One partial explanation which intrigues me, from the "what you can't say" files: Historically (e.g. medieval times) the priesthood drew many of most intelligent/academic segment the population, as a compelling alternative to manual labor. Beginning in the 4th century, Christian priesthood adopted celibacy, which later was made mandatory by the Roman Catholic Church, which sought to prevent inheritance from draining i…
How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#22One partial explanation which intrigues me, from the "what you can't say" files: Historically (e.g. medieval times) the priesthood drew many of most intelligent/academic segment the population, as a compelling alternative to manual labor. Beginning in the 4th century, Christian priesthood adopted celibacy, which later was made mandatory by the Roman Catholic Church, which sought to prevent inheritance from draining i…
As much as I like the "Ashkenazi Jews are a genetically smarter population" hypothesis, it's not sufficient to explain what's going on. It's probably necessary that some level of intelligence exists within a population for startups to happen, but it's probably a vanishingly small part of the equation.
Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#23Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#24Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#251 William Gates III, Athiest/Agnostic
2 Warren Buffett, Athiest/Agnostic
3 Lawrence Ellison, Jewish
4 Christy Walton & family, Inheritance
5 Jim C. Walton, Inheritance
6 Alice Walton, Inheritance
7 S. Robson Walton, Inheritance
8 Michael Bloomberg, Jewish
9 Charles Koch, ?
9 David Koch, ?
11 Sergey Brin, Jewish
11 Larry Page, ?
13 Michael Dell, Jewish
14 Steven Ballmer, Jewish
15 George Soros, Athiest, but Jewish by blood
16 Donald Bren, ?
17 Paul Allen, Athiest/Agnostic
17 Abigail Johnson, Inheritance
19 Forrest Edward Mars, Inheritance
19 Jacqueline Mars
19 John Mars, Inheritance
22 Carl Icahn, Jewish
23 Ronald Perelman, Jewish
24 George B. Kaiser, Jewish
25 Philip Knight, Athiest/Agnostic
26 Sheldon Adelson, Jewish
26 Anne Cox Chambers, Inheritance
28 Jeffrey Bezos, Jewish
29 James Simons, Jewish
30 Dan Duncan, ?
30 Edward C. Johnson III, Inheritance
32 Jack Crawford Taylor, ?
33 James Goodnight, ?
33 John Paulson, ?
35 John Kluge, ?
36 Steven Cohen, ?
37 Philip Anschutz, Evangelical Christian
37 Rupert Murdoch, Christian
39 Harold Hamm, Christian
40 Pierre Omidyar, ?
40 Eric Schmidt, ?
42 Eli Broad, Jewish
43 Steve Jobs, Buddhist?
44 Len Blavatnik, ?
44 David Geffen, Jewish
Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#26One partial explanation which intrigues me, from the "what you can't say" files: Historically (e.g. medieval times) the priesthood drew many of most intelligent/academic segment the population, as a compelling alternative to manual labor. Beginning in the 4th century, Christian priesthood adopted celibacy, which later was made mandatory by the Roman Catholic Church, which sought to prevent inheritance from draining i…
Can there really be evidence that the genetically similar brothers and relatives of Christian priests weren't helped by their siblings status? Can we show that priests had a disproportionate amount of the intelligence genes of the Christian population to begin with? Can we show that converted Jews (like my ancestors) didn't skew the results? Can we show, even, that priest didn't actually reproduce quite freely through the behind-the-scenes-hanky-panky they were famous for? The list could go on and on. Jeesh!
Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#27One partial explanation which intrigues me, from the "what you can't say" files: Historically (e.g. medieval times) the priesthood drew many of most intelligent/academic segment the population, as a compelling alternative to manual labor. Beginning in the 4th century, Christian priesthood adopted celibacy, which later was made mandatory by the Roman Catholic Church, which sought to prevent inheritance from draining i…
As much as I like the "Ashkenazi Jews are a genetically smarter population" hypothesis, it's not sufficient to explain what's going on. It's probably necessary that some level of intelligence exists within a population for startups to happen, but it's probably a vanishingly small part of the equation.
Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#28Considering theres only about 13 million Jewish people in the world, they are disproportionately successful. Top of the Forbes 400, correct me if I'm wrong - 1 William Gates III, Athiest/Agnostic 2 Warren Buffett, Athiest/Agnostic 3 Lawrence Ellison, Jewish 4 Christy Walton & family, Inheritance 5 Jim C. Walton, Inheritance 6 Alice Walton, Inheritance 7 S. Robson Walton, Inheritance 8 Michael Bloomberg, Jewish 9 Char…
Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#29Considering theres only about 13 million Jewish people in the world, they are disproportionately successful. Top of the Forbes 400, correct me if I'm wrong - 1 William Gates III, Athiest/Agnostic 2 Warren Buffett, Athiest/Agnostic 3 Lawrence Ellison, Jewish 4 Christy Walton & family, Inheritance 5 Jim C. Walton, Inheritance 6 Alice Walton, Inheritance 7 S. Robson Walton, Inheritance 8 Michael Bloomberg, Jewish 9 Char…
Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
#30Considering theres only about 13 million Jewish people in the world, they are disproportionately successful. Top of the Forbes 400, correct me if I'm wrong - 1 William Gates III, Athiest/Agnostic 2 Warren Buffett, Athiest/Agnostic 3 Lawrence Ellison, Jewish 4 Christy Walton & family, Inheritance 5 Jim C. Walton, Inheritance 6 Alice Walton, Inheritance 7 S. Robson Walton, Inheritance 8 Michael Bloomberg, Jewish 9 Char…