I think the author's reasoning that the entire continent of Europe lacks imagination was a major weakness of this article, and perhaps unintentionally some kind

I think the author's reasoning that the entire continent of Europe lacks imagination was a major weakness of this article, and perhaps unintentionally some kind of -ist or -ism. Anecdotally, many of the brightest American software developers I've met hail from Europe: UK, Greece, Russia, Serbia, Italy, etc. I can go on and on and think of many geniuses I've had the privilege to work with. The question that people should be asking is why do the best and brightest often tend to migrate to American companies? My personal perspective on why European software doesn't seem to ever become market leading boils down to their government culture of wanting to regulate almost everything. Software is a world of possibilities. You can start from nothing and code literally anything. To me, the European tendency to want to have government regulate that and confine you to a narrow box of allowed services stifles that. Anybody who has a unique idea (unique ideas always step you outside of the box of existing regulated services) is going to be hampered. To give an example: something as simple as their Cookie law, which no doubt started with good intentions, just makes the first impression with any European website ugly and focuses away from the actual product. Does anybody really not know what a cookie is by now? Seriously?