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Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#61

Post by jandrewrogers »

The most interesting question is why do Americans dominate software technology specifically? It is the most level playing field of all technologies. The skills to develop a state-of-the-art next-generation software technology are readily available and learnable globally while requiring negligible capital. On paper, you would expect this to be an area where Americans have the smallest advantage instead of one of the biggest.

Having worked with software engineering teams around the world over the years, and also done a lot of software tech M&A diligence, I've come to appreciate the massive impact that local culture has on being effective at advanced software development. This goes beyond the culture of the company itself; the level of ambition and optimistic self-belief required to be effective at developing very advanced software isn't terribly compatible with environments where Tall Poppy Syndrome/Law of Jante/etc is a real social dynamic, and that is very much the rule rather than the exception.

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#62

Post by blago »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #53
blago wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this argument many times but it never rang true to me. Here is why: Every nation has gone true adversity and many had bounced off in a matter of years. The US economy has been dominating (measured by % of world GDP) since long before WW2. Ref: https://infogram.com/share-of-world-gdp-throughout-history-1... Also worth noting is that the US has faced its own headwinds including a civil war just a few decades…

Civil war was eighty years earlier and didn’t result in complete destruction due to lack of technology. In other threads mention the British tech giveaway, German scientists, and booming infrastructure compared to Europe and Asia in ruins. The can-do attitude was a multiplier. WWII was a hundred year boost.

> Civil war was eighty years earlier

Earlier than what, the Great Depression? The civil war resulted in > 500,000 deaths and hardly made a dent in the upward trend that was already underway.

> didn’t result in complete destruction due to lack of technology.

Europe was rebuilt 60 years ago (infrastructure, industry, and all)

> WWII was a hundred year boost.

Not sure where you get this information but looking at the data I linked, WW2 provided a gentle touch before the US started to slide down and has been ever since.

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#63

Post by mixmastamyk »

blago wrote: post #62
mixmastamyk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civil war was eighty years earlier and didn’t result in complete destruction due to lack of technology. In other threads mention the British tech giveaway, German scientists, and booming infrastructure compared to Europe and Asia in ruins. The can-do attitude was a multiplier. WWII was a hundred year boost.

> Civil war was eighty years earlier Earlier than what, the Great Depression? The civil war resulted in > 500,000 deaths and hardly made a dent in the upward trend that was already underway. > didn’t result in complete destruction due to lack of technology. Europe was rebuilt 60 years ago (infrastructure, industry, and all) > WWII was a hundred year boost. Not sure where you get this information but looking at the da…

It’s not hard to have an upward trend from zero.

Also % of world gdp is not a great measurement. Numbers not great either. Europe lay in ruins in 1950, then rebuilt. A gradual tapering is unlikely. No down cycle for US civil war, very unlikely.

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#64

Post by nikanj »

ageek123 wrote: post #25
donatj wrote: post #5

My 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…

Also, critically, the US government (mostly) allows this. Many other countries have laws or regulations that impede the dynamicity of the economy and disincentivize entrepreneurship (or at least incentivize it less).

This might be true globally, but all across the western world you are pretty much free to start a software company

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#65

Post by jinushaun »

jenkinsj wrote: post #46
donatj wrote: post #5

My 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

America attracts innovators. They do it in America because they can’t do it at home. Whether it’s true or not, for immigrants, there’s a sense that upward mobility is possible in America.

There was an old episode of Top Gear where Clarkson was driving around an exotic car in America. He noted that Americans were super excited about the car, giving him complements, posing for pictures, saying that one day they’ll own one and generally being positive and optimistic.

In contrast, he reflected that if he did the same thing in the UK, he’d either get insulted for “showing off” or people would be generally negative/pessimistic because they could never afford one.

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#66

Post by return1 »

From an outside perspective, americans are more willing to try (and to dump) new things, period. It takes an arduous amount of energy to convince europeans to do the same, and you re likely to be rewarded with obnoxious remarks. And you cant grow a product if nobody is using it, thats why US wins. It is also a big homogeneous market, which means niches are sizeable. In europe , niches are divided /28

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#67

Post by return1 »

ageek123 wrote: post #25
donatj wrote: post #5

My 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…

Also, critically, the US government (mostly) allows this. Many other countries have laws or regulations that impede the dynamicity of the economy and disincentivize entrepreneurship (or at least incentivize it less).

Laws would change if the culture changes. I think it s cultural, first

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#68

Post by return1 »

jenkinsj wrote: post #46
donatj wrote: post #5

My 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 yet none of them returned to their ‘country’

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#69

Post by amboo7 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #61

The most interesting question is why do Americans dominate software technology specifically? It is the most level playing field of all technologies. The skills to develop a state-of-the-art next-generation software technology are readily available and learnable globally while requiring negligible capital. On paper, you would expect this to be an area where Americans have the smallest advantage instead of one of the b…

This. Having worked in the US and Europe, the local culture is ubiquitous. What is best for advanced software development, and engineering in general (IMO), is a low-context culture[1], which is dominant in the US -- so that many immigrants of diverse backgrounds can communicate efficiently.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-context_and_low-context...

Re: Ask HN: Why is the US the center of the tech industry?

#70

Post by perilunar »

mastrsushi wrote: post #10
djohnston wrote: post #4

We made the tech industry

We made the first tech industry

Which 'tech' industry would that be?

Textiles? Steam power? Railways? Steel? Shipping? Industrial chemistry? Automobiles? Aircraft?

Kind of amusing that what you think of as the "first tech industry" is only one of a very long list.

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