This issue is something I am still somewhat confused about. Feynman makes a similar point about the IAS. I also know about a few more anecdotes in line with the “constraints breed creativity” point.
I think the ‘constraints breed creativity’ applies more to the tools people work with, and other constraints like teaching, administrative tasks, and grant applications mostly waste time.
There might be something to this, but I distinctly recall reading somewhere that having state of the art tools is also crucial for being able to work at the frontier. Without an electron microscope, some research is simply unavailable. (It might also create an incentive to develop an alternative and this is the kind of disruption we’re actually looking for.) More powerful computers also seem like a good thing in general. So I’m not sure how to resolve this.
Edit: Also consider the anecdote mentioned by John Maxwell about PARC of course.
Another thing I remember him once mentioning to me is that PARC bought its researchers very expensive, cutting-edge equipment to do research with, on the assumption that Moore’s Law would eventually drive down the price of such equipment to the point where it was affordable to the mainstream.
This issue is something I am still somewhat confused about. Feynman makes a similar point about the IAS. I also know about a few more anecdotes in line with the “constraints breed creativity” point.
There might be something to this, but I distinctly recall reading somewhere that having state of the art tools is also crucial for being able to work at the frontier. Without an electron microscope, some research is simply unavailable. (It might also create an incentive to develop an alternative and this is the kind of disruption we’re actually looking for.) More powerful computers also seem like a good thing in general. So I’m not sure how to resolve this.
Edit: Also consider the anecdote mentioned by John Maxwell about PARC of course.