One can view things through many lenses. For example in the start-up I mentioned no investor made any money, some banks got interest payments, some products got sold and used, some people had dinner on the table because of jobs.

If I had not bothered writing patent applications and a business plan I could have saved many people a great deal of time. They could have done other, perhaps better, things. I could have focused on research which got into peer reviewed journals and perhaps been invited to conferences. I might then have gotten promoted and could be still gathering cobwebs in academia.

Shit happens, you learn, no drama.

As things stand the world is no longer at risk from any of my ideas, crazy or otherwise, because I am not in a position to do anything about them. I am quarantined. Nor is there any financial incentive for me to develop any of these notions. My job does not depend upon it. I can “laisser tomber”. All I need to do is have a brief think if there is maybe some mileage and then move on. I do not have to pursue or check beyond initial light bulb.

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Retrospect suggests that I was perhaps bat shit crazy to think we might play a part in the EUV story…

I’ll maintain that a one horse bet, which is what happened to EUV, did not produce the best outcome. It did however work. People will get high NA EUV nano-litho. They can fight the chip technology war until AI kills us all or makes us slaves. See you in the battery plant…

The semiconductor industry needed a solution because of the Moore’s Law mantram.

If you want to control things, be risk averse and safe it is probably best to quarantine the dreamers and when needed silence them. The last thing you need is anyone rocking the boat!!

Sequential safe micro-steps rarely revolutionize. They plod safely.

The thing about dreamers is that a fair portion of their dreams or visions will be fickle and impractical even delusional. It is best to keep them in quarantine…we don’t want people infected with grand ideas above their station…

It raises an interesting question.

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How do you tell ab initio, from the get-go, the difference between delusional and visionary?

Is it only retrospect which can answer accurately?

What stops the visionary?

What enables the delusional?

Who are the arbiters?

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If you want to be safe and sure you need to ensure that all the dreamers are locked up and in secure quarantine for the duration.