Well, it's pretty obvious that DARPA has different standards in different divisions (division I was in was relatively new), then. Which still makes me wonder wtf they are anymore.
Re:Why Does DARPA Work?
by throwawaygh on Sunday June 28, 2020 @02:28PM
(#23670922)
> division I was in was relatively new
That makes sense.
Reasons are myriad.
100% of the PMs I've worked with had tenure and successful labs prior to becoming PMs, and went back to their institution & restarted their labs after leaving DARPA. The reason for leaving your lab to be PM is fairly obvious: controlling the funding gives you a lot of leverage for shaping the priorities of the field, in a way that merely running your own lab doesn't.
Maybe your division sucked. I've only ever worked with highly competent PMs, and all of the programs I've worked on ended in commercialization.
Anyways, prosecuting individual cases doesn't seem like a particularly good way of evaluating the effectiveness of an agency.