Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of Singapore - a tropical nation - famously claimed that air conditioning was one of the most important inventions, as it "changed the

Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of Singapore - a tropical nation - famously claimed that air conditioning was one of the most important inventions, as it "changed the nature of civilization by making development possible in the tropics". And I am inclined to agree. As a person who grew up in a hot tropical country and is now living in a cool temperate one, I found it much easier to do things in a cooler climate than in a warmer one. This is anecdotal of course. Take it for what it is, just my personal experience.