Of course I can't find the source I was looking for, but I believe Americans are becoming more risk averse over time. Especially young people. Good examples are Boeing, inability to build housing, inability to figure out how to re-build the Key bridge. It's infecting tech too, at least the retail side. 'Enshittification' is real. So many great things have become mediocre like Google search and Amazon shopping. Building lock-in is easier than innovation. Hopefully there are enough innovators for the future as new technology is the only way to address many of our problems.
"Chicago doesn’t have a culture that forgets failure." Your comments about the Chicago (anti-)entrepreneurial culture remind me of what used to be the informal motto of the Chicago Machine, so much so that it was used as the title of a book about it: "Don't make no waves, don't back no losers."
Quantum computing is just the excuse needed to funnel $300 million to politically connected cronies and institutions. A heft percentage will flow back as contributions to the Democrat party.
And yet, people in Chicago/Cook County (which run the state) love that walking Thomas Nast cartoon.
I have come to the conclusion that the woes of Chicago are not the fault of the government, but solely due to the moral and intellectual weakness of the citizenry.
"Great entrepreneurial ecosystems are not government-led or government-stimulated. Entrepreneurs pick their noses and throw the boogers at the government. The most successful of them abhor government no matter what their political party is. They know the government gets in the way. Entrepreneurs don’t like rules. The government loves rules."
But we have to acknowledge the crony-capitalist entrepreneurial maturation curve.
Among the most successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs there are many who are enthusiastically - culturally and politically - predisposed to join what I call the Public/PiRate Partnership.
Silicon Valley has not discovered a new form of cronyism: Spying on customers, industrial espionage, and Fed-cooperative obstruction of the 1st Amendment are just new opportunities to freeze out competition.
Perhaps we should consider such people as lapsed entrepreneurs, who never have been capitalists. Both words which imply a sense of honor.
I'll use Zuckerberg as an example, though he may may not be the best poster boy for a 'maturation curve,' because he started out as a petty Stasi. Zuckerberg defined Facebook’s business model while he was still at Harvard: "Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard, just ask. I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS. People just submitted it. I don't know why. They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks."
"They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks.” Indeed. How many people have a Facebook account.
We have ample evidence of late that Harvard (let's use that as short hand for Ivy League prestige schools) admission (much less training or leadership) is an orange-flag for sociopathy. People whose political and financial interests may be, are, or will become aligned with "proper government regulation." I.e., regulatory Ministries filled with appartachiks held hostage by the graduate Harvard elite.
Early propensities or not, Zuck is (was?) an entepreneur and he is very successful. I contend he represents many similar mature tech entrepreneurs today. Brin, Page, Gates, Bezos...
Of them, perhaps Zuckerberg is most fully aligned with amoral business ethics AND goodthink political values (see Wisconsin election interference). Perhaps he simply never developed the social skills to hide it as well as the others.
"They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks.” You could actually imagine that on the Seal of the NSA, with a small font logo at the bottom: "Surveillance Authoritarianism: Powered by Meta."
Lately, Zuck needs forgiveness for some truly egregious past behaviors: Colluding to spy on his customers and competitors through false advertising, and feeding the purloined information to partners for profit.
"Robber Baron," has a whole new meaning. It's an epithet long preceding RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), but appropriate. We know Zuck knew these espionage efforts were legally dicey because he had 41 lawyers on the Onavo project.
Regulations? Zuckerberg is not alone in inviting them because he expects to write them. He invites them because he hopes they will excuse his excesses (a fine, not a full blown RICO charge), and may grant him a license for further surveillance 'capitalism.'
He's a long term accomplice of alphabet Federal agencies in pushing for a Federally sanctioned regulatory structure permitting abrogation of the 1st Amendment. See Twitter files. "Please, please, give us cover for subverting the 1st Amendment."
This question is before SCOTUS as I write. Maybe Zuck's cooperation with the Alphabets will turn out to be a get out of jail with minor abrasions card.
At the opposite end of this entrepreneurial spectrum is Elon Musk. While he HAS taken advantage of government regulation (subsidies), this has not prevented massive Federal regulatory obstructionism of his key businesses. Instead of being co-opted, though, he is sticking a thumb (X) in government censorship's eye. Like D.D. Harriman or John Galt might.
Think of X as the defense for SpaceX and Tesla against Diana Moon Glampers and Ellsworth Toohey: Who are alive and well in the visions of both Biden and Trump.
One of the real reasons Chicago can't succeed in these areas is because too many politically powerful people take things personally, instead of remaining emotionally detached. You have to have a high tolerance for risk and a willingness to accept failure, knowing that often the more failures you have, the more likely you are to have a success. The shortsightedness and lack of vision of locally powerful politicians destroys intermediate term and long-term success.
If I'm going to jump through the hoops that are necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur in a big city I don't want to get destroyed just as my growth is beginning and that's what happens here in Chicago.
In New York City and Silicon Valley and even Austin we would get encouraged but in Chicago we would get shaken down. Hell, even Boston, which has a very similar (on a much smaller scale) demographics and political environment is much friendlier.
Of course I can't find the source I was looking for, but I believe Americans are becoming more risk averse over time. Especially young people. Good examples are Boeing, inability to build housing, inability to figure out how to re-build the Key bridge. It's infecting tech too, at least the retail side. 'Enshittification' is real. So many great things have become mediocre like Google search and Amazon shopping. Building lock-in is easier than innovation. Hopefully there are enough innovators for the future as new technology is the only way to address many of our problems.
"Chicago doesn’t have a culture that forgets failure." Your comments about the Chicago (anti-)entrepreneurial culture remind me of what used to be the informal motto of the Chicago Machine, so much so that it was used as the title of a book about it: "Don't make no waves, don't back no losers."
Quantum computing is just the excuse needed to funnel $300 million to politically connected cronies and institutions. A heft percentage will flow back as contributions to the Democrat party.
And yet, people in Chicago/Cook County (which run the state) love that walking Thomas Nast cartoon.
I have come to the conclusion that the woes of Chicago are not the fault of the government, but solely due to the moral and intellectual weakness of the citizenry.
Great post.
I think this is true:
"Great entrepreneurial ecosystems are not government-led or government-stimulated. Entrepreneurs pick their noses and throw the boogers at the government. The most successful of them abhor government no matter what their political party is. They know the government gets in the way. Entrepreneurs don’t like rules. The government loves rules."
But we have to acknowledge the crony-capitalist entrepreneurial maturation curve.
Among the most successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs there are many who are enthusiastically - culturally and politically - predisposed to join what I call the Public/PiRate Partnership.
Silicon Valley has not discovered a new form of cronyism: Spying on customers, industrial espionage, and Fed-cooperative obstruction of the 1st Amendment are just new opportunities to freeze out competition.
Perhaps we should consider such people as lapsed entrepreneurs, who never have been capitalists. Both words which imply a sense of honor.
I'll use Zuckerberg as an example, though he may may not be the best poster boy for a 'maturation curve,' because he started out as a petty Stasi. Zuckerberg defined Facebook’s business model while he was still at Harvard: "Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard, just ask. I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS. People just submitted it. I don't know why. They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks."
"They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks.” Indeed. How many people have a Facebook account.
We have ample evidence of late that Harvard (let's use that as short hand for Ivy League prestige schools) admission (much less training or leadership) is an orange-flag for sociopathy. People whose political and financial interests may be, are, or will become aligned with "proper government regulation." I.e., regulatory Ministries filled with appartachiks held hostage by the graduate Harvard elite.
Early propensities or not, Zuck is (was?) an entepreneur and he is very successful. I contend he represents many similar mature tech entrepreneurs today. Brin, Page, Gates, Bezos...
Of them, perhaps Zuckerberg is most fully aligned with amoral business ethics AND goodthink political values (see Wisconsin election interference). Perhaps he simply never developed the social skills to hide it as well as the others.
"They 'trust me'. Dumb fucks.” You could actually imagine that on the Seal of the NSA, with a small font logo at the bottom: "Surveillance Authoritarianism: Powered by Meta."
Lately, Zuck needs forgiveness for some truly egregious past behaviors: Colluding to spy on his customers and competitors through false advertising, and feeding the purloined information to partners for profit.
"Robber Baron," has a whole new meaning. It's an epithet long preceding RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), but appropriate. We know Zuck knew these espionage efforts were legally dicey because he had 41 lawyers on the Onavo project.
Regulations? Zuckerberg is not alone in inviting them because he expects to write them. He invites them because he hopes they will excuse his excesses (a fine, not a full blown RICO charge), and may grant him a license for further surveillance 'capitalism.'
He's a long term accomplice of alphabet Federal agencies in pushing for a Federally sanctioned regulatory structure permitting abrogation of the 1st Amendment. See Twitter files. "Please, please, give us cover for subverting the 1st Amendment."
This question is before SCOTUS as I write. Maybe Zuck's cooperation with the Alphabets will turn out to be a get out of jail with minor abrasions card.
At the opposite end of this entrepreneurial spectrum is Elon Musk. While he HAS taken advantage of government regulation (subsidies), this has not prevented massive Federal regulatory obstructionism of his key businesses. Instead of being co-opted, though, he is sticking a thumb (X) in government censorship's eye. Like D.D. Harriman or John Galt might.
Think of X as the defense for SpaceX and Tesla against Diana Moon Glampers and Ellsworth Toohey: Who are alive and well in the visions of both Biden and Trump.
One of the real reasons Chicago can't succeed in these areas is because too many politically powerful people take things personally, instead of remaining emotionally detached. You have to have a high tolerance for risk and a willingness to accept failure, knowing that often the more failures you have, the more likely you are to have a success. The shortsightedness and lack of vision of locally powerful politicians destroys intermediate term and long-term success.
If I'm going to jump through the hoops that are necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur in a big city I don't want to get destroyed just as my growth is beginning and that's what happens here in Chicago.
In New York City and Silicon Valley and even Austin we would get encouraged but in Chicago we would get shaken down. Hell, even Boston, which has a very similar (on a much smaller scale) demographics and political environment is much friendlier.
Jeff, so sad that other places can't figure out what should be rather intuitive.