6 ms·

The Chutzpah of Israeli Startups

18 points by jradoff 17y ago

orangecat 17y ago
How can we encourage people to take more risks in the USA? Clearly, we’ve got a great startup culture here–particularly in regions like Silicon Valley and Boston, but could we be doing more elsewhere in the country? Decouple health insurance from employers.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
crux 17y ago
You should be careful in the way that you use the word 'Chutzpah'—in English people usually use it to mean ballsiness, but in Yiddish it still means impudence, affrontery, gall. Not a good quality. I don't know about modern Israeli but given its negative cognates I wouldn't be surprised if it is still not a nice thing to accuse someone of there, too.
nir 17y ago
I think there may some misunderstanding of the "Chutzpa" ingredient. As an Israeli living in NYC for the past 3 years, I don't think Americans are less entrepreneurial or more risk averse than Israelis. What is very different is the manner of communication - which I think has as much to do with the fact that modern Hebrew is extremely young, and simply hadn't yet evolved the "syntactic sugar", so to speak, that makes American communication somewhat more abstract. The Hebrew mode of communication vs the American English one can be likened to executives at a board meeting vs engineers working on fixing a bug. This has positive & negative implications: communication in Israel, translated literally to English, would seem blunt and sometimes plain rude to Americans (and remember, I'm in NYC ;)). On the other hand, the same directness (and almost total lack of rank - you call your army officer, or cabinet ministers, by their first name) tends to get assumptions questioned, ideas presented and problems recognized quite faster.
- TriinT 17y ago
  "This has positive & negative implications: communication in Israel, translated literally to English, would seem blunt and sometimes plain rude to Americans." That is quite interesting! Especially so when one takes into account that Americans i) tend to lack manners and ii) take pride in being direct.
  - access_denied 17y ago
    My people (the Germans) have this reputation for being impolite. I tend to think this is because we have the tendecy to be brutally direct when we want to be honest. We like to be honest, in that sense anyway, regarding matters of work. This comes off as rude to members of the civilized world (say, the British or Japanese). (I am writing this after +6 years of experience living in foreign countries.) Another observation: the heroism around doing ones work is strong in Germany, we have that in common with the Americans (in the West, don't ask certain Asians). Yes, certainly there are many French (for instance) fellows, who like theire work. But the Germans (and Americans) have that tendency to get "macho" about it.
    - nir 17y ago
      The first time I visited Germany as a Sales Engineer, the company's local German salesperson told me "Be direct. People here appreciate a straight, yes/no reply". I was relieved to hear this :) I suppose some might consider communication in German less direct due to issues like Sie vs Du separation. But since I wasn't speaking German it didn't really register with me.
    - Ras_ 17y ago
      Heroism around doing ones work aka Protestant work ethic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic
  - nir 17y ago
    You know, I often hear the "we lack manners" statement from Americans, and I never get where it's coming from. I suppose it all depends on who you compare with, but in my own limited experience (I've worked and traveled in Australia and central Europe) Americans are generally the nicest people I've ever met, in terms of everyday kindness and courtesy.
neilc 17y ago
Israel has the highest density of tech start-ups in the world. Comparing the density of startups in Israel vs. the entire US or the entire European region is misleading, because the US and Europe are so much larger and more heterogenous. It would be more accurate to compare the density of startups in Israel vs. Silicon Valley (comparable geographic area and population).
mynameishere 17y ago
"Chutzpah". Very Gladwellian. The simplest explanation is that Israel has lots of Jews, who tend to be smart and hard-working, as demonstrated consistently for 1000s of years. The need-a-poker-face-to-utter-it explanation is that they have "Chutzpah".and that's the key to success.
- crux 17y ago
  Wait a minute, you think it's reasonable and patent to assert that there's an inherent racial quality (we know it's not cultural, since Israeli culture can barely be said to be a hundred years old) that makes Jews smart and hard-working, whereas the assertion that Israeli culture is less risk-averse than American is utterly absurd? I don't particularly agree with him but I think I agree less with you.
  - mynameishere 17y ago
    Standardized testing, historical influence, Nobel prize results, Fields metal prize results, Senate and House election results, Ivy League enrollment results, Forbes 400 membership, chess grandmaster positions, etc, etc, all point to unusual abilities on the part of Jews. There are only a few categories where they aren't represented to a wild disproportion. To say that "Chutzpah" (aka Assholism) is the reason, is absolute nonsense. Human endeavour deals in intelligence and little else.

18 points by jradoff 17y ago

How can we encourage people to take more risks in the USA? Clearly, we’ve got a great startup culture here–particularly in regions like Silicon Valley and Boston, but could we be doing more elsewhere in the country? Decouple health insurance from employers.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

crux 17y ago

You should be careful in the way that you use the word 'Chutzpah'—in English people usually use it to mean ballsiness, but in Yiddish it still means impudence, affrontery, gall. Not a good quality. I don't know about modern Israeli but given its negative cognates I wouldn't be surprised if it is still not a nice thing to accuse someone of there, too.

nir 17y ago

I think there may some misunderstanding of the "Chutzpa" ingredient. As an Israeli living in NYC for the past 3 years, I don't think Americans are less entrepreneurial or more risk averse than Israelis. What is very different is the manner of communication - which I think has as much to do with the fact that modern Hebrew is extremely young, and simply hadn't yet evolved the "syntactic sugar", so to speak, that makes American communication somewhat more abstract. The Hebrew mode of communication vs the American English one can be likened to executives at a board meeting vs engineers working on fixing a bug. This has positive & negative implications: communication in Israel, translated literally to English, would seem blunt and sometimes plain rude to Americans (and remember, I'm in NYC ;)). On the other hand, the same directness (and almost total lack of rank - you call your army officer, or cabinet ministers, by their first name) tends to get assumptions questioned, ideas presented and problems recognized quite faster.

TriinT 17y ago
"This has positive & negative implications: communication in Israel, translated literally to English, would seem blunt and sometimes plain rude to Americans." That is quite interesting! Especially so when one takes into account that Americans i) tend to lack manners and ii) take pride in being direct.
- access_denied 17y ago
  My people (the Germans) have this reputation for being impolite. I tend to think this is because we have the tendecy to be brutally direct when we want to be honest. We like to be honest, in that sense anyway, regarding matters of work. This comes off as rude to members of the civilized world (say, the British or Japanese). (I am writing this after +6 years of experience living in foreign countries.) Another observation: the heroism around doing ones work is strong in Germany, we have that in common with the Americans (in the West, don't ask certain Asians). Yes, certainly there are many French (for instance) fellows, who like theire work. But the Germans (and Americans) have that tendency to get "macho" about it.
  - nir 17y ago
    The first time I visited Germany as a Sales Engineer, the company's local German salesperson told me "Be direct. People here appreciate a straight, yes/no reply". I was relieved to hear this :) I suppose some might consider communication in German less direct due to issues like Sie vs Du separation. But since I wasn't speaking German it didn't really register with me.
  - Ras_ 17y ago
    Heroism around doing ones work aka Protestant work ethic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic
- nir 17y ago
  You know, I often hear the "we lack manners" statement from Americans, and I never get where it's coming from. I suppose it all depends on who you compare with, but in my own limited experience (I've worked and traveled in Australia and central Europe) Americans are generally the nicest people I've ever met, in terms of everyday kindness and courtesy.

neilc 17y ago

Israel has the highest density of tech start-ups in the world. Comparing the density of startups in Israel vs. the entire US or the entire European region is misleading, because the US and Europe are so much larger and more heterogenous. It would be more accurate to compare the density of startups in Israel vs. Silicon Valley (comparable geographic area and population).

mynameishere 17y ago

"Chutzpah". Very Gladwellian. The simplest explanation is that Israel has lots of Jews, who tend to be smart and hard-working, as demonstrated consistently for 1000s of years. The need-a-poker-face-to-utter-it explanation is that they have "Chutzpah".and that's the key to success.

crux 17y ago
Wait a minute, you think it's reasonable and patent to assert that there's an inherent racial quality (we know it's not cultural, since Israeli culture can barely be said to be a hundred years old) that makes Jews smart and hard-working, whereas the assertion that Israeli culture is less risk-averse than American is utterly absurd? I don't particularly agree with him but I think I agree less with you.
- mynameishere 17y ago
  Standardized testing, historical influence, Nobel prize results, Fields metal prize results, Senate and House election results, Ivy League enrollment results, Forbes 400 membership, chess grandmaster positions, etc, etc, all point to unusual abilities on the part of Jews. There are only a few categories where they aren't represented to a wild disproportion. To say that "Chutzpah" (aka Assholism) is the reason, is absolute nonsense. Human endeavour deals in intelligence and little else.