Ian Ross, Who Led Bell Labs, Dies at 85

<p><pre><code> "It's a foolish thing to tell a research person what the problem is - you'll get the answer to that problem and miss a brilliant discovery in the process," Dr. Ross said. </code></pre> Priceless.

a great view inside of bell labs in its heyday is the book "three degrees above zero".<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Three_Degrees_Above_Zero.html?id=qM_eAAAACAAJ" rel="nofollow">http://books.google.com/books/about/Three_Degrees_Above_Zero...</a><p>it sounds like the kind of place i would have liked to have worked. not sure if any place with that magic (or PARC's magic) still exist in the corporate world.

<i>“If we had had the same progress in the aircraft industry, you and I could be flying between London and New York in 500,000-seat planes and the fare would be about 25 cents,” he once said.</i><p>What kind of progress/innovation does he refer to in this?