A few things: 1. America's early expansion was designed to gain control over the entirety of the Mississippi river, which has the largest lockless waterway system serving the longest "useful" land area in the world with cheap boat transportation. This cheap transportation is the primary reason for American early development success, and continues to benefit America immensely to this day. 2. Every other developed coun…
Any reading on 1? I was thinking about how America gained ground in the world, from early colonial, to the industrial revolution, to the internet giants. I haven't read much about the Mississippi in relation to that era of our industry.
Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
41–50 of 94 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#42Lots of human capital because A) we have a large population, B) we have the highest level of economic development in the world, and C) we've done a great job of importing talent. We were the main beneficiaries of the Europeans driving out their Jewish population. As a group, European Jews are responsible for something like 25% of our intellectual output over the last century, but only make up 2% of our population. La…
How do you measure 25% of the world's intellectual output? I'm a fan of Judea Pearl and Woody Allen, but I think that's a pretty strong statement to make
> How do you measure 25% of the world's intellectual output?
Neil deGrasse Tyson used Nobel prize winners as a measure (~30% of them are Jews). While I agree that it's hard to measure it is representative of the underlying picture.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any reading on 1? I was thinking about how America gained ground in the world, from early colonial, to the industrial revolution, to the internet giants. I haven't read much about the Mississippi in relation to that era of our industry.
Encyclopedia Britannica has a decent introduction [1]. There are a number of books that cover the early development of nations, but the name of the book that dealt with waterways in depth escapes me at the moment. Possibly something by Marvin Harris or Jared Diamond? [1] https://www.britannica.com/place/Mississippi-River/History-a...
I think saying that American expansion was designed to control the Mississippi River is a stretch. The main expansion that occasioned it was the Louisiana Purchase, which was completely unintentional: the Americans went to France to ask for New Orleans, and were willing to pay up to $10 million for it, but Napoleon opened with an offer of all of Louisiana (doubling the size) for the bargain price of $15 million.
Louisiana wasn't a primary focus of the US foreign policy, particularly in the early 1800s. Instead, the US was more concerned with staying out of the deteriorating situation in Europe (during the Napoleonic Wars), and the main expansion targets would have been Canada and Florida.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#44My 2¢ in taking to people from other countries, it's the American attitude. Americans for better or worse think we can do anything, and they will try incessantly. They will start a business with far less experience and qualifications than others, pull themselves up by the bootstraps and potentially fail spectacularly - just to get right back up and do it again. I do not get this sense taking to people from other coun…
I agree. My biggest fear is that we're getting a little too heavy on protectionism and regulation. We have giants in a lot of industries with regulatory capture. I think China's loose approach to IP may allow them to eat our lunch.
I think because of China’s approach to IP it is impossible for companies such as Microsoft to appear there.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#45US companies give much higher pay than Europe and China. A beyond-average elementary programmer gets $40K/yr in China with 9-9-6 life. But the same person in the United States may get $120K or even more with a 9-6-5 life. So many Chinese programmers are moving to the US for higher pay.
* I dont hear anything elsewhere, China being the only exception. And they're feared, to the point where Huawei's banned.
Not every Chinese developer could get out of China to get higher pay because of tight competition, family, and traditions.
It should be mentioned that: 1. US companies in China (like Google, Microsoft, etc.) do not give higher pay than Chinese companies (like BAT, Toutiao, Pinduoduo). 2. Apartment price in China is very high. You can't easily find an apartment inside Beijing's 5th-ring-road having a Developers that cannot go aboard can only work hard in Chinese companies to pay the apartment loan.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#46My 2¢ in taking to people from other countries, it's the American attitude. Americans for better or worse think we can do anything, and they will try incessantly. They will start a business with far less experience and qualifications than others, pull themselves up by the bootstraps and potentially fail spectacularly - just to get right back up and do it again. I do not get this sense taking to people from other coun…
American attitude???
Andy Grove: Hungarian
Nikola Tesla: Serbian
Sergey Brin: Russian
Patrick and John Collison: Irish
Mathilde Collin: French
Jerry Yang: Taiwanese
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The US federal government maintains a large spying apparatus which has been increased massively after the 2001 terror attacks. They don't just use it for evil terrorists. It has been confirmed multiple times that they perform industrial espionage against companies in western countries, supposed to be allies of the US. The US government then gives the results of the espionage to industrial partners. Specifically whi…
Of course, this is not the sole reason why the US industry is where it is today. It's rather one of many reasons. The effect is much smaller than, say, soviet espionage on US technology was. But here you have some links on US industrial espionage on German companies: https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/960011/trans-atlant... https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-firms-fe...
Those links don’t give any evidence of industrial espionage on German companies. One even claims those no proof of it.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. My biggest fear is that we're getting a little too heavy on protectionism and regulation. We have giants in a lot of industries with regulatory capture. I think China's loose approach to IP may allow them to eat our lunch.
I think because of China’s approach to IP it is impossible for companies such as Microsoft to appear there.
I honestly don’t know. I hear from friends that in Shenzhen at least there’s a big ecosystem of small companies helping other small companies for little more than the promise they’ll be helped in return when the time comes. In my eyes that could lead to a very positive feedback loop if it continues.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#49My 2¢ in taking to people from other countries, it's the American attitude. Americans for better or worse think we can do anything, and they will try incessantly. They will start a business with far less experience and qualifications than others, pull themselves up by the bootstraps and potentially fail spectacularly - just to get right back up and do it again. I do not get this sense taking to people from other coun…
American attitude??? Andy Grove: Hungarian Nikola Tesla: Serbian Sergey Brin: Russian Patrick and John Collison: Irish Mathilde Collin: French Jerry Yang: Taiwanese
And arguably they came to America where their attitude could flourish. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist elsewhere but it’s not encouraged elsewhere.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?
#50A few things: 1. America's early expansion was designed to gain control over the entirety of the Mississippi river, which has the largest lockless waterway system serving the longest "useful" land area in the world with cheap boat transportation. This cheap transportation is the primary reason for American early development success, and continues to benefit America immensely to this day. 2. Every other developed coun…
On number 2, America also got a lot of cutting edge tech (jet engines, nuclear tech, crypto, radar) handed to them for free by the British because America had the capacity to do something with them. This was a huge boost for American industry post war.
True, believe there was some obligation to build the stuff and return to Britain fighting the war however. Left the US in an incredible advantage after WWII.