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How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

21–30 of 44 posts

Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?

#21
post #2

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…

A related theory (PDF): http://homepage.mac.com/harpend/.Public/AshkenaziIQ.jbiosocs...

Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?

#22
post #2

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…

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.

[deleted]

Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?

#25
Considering 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 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”?

#26
post #2

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…

Sigh ... let's think a bit about how speculative, ad-hoc genetic explanations for cultural achievements get traction if they spin the right way...

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”?

#27
post #2

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…

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.

The combination of IQ and "chutzpah" is the essence of the entrepreneurial personality. If Jews are (for whatever reason) disposed to be high on these traits, it's certainly a sufficient explanation.

Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?

#28
post #25

Considering 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…

Jeff Bezos is not Jewish. Steven Cohen is probably Jewish. But yeah, you are right.

Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?

#29
post #25

Considering 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…

Why do some people have their religion listed (or atheist/agnostic) but others have inheritance?

Re: How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?

#30
post #25

Considering 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…

What does this list have to do with the article? I don't really understand what you're trying to say here.
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