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Cargo cult tech: visit Silicon Valley, copy some striking behavioral traits not practiced in your little corner of the planet and hope that you will "eat the wo

Cargo cult tech: visit Silicon Valley, copy some striking behavioral traits not practiced in your little corner of the planet and hope that you will "eat the world" somehow.

narag 4y ago
Oh, the classic we're going to create Europe's SV in ___ you know.
- bjornsing 4y ago
  But those only copy the cultural aspects that favor those doing the copying, and since it’s conventional-minded people that copy and the “secret” SV ingredient is putting independent-minded people in charge the whole process is forever doomed to failure… But it keeps a lot of bureaucrats busy, and (very) gainfully employed.
  - narag 4y ago
    I enjoyed very much this blog series and the video: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ Unfortunately some people tends to cherry pick their favourite details. In my country there's a politician that says that the iPhone development was paid by US government.
seydor 4y ago
It seems like VCs are doing a lot of cargo cult tech. Cargo cults work if you have enough money. Throw it to the wall with adequate speed for large enough amount of time and some very few will stick. Then you can rest on the laurels that Fortuna gave you. This is why Silicon Valley cannot be replicated elsewhere, except perhaps Switzerland or some filthy-rich Petrocountry.
908B64B197 4y ago
> copy some striking behavioral traits not practiced in your little corner of the planet If only they did. Entrepreneurship, Great Universities, celebration of failures (having 2 failed startups is seen as a badge of honor to VCs) and privately administered capital (low tax rate!) willing to take risk. These are the elements vital to any potential foreign Silicon Valley competitors and they only exist here in America. All of the "Silicon Valley of X" initiatives I've seen were either led by bureaucrats with no ties to the valley or by who had little to no understanding of these fundamental traits. It was beanbag chairs and people writing JS on MacBooks (for 1/3 of what people who actually came to the valley made).
- college_physics 4y ago
  Ha ha, yes this is harder to copy structure is what I was alluding to. But I think, that too, is a conventional reading that doesnt really explain the disparity between regions. Great universities, massive amounts of capital, reckless, lemming stylr investment behavior etc. exists in many places. Imho the key difference is a deep seated and essentially naive american belief in technology as a "force for good". This helps coordinate society and over time creates the conditions for significant breakthroughs. That naivete is in older parts of the world matched instead with lots of cynicism. They have seen waves upon waves of tech simply facilitate the next calamity. That cynical view is closer to the truth as we can see in how digital tech has become increasingly a force for evil. But the tragedy with tech is that "somebody will do it". You just hope it is eventually going to be shaped by societies that can control it and eliminate its worst implications

Cargo cult tech: visit Silicon Valley, copy some striking behavioral traits not practiced in your little corner of the planet and hope that you will "eat the world" somehow.

narag 4y ago

Oh, the classic we're going to create Europe's SV in ___ you know.

bjornsing 4y ago
But those only copy the cultural aspects that favor those doing the copying, and since it’s conventional-minded people that copy and the “secret” SV ingredient is putting independent-minded people in charge the whole process is forever doomed to failure… But it keeps a lot of bureaucrats busy, and (very) gainfully employed.
- narag 4y ago
  I enjoyed very much this blog series and the video: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ Unfortunately some people tends to cherry pick their favourite details. In my country there's a politician that says that the iPhone development was paid by US government.

seydor 4y ago

It seems like VCs are doing a lot of cargo cult tech. Cargo cults work if you have enough money. Throw it to the wall with adequate speed for large enough amount of time and some very few will stick. Then you can rest on the laurels that Fortuna gave you. This is why Silicon Valley cannot be replicated elsewhere, except perhaps Switzerland or some filthy-rich Petrocountry.

908B64B197 4y ago

> copy some striking behavioral traits not practiced in your little corner of the planet If only they did. Entrepreneurship, Great Universities, celebration of failures (having 2 failed startups is seen as a badge of honor to VCs) and privately administered capital (low tax rate!) willing to take risk. These are the elements vital to any potential foreign Silicon Valley competitors and they only exist here in America. All of the "Silicon Valley of X" initiatives I've seen were either led by bureaucrats with no ties to the valley or by who had little to no understanding of these fundamental traits. It was beanbag chairs and people writing JS on MacBooks (for 1/3 of what people who actually came to the valley made).

college_physics 4y ago
Ha ha, yes this is harder to copy structure is what I was alluding to. But I think, that too, is a conventional reading that doesnt really explain the disparity between regions. Great universities, massive amounts of capital, reckless, lemming stylr investment behavior etc. exists in many places. Imho the key difference is a deep seated and essentially naive american belief in technology as a "force for good". This helps coordinate society and over time creates the conditions for significant breakthroughs. That naivete is in older parts of the world matched instead with lots of cynicism. They have seen waves upon waves of tech simply facilitate the next calamity. That cynical view is closer to the truth as we can see in how digital tech has become increasingly a force for evil. But the tragedy with tech is that "somebody will do it". You just hope it is eventually going to be shaped by societies that can control it and eliminate its worst implications