Re: Are we wealthier than we were 50 years ago ?

AndyS wrote:
Islander wrote:
Andy, I can relate to your story, up to a point.

I grew up in a rural area, NJ in my case. My father worked a 100 acre
farm through the depression while supporting not only his family (wife
and 3 children), but also grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. He
pretty much failed at everything he did, but not because it was his
fault

Andy comments:

Yo... Well if your father had a 100 acre farm in NJ that he
had to sell........ I hardly think he was poor in the category
that I was in..... or a lot of others....

It was a long time ago ('53) and he got only $18K for the farm. Just enough to build a new house and a small nest egg, but he didn't live to enjoy it.


That sounds like a realy big deal to me,..... in the 1960s.....

I am glad for your good fortune......

I am also glad for my good fortune....

So... let us agree that if a person, regardless of circumtance,
really wants to achieve pereonal goals......... the opportunity is
there.... ...................... de Accuerdo ???? ...

Unfortunately, I don't agree. It requires much more than just hard work, although that is also required. Perhaps we can agree that it is a necessary, but not sufficient condition.


PS..... There is a hell of a lot of difference between between being
an "adminstrator" in DARPA .... and being the fellow that
actually figures out the "breakthru "......

One thing that I learned was that ideas are cheap. There are a lot of ideas out there. Doing something with them is what is important. My job at DARPA was to find the good ideas and find money to help make them happen. The most frustrating part of this job was that I knew that I could always find the money, but that it would often be too late. Ideas are fragile things and opportunities often do not wait for the bureaucrats to get the money flowing. From my experience, that seems to be true for both government and industry.

PPS..... I've had a LOT of "managers" who added their name to
patent applications that I was required to submit to them
for "approval to be filed "........until I was personally
on
the Texas Instruments patent committee.......Funny...
..... never happened after that (grin )

One thing that I insisted on throughout my career was that my name would not appear as an author or on a patent application unless I contributed to the technical work. I have refereed technical papers and patent applications, but only those that I earned.

Andy in Eureka, Texas

(Where it is better to die like a dog than
to live like a *** )

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