

"Men Who Do Nothing But Think." - asciilifeform
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_kza6h1HcC51qacy9io1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1276915161&Signature=T%2B333i62cfT1IN6M3kfVQ1KbkPo%3D

======
carpdiem
That's a great advertisement. It's too bad that groups like Westinghouse's R&D
division and Bell Labs aren't around anymore. Are there any real corporate
research groups doing basic research anymore?

~~~
blhack
Honestly, I'd say that google is...

I mean...they make smartphones now, how does that make sense beyond "well, we
locked a bunch of geeks in a room, and they thought this would be cool...so we
did it!".

Or howabout google books? Or all the dark fibre they purchased...or the google
datacenter in a shipping container things? Perhaps my vision is skewed as an
outsider looking in, but google seems to make a _lot_ of really cool things.

They seem to adhere to the "innovate now, monetize later" model, which is
really cool.

~~~
count
They didn't have a bunch of geeks sitting around thinking that up - they
bought a company that was actively working on it. Android isn't a google
invention - it was an acquisition.

------
aditya
Weird. They were an engineering company, which then bought a media company
(CBS) and eventually got consumed by another media giant (Viacom). I wonder
what happened to all the men who do nothing but think over the years...

~~~
sethg
They retired, and their successors do nothing but PowerPoint.

~~~
count
They changed the ad to 'Anything but Thinking'. :(

~~~
mistermann
Men who do nothing but scheme of ways to advance their career.

------
fractallyte
I've long cherished a dream of seeing an organization made up entirely of
scientists, that perpetuates itself through monetizing its research and
development. It would hire out its members to positions within corporations or
governments (rather like IBM consultants), and thus could (finally!) allow
scientists to achieve parity with other highly paid - but far less VALUABLE -
jobs.

I can imagine all kinds of accompanying benefits: a boost in the take up of
scientific subjects in colleges and universities; talent that flourishes in an
environment free of corporate profiteering; &c.

Philanthropy would be the only way to properly bootstrap this kind of
'startup'. But ultimately it could be civilization-changing!

~~~
MaysonL
SRI is _something_ like this: consider the mouse.

~~~
whyenot
My dad worked at SRI for nearly 30 years, and I think in many ways for him it
was a dream job. The variety and freedom to immerse yourself in a totally
different topic every six months to a year was something he really loved. But,
I also know working there was quite stressful because there was not much job
security. He had to always keep an eye on the hopper to ensure that once he
finished his current contract that there would be another project for him to
work on or there was a good chance he would lose his job.

------
lvecsey
Xerox is another example. I think these areas thrive on the surrounding
incompetence and that you can't really have one without the other.

------
r0s
Love my 25" Westinghouse monitor. It's quite well designed and has held up
great over the years. After the purchase I got interested in the company, it
has a long and interesting history.

The thing that sparked my curiosity was simply noticing the logo in strange
places. Last week I saw Westinghouse branded Pyrex bakeware at a thriftstore.
Years ago I found the logo on a residential home window indicating a security
system. I've seen it in many other unexpected places.

Interesting, diverse company. I stand by the quality of this display, for what
it's worth! Discontinued at Newegg but here it is:

[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824255...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824255011&cm_re=westinghouse-_-24-255-011-_-Product)

~~~
madh
The current Westinghouse has basically nothing to do with the old
Westinghouse. The current iteration (at least since 1998) is a spin-off of CBS
that just licenses the brand out to other companies.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westinghouse_Electric_Corporati...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westinghouse_Electric_Corporation_\(1998\))

------
JoelMcCracken
Props to the Pittsburgh reference.

~~~
Qz
I know a few people here in Pittsburgh who work for Westinghouse doing exactly
the stuff that poster is talking about.

------
nl
Soon, one it will occur to one of the men who think that they could consider
hiring a woman. Or maybe not.

~~~
nl
Really? Downvoted? Did no one else find the sexism in that poster as
noticeable as I did?

~~~
sdfx
I suppose you object to the phrase "Men who do nothing but think"? While
sexism might have been prevalent in most companies during the time of this ad
by modern standards, this phrase is not necessarily sexist. Sure, if you'd
publish this ad today the silhouette would depict a woman and the text would
be different, but "men" can be used in a gender neutral way [1] as in "All men
are created equal". Take it as an artifact from a different time and don't
read too much into it.

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-
neutral_pronoun#Historic...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-
neutral_pronoun#Historical_solutions)

~~~
Confusion
You first argue that it isn't sexism, because 'men' may be used in a gender
neutral way. Then you continue to argue that 'it is an artifact from a
different time', which is a way of explaining the fact that it _is_ sexist.

I fully agree that it is an artifact from a different time. It wasn't
considered to be sexist at the time and it wasn't intended to be sexist, but
from todays point of view, it's definititely sexist.

It's interesting how our minds work alike in the same wrong ways, because I
had pretty much the same train of thought.

~~~
sdfx
Sorry for the confusion. It's an 'artifact from a different time' in the sense
that you'd use different words today. Not because the copy is sexist (which i
still think it isn't) but because you'd try to avoid even the appearance of
sexism.

------
707
"It owns no factories, manufactures no products and makes no shipments"
Everyone below seems to see there is a problem but know one seems to be able
to connect the dots. Somewhere, someplace, Chairman Mao is smiling.

~~~
jodrellblank
Yet they create value and solve problems, and thereby earn money.

