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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?

#71

Post by badpun »

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).

I think it's largely in the past now. There's a crapton of regulation, licencing etc. in the US now, maybe a little less than in some other developed places, but it's far from "the land of the free".

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

#72

Post by redsymbol »

American and moderately successful entrepreneur here.

I had to look up the Law of Jante. My reaction:

Holeee crap. That's one set of beliefs that is practically guaranteed to block ANYONE from manifesting even a fraction of their innovative potential.

(Is it even real? Can anyone from the Nordic region confirm or deny?)

Going even further:

If someone wants to shape their mindset, etc. into that of someone who is on a path to massive entrepreneurial success, and compelled to create something of lasting impact and value to the world...

You could almost take those rules, reword each to their opposite, and then read those opposites to yourself as daily affirmations.

That'll start to program your beliefs into something much, much more self-empowering. Rather than massively self-limiting.

(Maybe I'm indirectly revealing part of the answer to the OP's question here.)

In the USA, we have the metaphor of the crab bucket, and it's a real social effect. I had to escape it myself in my own family (which I basically did through over a decade of sheer grit and tenacity, plus self-programming with techniques like affirmations).

[Happy ending: having got to the other side of it, I'm closer to my extended family now than ever before.]

But if I got to pick, I'd take the crab bucket over the Law of Jante every day.

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

#73

Post by badpun »

Culture. America is extremely materialistic, individualistic, competititve and success-oriented. Whereas in many other countries, many people shrug at the thought of becoming a billionaire ("what do I need all this money for?"), in America, the default reaction is "THAT'S AMAZING".

This makes Americans take way more risks with entrepreneurship, as, for them, they are chasing the ultimate dream. It may be bad for them on individual level (as most of them fail, sometimes with serious consequences to their lives), but the US society as a whole benefits, because of the value created by the successful minority.

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

#74

Post by toasterlovin »

mateo411 wrote: post #21
toasterlovin wrote: post #13

Lots 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

European Jews make up a pretty consistent 25% of America's Nobel, Fields medal, and ACM Turing Awards winners. And they're about a third of the student populace at the Ivy Leagues and 30 percent of Supreme Court law clerks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jewish_intelligence

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

#75

Post by strikelaserclaw »

rramadass wrote: post #59

The reasons are manifold. Some are nicely summarized (factors leading up to the current Political/Military/Economic domination) in a two-part Stratfor article; 1) The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 1: The Inevitable Empire - https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/geopolitics-united-st... 2) The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 2: American Identity and the Threats of tomorrow. - https://worldview.stratfo…

Not to mention the sheer size and abundance of natural resources in America.

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

#76

Post by rramadass »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #75
rramadass wrote: post #59

The reasons are manifold. Some are nicely summarized (factors leading up to the current Political/Military/Economic domination) in a two-part Stratfor article; 1) The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 1: The Inevitable Empire - https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/geopolitics-united-st... 2) The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 2: American Identity and the Threats of tomorrow. - https://worldview.stratfo…

Not to mention the sheer size and abundance of natural resources in America.

Covered under "Geography" above. The Stratfor articles elaborate nicely on this.

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

#79

Post by dangerface »

> Is it the historic innovation, American culture in general?

LOL no. Pretty much all European industry was destroyed by world ward 2, they then had to buy from America and help improve their industry to beat the Nazi. Not trying to belittle American contribution to ww2 which was obviously massive just pointing out that America "lost" one harbour but pretty much every European country lost pretty much every industry they had.

After ww2 America had an industry with loads of spending money, they innovated while every one else was rebuilding. The rest of the world has been playing catchup ever since with varying degrees of success.

Since Europeans, Americans and China are all as brainy as each other its really hard to catch up unless you can make a sacrifice Americans cant for example sacrifice your peasents as cheap labour. It looks like China will beat America with this attitude, when it does will other countries adopt Chinas "winning" attitude? or be left behind?

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