Hard Startups
The problem with startups building hard tech is it takes a long time to fail. Failures that take decades doesn&#x27;t work in the startup model. Image working on a fusion reactor. It might take 25 years to fail. The failure may not be that your idea doesn&#x27;t work, but because some other kind of reactor comes along that is a better business (ie, cheaper). At this point, you are now a world class expert at a technology that is not economically viable. But, you can&#x27;t transfer that knowledge, or at least most of it. You are also now 50 years old, give or take. You don&#x27;t have 25 years to work on the next hard problem. You certainly don&#x27;t have time to fail again. Back in the day when lots of people worked on hard technology, they were paid well to <i>work</i> on the problem; their life time earnings did not depend on creating a viable business. Because of that, they usually earned a pension, too. Because if you failed, you could retire comfortably, or, at least have enough to choose a second career that didn&#x27;t pay as well. That model doesn&#x27;t work for startups.