4 ms·

I think you need to experience more European tech companies. Crazy and new ideas are very much appreciated here, but they also have to be funded, you can't just

I think you need to experience more European tech companies. Crazy and new ideas are very much appreciated here, but they also have to be funded, you can't just go hog wild and worry about the budget later. >"Risk-taking, innovation, doing crazy "unthinkable" things is something that has simply deserted the European DNA a long time ago" I dunno, just off the top of my head, I'm thinking about Spotify, Skype, Sitecore, Endomondo, Just-Eat, Unity, Tradeshift, Trustpilot, GoMore, Zendesk, TC Electronic, Soundboks, Navision, Vivino, and that's just Scandinavian and primarily Danish(-started) companies off the top of my head. Perhaps your beef is more with German corporate/startup culture, and not European culture in general? We're very different from North to South, East to West :-)

ur-whale 8y ago
>you can't just go hog wild and worry about the budget later. Thank you for proving my point. A perfect example of why Europe is lagging in tech. >Spotify, Skype, Sitecore, Endomondo, Just-Eat, Unity, Tradeshift, Trustpilot, GoMore, Zendesk, TC Electronic, Soundboks, Navision, Vivino Leaving aside those that have already been bought out by a US-based corp, pray tell me: where in that list are the European Google, FB, Amazon, Apple, NVidia, Intel, TripAdvisor, etc... ? Where are the European cell phone, CPU, memory, or for that matter computer manufacturers? Of the list above, only - maybe - Spotify comes close to being able to play in the big boy's club. Given the size of the European population, the amazing level of education of the population and the concentration of potential, the state of European innovation is nothing short of pitiful. The root cause is Europeans live and a deeply arthritic societies where change is very rarely welcome.
- joelbluminator 8y ago
  Europe has less big tech companies but also less people shooting each other in the street or being homeless. I think the two are connected but that's a debate for another time...
  - ur-whale 8y ago
    > Europe has less big tech companies but also less people shooting each other in the street or being homeless. Non sequitur of the century, bravo.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  Sure, if you want to be irresponsible and damn the consequences, who cares who gets left behind or run off the road, then of course you can just go crazy. At some point someone is going to have to pick up the bill. >"where in that list are the European Google, FB, Amazon, Apple, NVidia, Intel, TripAdvisor, etc... ?" How convenient to only mention the extreme few who made it big. Never mind their predatory business practices, well-documented abuse of their employees, deep-seated government lobbying and massive total disregard for even basic customer privacy. They made it big, so they must be good, right? >"Given the size of the European population, the amazing level of education of the population and the concentration of potential, the state of European innovation is pitiful. The root cause is Europeans live and a deeply arthritic societies where change is very rarely welcome." You seem to have an extremely biased and uncharitable view of Europe, for some reason, which I find troubling. Unlike the US, we don't just dump our poor and destitute people on the streets to starve. "Move fast and break things" is not a healthy way to run a society.
  - ur-whale 8y ago
    >You seem to have an extremely biased and uncharitable view of Europe, for some reason, which I find troubling. I've live very sizable chunks of my life in both the US and Europe, and I'm simply drawing comparisons. Right now, when it comes to tech. Europe is basically lagging behind big time and my bet is it's only going to get worse. To be able to innovate, you need a certain mindset. That mindset mostly does not exist anymore in Europe. This is not about uncharitable, it just makes me sad to see Europe as the ugly little duckling of the tech. world and unless folks in tech. in Europe stop telling themselves Gemütlichkeit fairy tales about the state of innovation there, it will only get worse. >Unlike the US, we don't just dump our poor and destitute people on the streets to starve This is a giant non-sequitur. What does this have to do with the way innovation is managed?
    - KozmoNau7 8y ago
      It's part of the "move fast and break things" mindset that seems extremely prevalent in the US tech industry in particular, but certainly also in other parts of society. Just charge on, who cares about those who get left by the wayside, if they end up in a bad situation, it was probably their own fault for not working hard enough. Like I said, it's a very troubling mindset to apply to running a country. You have a lucky few who make great progress, but at what cost?

ur-whale 8y ago

>you can't just go hog wild and worry about the budget later. Thank you for proving my point. A perfect example of why Europe is lagging in tech. >Spotify, Skype, Sitecore, Endomondo, Just-Eat, Unity, Tradeshift, Trustpilot, GoMore, Zendesk, TC Electronic, Soundboks, Navision, Vivino Leaving aside those that have already been bought out by a US-based corp, pray tell me: where in that list are the European Google, FB, Amazon, Apple, NVidia, Intel, TripAdvisor, etc... ? Where are the European cell phone, CPU, memory, or for that matter computer manufacturers? Of the list above, only - maybe - Spotify comes close to being able to play in the big boy's club. Given the size of the European population, the amazing level of education of the population and the concentration of potential, the state of European innovation is nothing short of pitiful. The root cause is Europeans live and a deeply arthritic societies where change is very rarely welcome.

joelbluminator 8y ago
Europe has less big tech companies but also less people shooting each other in the street or being homeless. I think the two are connected but that's a debate for another time...
- ur-whale 8y ago
  > Europe has less big tech companies but also less people shooting each other in the street or being homeless. Non sequitur of the century, bravo.
KozmoNau7 8y ago
Sure, if you want to be irresponsible and damn the consequences, who cares who gets left behind or run off the road, then of course you can just go crazy. At some point someone is going to have to pick up the bill. >"where in that list are the European Google, FB, Amazon, Apple, NVidia, Intel, TripAdvisor, etc... ?" How convenient to only mention the extreme few who made it big. Never mind their predatory business practices, well-documented abuse of their employees, deep-seated government lobbying and massive total disregard for even basic customer privacy. They made it big, so they must be good, right? >"Given the size of the European population, the amazing level of education of the population and the concentration of potential, the state of European innovation is pitiful. The root cause is Europeans live and a deeply arthritic societies where change is very rarely welcome." You seem to have an extremely biased and uncharitable view of Europe, for some reason, which I find troubling. Unlike the US, we don't just dump our poor and destitute people on the streets to starve. "Move fast and break things" is not a healthy way to run a society.
- ur-whale 8y ago
  >You seem to have an extremely biased and uncharitable view of Europe, for some reason, which I find troubling. I've live very sizable chunks of my life in both the US and Europe, and I'm simply drawing comparisons. Right now, when it comes to tech. Europe is basically lagging behind big time and my bet is it's only going to get worse. To be able to innovate, you need a certain mindset. That mindset mostly does not exist anymore in Europe. This is not about uncharitable, it just makes me sad to see Europe as the ugly little duckling of the tech. world and unless folks in tech. in Europe stop telling themselves Gemütlichkeit fairy tales about the state of innovation there, it will only get worse. >Unlike the US, we don't just dump our poor and destitute people on the streets to starve This is a giant non-sequitur. What does this have to do with the way innovation is managed?
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago
    It's part of the "move fast and break things" mindset that seems extremely prevalent in the US tech industry in particular, but certainly also in other parts of society. Just charge on, who cares about those who get left by the wayside, if they end up in a bad situation, it was probably their own fault for not working hard enough. Like I said, it's a very troubling mindset to apply to running a country. You have a lucky few who make great progress, but at what cost?