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Why Europe Lags The Valley
By Rob | July 14, 2007
There is an interesting post and video about why Europe lags Silicon Valley. I have a decent perspective of European culture because I spent a summer in Denmark in 1999, studying International Business and lived with a Danish family. The odd thing about the Danish culture is that uber-achievement is not considered a good thing. Danes want to be wealthy, for sure, but they don’t want to be centi-millionaires or billionaires. Extravagant wealth is frowned upon.
In the U.S., achievement and wealth are status symbols, which is why most people pursue them so intensely. Silicon Valley has done a good job of attracting the kind of people that are career oriented and are willing to take on hard challenges in return for a cut of a huge potential pie. Europe may need serious cultural changes to have the kind of wealth creation power found in the Valley. But then again, those changes have other effects that may not be as desirable.
Topics: International |
