I'm an American that's lived in Berlin for the last 7 years, and run a startup here. This post is mostly correct; in fact, it's pretty impressive that the auth

I'm an American that's lived in Berlin for the last 7 years, and run a startup here. This post is mostly correct; in fact, it's pretty impressive that the author soaked up the vibe that much in such a short span. But there are a couple points worth clarifying: The jaywalking analogy is stretched. Like, the source of it is partly true, but it's a pretty boring social convention. There are enough places where Berliners proudly flaunt the law that make Californians seem like straight-laced prudes. However, what the argument gets right is that the issue is more cultural than structural. There are a lot of things that come together to make German startup-culture somewhat tamer than the US variety, among them less of a drive for polarized go-big-or-go-home attitude, the historical strength of the German Mittelstand (medium sized companies) and less tolerance for risk. Also, the thing on data and Google Maps seems off. I'm not sure why Google Maps has only recently started to integrate Berlin's subway data, but there are excellent apps for Android [1] and iOS [2] that accomplish the same (and are not published by the local transit authority, and I can't imagine that solo app authors have more clout to get at the data than Google). It seemed a bit lame to assume that since Google Maps doesn't have the data that it must be the city's fault. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.oeffi&hl=de https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.... [2] https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/berlin-brb/id409357982?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/berlin-brb/id409357982?mt=8