknowledge the countless times when academia falls short of its ideals, when it too places the short term above the long. \u00a0All the same, it seems essential that our civilization\u00a0maintain institutions for which the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge are not just accoutrements for\u00a0when financial times are good and the Board of Directors is sympathetic, but are\u00a0the institution’s entire reasons for being<\/em>: those\u00a0activities\u00a0that the institution has explicitly committed to support for as long as it exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now, the news that Microsoft abruptly closed its Silicon Valley research lab—leaving dozens of stellar computer scientists jobless—has already been all over the theoretical computer science blogosphere: see, e.g., Lance, Luca, Omer Reingold, Michael Mitzenmacher. \u00a0I never made a real\u00a0visit to Microsoft SVC (only went there once IIRC, for a workshop, while a grad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,5,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","category-complexity","category-nerd-interest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2018,"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions\/2018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}