The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea.

  • iopqEnglish
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    8 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    Who funded him to go? It’s not like he paid for the trip out of his pocket

    The company could have also just fired him for not listening to orders. But I agree that they didn’t compensate him enough

    • gmtomEnglish
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      8 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      The CEO of the time who actively went against the conventional wisdom of capitalism to fund a person he had know for decades and personally knew how capable he was.

      Then as soon as that CEO left the personal connection was gone and typical capitalist mentality took over and tried to shut it down

      Just like almost every big discovery this happened in spite of capitalism, not because of it.

      • iopqEnglish
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        That could happen in socialism, where a government grant runs out and research is no longer funded because the person in charge of funding science changes.

        • gmtomEnglish
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago
          link
          fedilink

          Socialism isn’t “when the government does stuff” it’s better thought of as when companies become democratised, so while it could still happen you have more chance to appeal to average people rather then purely answering to the CEO chasing profit margins.

          • iopqEnglish
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            0
            ·
            8 months ago
            link
            fedilink

            There’s absolutely no law preventing you from starting a company like this

              • iopqEnglish
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                8 months ago
                link
                fedilink

                Capitalism doesn’t force you into a particular corporate structure

                • gmtomEnglish
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  0
                  ·
                  8 months ago
                  link
                  fedilink

                  Not explicitly, no, but there’s a reason almost every company has the exact same corporate structure.