Can France Create Its Own MIT? • Hacker News Board

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#21

Post by hevi_jos » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 11:13 PM UTC

3D13158219 wrote: post #9

I doubt it. Laboratories which teach and work in English have a huge advantage in modern academia because they are able to draw in talent from a far larger pool. The majority of international academics working in France are from other Romance language countries. I presume the other Romance language countries have the same problem as France.

French is an extremely easy language to pick for someone who already speaks English.

In fact, English took from French over 30% of its vocabulary. French was the official language in England of the highly educated until mere centuries ago.

Most researchers in France already speak English.

The huge advantage of the US/UK is one: money, you could become rich and apply your ideas to real products(in a bigger market) much much more easily than in France.

The huge advantage of France: quality of life.

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#22

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 11:19 PM UTC

What arrogance and ignorance.

France has its own MIT, it's called École Polytechnique. There's also INRIA and other institutions...

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#23

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 11:45 PM UTC

It can't, it shouldn't and it definitely does not have to.

France is doing just fine in terms of research in many fields.

Those that would like France to produce an 'MIT' would also like Europe to produce the next Facebook and neither is going to happen.

But that doesn't mean things are bad, they're just different and no less valuable.

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#24

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 11:46 PM UTC

hevi_jos wrote: post #21

3D13158219 wrote: post #9

I doubt it. Laboratories which teach and work in English have a huge advantage in modern academia because they are able to draw in talent from a far larger pool. The majority of international academics working in France are from other Romance language countries. I presume the other Romance language countries have the same problem as France.

French is an extremely easy language to pick for someone who already speaks English. In fact, English took from French over 30% of its vocabulary. French was the official language in England of the highly educated until mere centuries ago. Most researchers in France already speak English. The huge advantage of the US/UK is one: money, you could become rich and apply your ideas to real products(in a bigger market) muc…

And much less pressure to commercialize, there is a lot of fundamental and other research that is not immediately aimed at generating a cash-cow somewhere.

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#25

Post by ggg9990 » Sun, Jul 01, 2018, 12:43 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #22

What arrogance and ignorance. France has its own MIT, it's called École Polytechnique. There's also INRIA and other institutions...

The difference is that MIT draws on the world population whereas Ecole Polytechnique draws on the Francophone population.

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#26

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Jul 01, 2018, 12:55 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #22

What arrogance and ignorance. France has its own MIT, it's called École Polytechnique. There's also INRIA and other institutions...

> France has its own MIT, it's called École Polytechnique

Is EP’s productivity (in terms of companies founded by, landmark inventions/discoveries made by or patents awarded to) comparable to MIT? I thought it was more geared towards producing future politicians.

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#27

Post by adventured » Sun, Jul 01, 2018, 1:25 AM UTC

gtycomb wrote: post #19

What! The land that gave the world Fourier, Poincare, Galois, Laplace, Pascal, Lagrange, Cauchy, Descartes, Fermat, Hadamard, Borel ... they had their MIT a long time earlier.

Which is meaningless in the present. Just ask Greece how valuable to your present circumstances basking in the very, very distant past is.

Australia has none of that immense legacy, due to the age of their nation. And yet Australians are already richer than the French at the median, along with having a far higher GDP per capita. The impressive history of France doesn't matter very much in the scope of most practical matters related to the present.

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#28

Post by acoye » Sun, Jul 01, 2018, 1:31 AM UTC

Actually MIT was modelled from the French "École Polytechnique". In a same way like the white house was a copy of "Château de Rastignac".

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#29

Post by nickpeterson » Sun, Jul 01, 2018, 1:31 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #23

It can't, it shouldn't and it definitely does not have to. France is doing just fine in terms of research in many fields. Those that would like France to produce an 'MIT' would also like Europe to produce the next Facebook and neither is going to happen. But that doesn't mean things are bad, they're just different and no less valuable.

Out of curiosity, why is this true? Why does it seem like so many relevant tech companies are American, yet I see tons of talented European developers and conferences all the time? Are Euro nations just hostile to startups in a way the US isn't?

Re: Can France Create Its Own MIT?

#30

Post by da-bacon » Sun, Jul 01, 2018, 1:33 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26

coldtea wrote: post #22

What arrogance and ignorance. France has its own MIT, it's called École Polytechnique. There's also INRIA and other institutions...

> France has its own MIT, it's called École Polytechnique Is EP’s productivity (in terms of companies founded by, landmark inventions/discoveries made by or patents awarded to) comparable to MIT? I thought it was more geared towards producing future politicians.

Per alumni, it has the same rate of Nobel prize winners as MIT https://www.nature.com/news/where-nobel-winners-get-their-st...