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I'm hoping that my home country Tunisia can replicate (at least somewhat) the Israeli success story. I don't believe I'm the only one in Europe that has a spec

by narag 10y ago

I'm hoping that my home country Tunisia can replicate (at least somewhat) the Israeli success story. I don't believe I'm the only one in Europe that has a special sympathy for your country. But trying to replicate Israel spirit? I don't think so. It's like when people over here talk about making an "european SV", not very realistic. I neither see my country doing anything similar if you find consollation in that :-) There are two reasons. One that someone pointed in a downvoted comment nearby: funds from governments (Israel and USA). The other one is a ruthless killer instinct. Both are shared by SV. If you've been around here for long enough, you might remember a couple of references that show clearly both factors. For government backing there was an article about SV origins in WW2. The other one is a YC standard interview question about how founders "hacked the system" for their own profit. Yesterday I got in a somewhat esoteric argument about how righteous people get very strict about abstract ideas like environment protection. This is the default actitude for many smart people. So the questions that matter are: are your government willing to put a lot of money to grow a sharp industry, and is "selfishness" taboo in your society? Otherwise, we're doomed :)

Cyph0n 10y ago
I definitely agree with you that attempting to blindly replicate another country's success is a recipe for failure. Success stories like Israel and SV, or even Taiwan in the semiconductor sector, were formed due to very specific circumstances and needs, and probably arose without anyone really intending them to. I guess what I was trying to say is that I'm hoping Tunisia learns what it can from Israel and other successes. I think we have the environment and the human capital to at the very least attract foreign companies to setup offices in Tunisia. Ideally, we would start our own local companies to compete on the global stage. And as you've kindly mentioned, this requires serious interest by the government, and from what I've seen, this is starting to become the case.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
anon2264 10y ago
SV?
- Cyph0n 10y ago
  Silicon Valley
  - anon2264 10y ago
    I was so confused because I thought we were talkin about Nation State's developed after WWII as the parent said
philtar 10y ago
Why do you have special sympathy for Tunisia?
- flukus 10y ago
  I could be wrong here, but they kicked off the Arab spring and so far seem to be the only ones that have descended into Islamism. As far as middle eastern countries go, Tunisia seems like a good one to set an example.
  - narag 10y ago
    On the mark. Edit: well, after writing this, I hope you don't mind if I point that Tunisia is not middle east and that you probably wanted to write "haven't" ;)
  - Jugurtha 10y ago
    >As far as middle eastern countries go, Tunisia seems like a good one to set an example. Except Tunisia isn't in the Middle East, it's in North Africa; which is as eastern geographically as Western Europe and as similar to the Middle East in terms of culture and way of life because of shared religion as the U.S. is similar to Peru. Really different cultures and world views.

by narag 10y ago

Cyph0n 10y ago

I definitely agree with you that attempting to blindly replicate another country's success is a recipe for failure. Success stories like Israel and SV, or even Taiwan in the semiconductor sector, were formed due to very specific circumstances and needs, and probably arose without anyone really intending them to. I guess what I was trying to say is that I'm hoping Tunisia learns what it can from Israel and other successes. I think we have the environment and the human capital to at the very least attract foreign companies to setup offices in Tunisia. Ideally, we would start our own local companies to compete on the global stage. And as you've kindly mentioned, this requires serious interest by the government, and from what I've seen, this is starting to become the case.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

anon2264 10y ago

SV?

Cyph0n 10y ago
Silicon Valley
- anon2264 10y ago
  I was so confused because I thought we were talkin about Nation State's developed after WWII as the parent said

philtar 10y ago

Why do you have special sympathy for Tunisia?

flukus 10y ago
I could be wrong here, but they kicked off the Arab spring and so far seem to be the only ones that have descended into Islamism. As far as middle eastern countries go, Tunisia seems like a good one to set an example.
- narag 10y ago
  On the mark. Edit: well, after writing this, I hope you don't mind if I point that Tunisia is not middle east and that you probably wanted to write "haven't" ;)
- Jugurtha 10y ago
  >As far as middle eastern countries go, Tunisia seems like a good one to set an example. Except Tunisia isn't in the Middle East, it's in North Africa; which is as eastern geographically as Western Europe and as similar to the Middle East in terms of culture and way of life because of shared religion as the U.S. is similar to Peru. Really different cultures and world views.