# Maverick work is lonely and DARPA provides peers and community [[Presenting to peers regularly encourages you to get shit together]] as a general rule, but when you’re working on weird things it is harder to find those peers. DARPA helps solve this problem because [[A large part of a DARPA program manager’s job is focused network building]]. Since it is harder to find peers when you’re working on something weird, you might decide that it is just not worth the effort. In that case you may move more slowly than if you did have peers ([[Connections create new knowledge]].) [[Adam Wiggins]] pointed out that a big value add of early batches at [[Y Combinator]] was the feeling of community around doing something weird. ### Related * [[The peer review and citation system incentivizes people to work on things that other people think is interesting]] * [[People who aspire to be world-class flock to do groundbreaking things flock to Florences once they become well known]] * [[Scenes are people producing work aimed at impressing and one-upping each other]] <!-- #stub --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Maverick+work+is+lonely+and+DARPA+provides+peers+and+community) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Maverick+work+is+lonely+and+DARPA+provides+peers+and+community)