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Ask HN: How did South Korea raise in tech so quickly

3 points by samblr 10y ago

I remember late 90s was when South Korea was undergoing a low phase. How did it scale to tech prowess so quickly? Can anybody suggest books related to South Korean tech entrepreneurs in English or a book which captures this growth.

nibs 10y ago
South Korea has the highest average IQ of any country in the world [1]. The process of democratizing the country started working early 2000s in addition to the social capital built by co-hosting the World Cup in 2002. While this was happening, government supported a lot of IT-related investment. [2]. So start with smart people, give them freedom and shared purpose, give them some money to get them started, and here we are. [1]: http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-lowest-average-iq/ http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-low... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Korea#Sixth_Republic_1987.E2.80.93present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Korea#Sixth_R...
- samblr 10y ago
  Thanks for your input. Any tech entrepreneur book you know of from South Korea - in a way successful person's background captures essence of time.
Gibbon1 10y ago
I remember a article in a magazine about 35-40 years ago talking about Asian countries and industrial development. The points in short were the conventional wisdom was these countries were totally hosed. They were poor, run by despots, and had a huge population of young people entering adulthood and everyone assumed they'd fall into war and revolution. The authors claim was that the despots had done two things, provided some stability and forced children to go to school. And had sucked up to[1] the western governments with their large markets and excess capital. So 1. Elites/despots, committed to industrialization at almost any cost. 2. Huge population of educated workers entering the workforce. 3. Countries had ready access to US and European markets and capital. The above fits South Korea to a T. [1] Sucked up but did not let themselves be controlled by.
- samblr 10y ago
  From history it is evident that baton of power-and-knowledge gets passed from one civilisation to other! Im interested in understanding positive spin to these changes.
  - Gibbon1 10y ago
    Historically the power of a civilization was based on size and quality of the arable land it controlled. 1750's onward there was a switch to the amount of energy resources it's controlled. it's why France was the dominate power in Europe until the British and Germans started using coal to fuel their industries.
    - samblr 10y ago
      "size and quality of the arable land" "the amount of energy resources it's controlled" Above are just variables of time - these act on an successful individual (of his/her time) to produce companies/empires. I would like to know such stories from South Korea.

3 points by samblr 10y ago

nibs 10y ago

South Korea has the highest average IQ of any country in the world [1]. The process of democratizing the country started working early 2000s in addition to the social capital built by co-hosting the World Cup in 2002. While this was happening, government supported a lot of IT-related investment. [2]. So start with smart people, give them freedom and shared purpose, give them some money to get them started, and here we are. [1]: http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-lowest-average-iq/ http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-low... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Korea#Sixth_Republic_1987.E2.80.93present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Korea#Sixth_R...

samblr 10y ago
Thanks for your input. Any tech entrepreneur book you know of from South Korea - in a way successful person's background captures essence of time.

Gibbon1 10y ago

I remember a article in a magazine about 35-40 years ago talking about Asian countries and industrial development. The points in short were the conventional wisdom was these countries were totally hosed. They were poor, run by despots, and had a huge population of young people entering adulthood and everyone assumed they'd fall into war and revolution. The authors claim was that the despots had done two things, provided some stability and forced children to go to school. And had sucked up to[1] the western governments with their large markets and excess capital. So 1. Elites/despots, committed to industrialization at almost any cost. 2. Huge population of educated workers entering the workforce. 3. Countries had ready access to US and European markets and capital. The above fits South Korea to a T. [1] Sucked up but did not let themselves be controlled by.

samblr 10y ago
From history it is evident that baton of power-and-knowledge gets passed from one civilisation to other! Im interested in understanding positive spin to these changes.
- Gibbon1 10y ago
  Historically the power of a civilization was based on size and quality of the arable land it controlled. 1750's onward there was a switch to the amount of energy resources it's controlled. it's why France was the dominate power in Europe until the British and Germans started using coal to fuel their industries.
  - samblr 10y ago
    "size and quality of the arable land" "the amount of energy resources it's controlled" Above are just variables of time - these act on an successful individual (of his/her time) to produce companies/empires. I would like to know such stories from South Korea.