Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 314 posts

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#81

Post by timmg »

fxtentacle wrote: post #76
selfmodruntime wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Applying for a grant is normally difficult. In Germany, it's outright hellish. I hope I will be pleasantly surprised.

It's boring but otherwise harmless. You skim through 20 pages of legalese and fill out the blanks. Your local goverment office has an advisor who will check the forms together with you before you submit them. (I applied for and received a De-Minimis grant.) Plus for the larger grant types, there are advisory companies that work on commission.

Finally: a good use for LLMs ;)

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#82

Post by analog31 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #79
franze wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*executed well* but first regulated to death

I think the EU is increasingly aware of its faults, especially in Germany & France. Happy to watch them cook and I say that as an American who has watched on with pain at what the EU has done to itself over the last decade+.

Are their people worse off?

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#83

Post by ost-ing »

calmoo wrote: post #39
rrr_oh_man wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not the bureaucracy. Nobody's stopping a local mid-market manufacturer from automating workflows. Or hindering a utility company from offering a better service process. The problem is corporate leadership. German companies tend to be run by people who are inflexible, uninspired, and cheap. Maybe it's in the culture. Compare this to Austria, where there's a cultural flair for the dramatic (and therefore…

Both can be true, and what you described is, in my opinion, one of the primary causes of insane bureaucracy in Germany. This inflexible mindset is what causes the relentless enforcement of bureaucracy and procedures in Germany, there is very little leeway here in terms of bending the rules, making exceptions, turning a blind eye. This cultural inflexibility, traditionalism and risk-aversion all ties together into a p…

Sums it up pretty well

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#84

Post by DataDaoDe »

pasabagi wrote: post #36

I actually think Germany would be really good at digital infrastructure if they stopped being afraid of friend computer. Germany is immensely proud of its history of creating standards - there's literally a place in berlin called DIN Platz. Germany is also very proud, and rightly so, in its history of mathematical innovation. Everything that isn't dross in the computer world is either a well designed standard, or a w…

Germany has tons of potential, but Germany is one of the most risk averse countries on the planet (see Uncertainty Avoidance Cultures)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_avoidance]. This makes it amazing at building high quality industrial products, taking innovation done elsewhere and refining and polishing it, slowly over many years - building standards as you say. However, it doesn't help much in the innovation department. Also as probably the world leader in data privacy and protection that's another vector working against innovation. And then there is the robust legislation and bureaucracy (in a controlling sense) around all financial products (not to mention in general), which gives Germany advantages in certain industries but is also a distinct disadvantage for innovation in many sectors. There is also a massive union culture, which provides Germans with a great quality of life, but again, that's something probably negatively correlated to innovation.

I'd like to see more innovation in general and if this leads to that its good. But I don't personally think that innovation needs to happen in Germany, so long as it happens somewhere and Germans can do what they do best with it.

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#85

Post by whimsicalism »

analog31 wrote: post #82
whimsicalism wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the EU is increasingly aware of its faults, especially in Germany & France. Happy to watch them cook and I say that as an American who has watched on with pain at what the EU has done to itself over the last decade+.

Are their people worse off?

In my view, yes - especially when you subset to native born populations. Many europeans are a proud people though so I understand this is contentious, regardless of what the numbers say.

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#86

Post by andy_ppp »

franze wrote: post #78
whimsicalism wrote: post #74

Surprised to see the negativity in the comments - if executed well, this is exactly the sort of thing governments should be aiming to do: solving social coordination problems and funding with long-term horizons.

*executed well* but first regulated to death

I have an alternative theory about tech and growth in Europe - the rich are too greedy here and are not optimistic enough about growth. They:

a) don’t fund risky things

b) don’t believe Europe can create unicorns so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy for their investments

c) try to cash out too quickly from potentially huge businesses

d) valuations are half the investment for double the equity, so of course the companies have half the runway and half the upside.

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#87

Post by eli_gottlieb »

ernst_klim wrote: post #64
anigbrowl wrote: post #34

Black_13 appears to be shadowbanned so I'm reproducing their comment here: black_13 11 minutes ago [dead] | parent | context | unvouch | favorite | on: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for res... The cynicism in these comments is telling, but misses crucial realities about Germany's capabilities and social achievements. Yes, Germany creates bureaucracies. Yes, Dorothee Bär's digital infrastructure record is…

> comprehensive public transportation infrastructure, universal healthcare without administrative bloat, and urban planning that prioritizes livability over speculation. This can't be further from the truth. This is probably written by an American, and US is a very car-centric, but German infrastructure is a shitshow. Also healthcare is absolutely stiffled by bureaucracy. I have a friend who is a cardiologist. He say…

>Also healthcare is absolutely stiffled by bureaucracy. I have a friend who is a cardiologist. He says that exactly half of his work time is paperwork. And not just paperwork, but German paperwork, where you manually type PDF fields one by one, then print, then sign, then scan and so on.

Wait. That's exactly how paperwork has always worked for me in America. What am I missing?

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#88

Post by vondur »

analog31 wrote: post #82
whimsicalism wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the EU is increasingly aware of its faults, especially in Germany & France. Happy to watch them cook and I say that as an American who has watched on with pain at what the EU has done to itself over the last decade+.

Are their people worse off?

According to this article, the answer is yes:

https://www.wsj.com/world/europeans-poorer-inflation-economy...

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#89

Post by whimsicalism »

andy_ppp wrote: post #86
franze wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*executed well* but first regulated to death

I have an alternative theory about tech and growth in Europe - the rich are too greedy here and are not optimistic enough about growth. They: a) don’t fund risky things b) don’t believe Europe can create unicorns so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy for their investments c) try to cash out too quickly from potentially huge businesses d) valuations are half the investment for double the equity, so of course the co…

No comment except that 'the rich are too greedy here' is an extremely european explanation for EU economic underperformance.

Re: Germany creates 'super–high-tech ministry' for research, technology, aerospace

#90

Post by bobthepanda »

analog31 wrote: post #82
whimsicalism wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the EU is increasingly aware of its faults, especially in Germany & France. Happy to watch them cook and I say that as an American who has watched on with pain at what the EU has done to itself over the last decade+.

Are their people worse off?

It depends on what you are looking at.

For example there is increasing consensus that Merkel's "black-zero" budget requirements set the stage for today's collapsing German infrastructure and lack of productivity growth due to decreased public investment.

Post reply on HN