Hmm, I actually kind of lean towards it being rational, and labs just underspending on labor vs. capital for contigent historical/cultural reasons. I do think a lot of the talent juice is in “banal” progress like efficiently running lots of experiments, and iterating on existing ideas straightforwardly (as opposed to something like “only a few people have the deep brilliance/insight to make progress”), but that doesn’t change the upshot IMO.
Hmm, I actually kind of lean towards it being rational, and labs just underspending on labor vs. capital for contigent historical/cultural reasons. I do think a lot of the talent juice is in “banal” progress like efficiently running lots of experiments, and iterating on existing ideas straightforwardly (as opposed to something like “only a few people have the deep brilliance/insight to make progress”), but that doesn’t change the upshot IMO.