IBM I believe kept a research group around for 2 years and let them work on whatever they wanted. Results? Basically nothing. So they disbanded the group.
Sometimes hiring great researchers and letting them do what they want pays off.
AT&T I believe kept a research group for much longer than that and they only invented or co-invented the transistor, the laser, radio astronomy, information theory, Unix, the C language, and the photovoltaic cell.
Almost like research is not a guaranteed thing. Kinda like you're trying to figure out the unknown.
I think it would be hard to replicate this with modern day researchers. There just isn't the same pressure or importance that wartime provides.
- This is an "I know a guy..." story from a podcast. I don't have any blog posts or written pieces for you.
- The setting: Intel in the 90's
- Allegedly, they hired a team of PhDs to look into designing some "mobile" software -- pretty new back then. No deadlines, management essentially just said "go look into this"
- The project went on for 2 years. Code was designed, but no code came out of it. They more or less just blew millions of $$$.
[1] https://softskills.audio/2016/05/02/episode-9-deadlines-and-... Roughly 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the podcast.