Think Tanks

We all hear the talk and no the names but WHAT really is a think tank and what do they exactly do or accomplish?

Just trying to understand Rubicon a little better

reply to post by IndianaOps


I've worked at a think tank and I'll tell you this. Some are little more than purely ideologically driven, rent seekers, out to influence politics AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE while maintaining a favorable tax code and others are closer to an academia outside of academia.

reply to post by IndianaOps


Like a lot of ideas that get touched by bureaucracy, "think tanks" started as a good idea. There's an old saying that "When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail", and that's as true in the academic, corporate, and government worlds as it is anywhere else. "Think tanks" were originally created to provide 'outside eyes" that could look at data or situations without contamination by institutional prejudices (or, more realistically, with a different set of institutional prejudices) in order to facilitate better decision making. They were intended to be professional 'thinkers outside the box', if you will.

The problem is that they bring their own preconceived notions and prejudices...and, of course, there's always the impulse to make ones' findings or analysis fit the agenda of the person or organization paying the bills. Some of the "think tanks" manage to overcome these problems...others don't bother trying, and simply rubber-stamp what's fed to them.