What are Israel doing to get so good at this and chip design and weapons making and everything else they seem to be really good at? There’s only about 8 million people in the whole country. There are plenty of cities with more people than that. How come they punch so far above their weight?
My experience with Israeli companies suggests that a culture which values intellectual achievement and competition is more widespread there. Similar cultural enclaves exist elsewhere in the world and are presumably similarly effective, but they just aren't as large a portion of the population. Even small cultural differences can have outsized effects because of pollination-- e.g. it's easier to learn from an expert i…
The difference with Israel, specifically in regards to hacking, is purely the amount of government support and protection independent actors receive for things that might otherwise be considered nefarious in other countries.