Top all-time · #6573
Eric Gilliam
Personal blog · freaktakes.comhistorysciencestartups
Eric Gilliam writes FreakTakes, a personal blog at freaktakes.com about history, science and startups. Since 2023, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 36 times, most often “How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? (2023)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-13, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Eric Gilliam's essay on how places like Bell Labs learned to ask the right questions, and his profiles of organisations applying AI and math to applied science problems.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I want to help people start historically great labs. Operational histories on history's best R&D orgs.
Most-linked posts?
- How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? (2023)5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2023-07-05
- An Alternative Approach to Deep Tech VC – By Eric Gilliam2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-16
- A Category Theory-Inspired BBN2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-03-08
- Managing Lockheed's Skunk Works – By Eric Gilliam2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-03-08
What Hacker News says?
Eric Gilliam's "How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions?" https://www.freaktakes.com/p/how-did-places-like-bell-labs-k... came to a similar conclusion. (It did well here just a couple of months ago, too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43295865 , so it is a little disappointing that the discussion seems to be starting from the beginning here again.) Another point which you've both made…
Comment linking /p/how-did-places-like-bell-labs-know
on “Why Bell Labs Worked”Submitted How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? (2023) as a story · 183 points
HN discussionJust seeing this now. If any UK-based folks are interested, I just profiled an Oxford org looking for a systems engineer-style person to help with their work applying AI/math to applied science problems: https://www.freaktakes.com/p/a-category-theory-inspired-bbn
Comment linking /p/a-category-theory-inspired-bbn
on “How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? (2023)”Submitted BBN and the Development of the ARPAnet as a story · 56 points
HN discussionIt's also not nearly as good as Eric Gilliam's "How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions?" https://www.freaktakes.com/p/how-did-places-like-bell-labs-k... , posted here a few months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43295865 . That could almost have been written as a rebuttal to TFA's storytelling about unlimited researcher freedom at Bell Labs, though in fact it predates TFA by a cou…
Comment linking /p/how-did-places-like-bell-labs-know
on “Why Bell Labs Worked”Submitted A Note on the Changing Faces of (D)ARPA as a story · 38 points
HN discussionSubmitted Wanted: New Instruments to Fund BBNs as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Managing Lockheed's Skunk Works – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Illiac IV and the Connection Machine – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted BBNs Toward Universal Fabricators – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The BBN Fund as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Category Theory-Inspired BBN as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How the Rockefeller Foundation helped bootstrap the field of molecular biology as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Note on the Changing Faces of (D)ARPA – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Scrappy Complement to FROs: Building More BBNs as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Scrappy Complement to FROs: Building More BBNs as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Everything Old is New Again: Old models for new-era semiconductor research as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted DARPA's Autonomous Land Vehicle, Pilot's Associate, and Battle Management (2023) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Managing Lockheed's Skunk Works as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Chuck Thorpe on CMU: Operating an autonomous vehicle research powerhouse as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Illiac IV and the Connection Machine – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Past and Present of Computer-Augmented Hypothesis Generation as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Help Wanted: Technical Scouts – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Turning Risk Appetite into Impact – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The BBN Fund – By Eric Gilliam – FreakTakes as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Illiac IV and the Connection Machine – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted An Alternative Approach to Deep Tech VC – By Eric Gilliam as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
