In that example, Alice has ~5 min of time to give feedback to Bob; in Toby’s case the senior researchers are (in aggregate) spending at least multiple hours providing feedback (where “Bob spent 15 min talking to Alice and seeing what she got excited about” counts as 15 min of feedback from Alice). That’s the major difference.
I guess one way you could interpret Toby’s advice is to simply get a project idea from a senior person, and then go work on it yourself without feedback from that senior person—I would disagree with that particular advice. I think it’s important to have iterative / continual feedback from senior people.
In that example, Alice has ~5 min of time to give feedback to Bob; in Toby’s case the senior researchers are (in aggregate) spending at least multiple hours providing feedback (where “Bob spent 15 min talking to Alice and seeing what she got excited about” counts as 15 min of feedback from Alice). That’s the major difference.
I guess one way you could interpret Toby’s advice is to simply get a project idea from a senior person, and then go work on it yourself without feedback from that senior person—I would disagree with that particular advice. I think it’s important to have iterative / continual feedback from senior people.