Comment by gopher_space

> If I had billions to throw around, instead of siphoning large amounts of it to a relatively small number of people, I would instead attempt to incubate new ideas across a very large base of generally smart people across interdisciplinary backgrounds.

I had an interesting conversation with an investor around the power vs knowledge dynamic in the VC world and after a few hours we'd basically reinvented higher education with reverse tuition. Defining a general interest or loose problem space and then throwing money over a wall to individuals excited about exploring the area seems wasteful until you look at the scale of failed projects.