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Noah Smith has a theory that one of the best ways to develop a country that’s nearing an inflection point is to commit to building something like this. His exam
by mikeyouse 7y ago
Noah Smith has a theory that one of the best ways to develop a country that’s nearing an inflection point is to commit to building something like this. His example is a coastal African country committing to building an Aircraft Carrier. You would need to develop advanced capabilities across a dozen industries and it could realistically kickstart competition in every one of those areas as the local skills level up. It’s a provocative but plausible idea in my opinion.
- lazylizard 7y agoI always had the imagination that the aircraft carrier wasn't that hard. The planes that can operate from the carrier. I imagined were harder.
- mikeyouse 7y agoI think you'd need a few orders of magnitude more skilled workers to build a carrier vs. building a new airframe. I think the end skills will be much more useful to a developing economy as well (since they're better suited to heavy industry vs. more technical skills when developing a plane) but I could definitely be wrong there.