https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_fallacy

TLDR: Making a decision based on only qualitative data, and therefore ignoring qualitative information and observations, can lead to bad outcomes. Not everything that is important can be easily measured.

On the surface, I don't mind the program. However, the implementation is likely to be terrible as we have seen so far. The various agencies tasked with implementing this have already been gutted and are dysfunctional. There is widespread belief that the Genesis mission is just a grift to get government money away from academia and into already-wealthy businesses, and that the call for proposals was a way to mine for ideas that could be stolen.

I was one of the thousands of proposals submitted to the program, which we didn't hear anything about after submission. If the rumors are true, there will only be a pittance of awards this round. So yeah, I'm skeptical that this money will actually end up in the hands of actual scientists.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49005937

Points: 1

# Comments: 2

See https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-nsf-slashe...

(Long story short, the administration is slashing the budgets of various NSF divisions to make room X-Labs, despite the Congressional budget stating that is not allowed)

They did. They elected Trump.

> no major populist uprising against the dismantling of the institution of the presidency

Some people view the president as the only directly-elected person powerful enough to fight for them in dismantling the rest of a government that isn't working (or even actively working against them). So they implicitly want a strong president.

This only goes as far as the president agrees with them of course.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48972558

Points: 12

# Comments: 3

I figured maybe they meant hard drive space (which I could kind of imagine being that large).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noblesse_oblige

The tension of feeling the actual need to use AI, but internalizing blame and guilt, is something I've noticed in my students and colleagues as well.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48774433

Points: 6

# Comments: 1

https://xkcd.com/1494/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48569040

Points: 6

# Comments: 1

(from Les Misérables)

Unfortunately, getting money from industry isn’t much easier in my opinion.

We have some software projects we want to spin out into a small business or non-profit (because federal funding…), but industry is absolutely cold right now. Had a few very promising partners lined up, but it all evaporated last spring. Between tariffs, AI spending, and now oil, everyone is reluctant to spend.

Edit: don’t forget how he’s forcing NSF headquarters to move. All the NSF, not just the “bad” research.

Almost everyone has entertained the idea of leaving the US for more stability, which is required for research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_fallacy