[erva]

Not to sound like an anti-intellectual, but it could be a mistake to assume that innovation comes from academia. Nassim Nicholas Taleb has a convincing chapter (I think it is Chapter 13: Lecturing Birds to Fly) in his book "Antifragile" about this very thing.

Then there are cultural differences that could be at play concerning innovation. It is a general observation that east asian cultures tend to suppress risk-taking and innovation. Whereas, western cultures seem to promote risk-taking and innovation. That is not to say that there aren't risk takers in China and risk averse individuals in the West...just that overall there may be asymmetry. And, very little asymmetry can create very big differences.

So, have all the smartest people you want, doing all the research you want; but if they have no pressure to put that research to practice, nor a desire or support to take the risks associated with implementation then you might as well have nobody doing anything.

Just a thought.

[acdha]

I don't think that line of reasoning is completely wrong but I think it's often over-emphasized as some sort of durable higher truth rather than a simplification of very complicated social factors, and usually this tends to significantly under-weight the ability to change things — e.g. many Americans are used to thinking that we have a huge cultural lead for entrepreneurship but the popular opinion there hasn't adjusted for the degree to which Europe, Canada, Israel, etc. have closed that gap over the last couple decades.

In the case of China, I don't think there's any question that it used to have higher barriers to innovation but I'm not comfortable concluding that this will be true for that much longer given how many people are trying to change it. Every time I read one of Bunnie Huang's gongkai posts[1] it really seems like the view in 20 years will be radically different.

1. https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?cat=20

[erva]

I agree. I wasn't using it as de-facto; rather as an idea that may calm the panic of "OMG They have more X than we do!" "They have more X than we do" only works to determine an outcome if all other things are perfectly equal, which they are not. My primary point was the idea that academia does not necessarily mean applied innovation.

That said, how long does it take for a culture to change part of its core structure? Cultures seem to me evolutionary and, aside from rare radical mutations, very slow to change. Then again, with over a 1.3 billion people there are sure to be plenty of sub-cultures with enough size to be a driving force for the whole.

[awkwarddaturtle]

> Not to sound like an anti-intellectual, but it could be a mistake to assume that innovation comes from academia

It isn't that innovation necessarily comes from academia, but that academia is a reflection of how wealthy and educated the population is. Innovation comes from the wealthy and the educated. So as china gets wealthier, they will innovate more.

> It is a general observation that east asian cultures tend to suppress risk-taking and innovation.

That's an "observation" based on racism and nonsense.

> just that overall there may be asymmetry.

Based on what evidence? It's just silly things people say - "The west is more individualistic". A society based on "white supremacy" is "individualistic"? How is basing one's ideology on "race - a genetic/communal" concept individualistic.

All these things are essentially nonsense created by people who want to sell books/etc. There is no truth.

You could write a book saying the west is collectivistic and china is individualistic by cherrypicking any data.

> So, have all the smartest people you want, doing all the research you want; but if they have no pressure to put that research to practice, nor a desire or support to take the risks associated with implementation then you might as well have nobody doing anything.

What makes you think they won't?

Greed works on the chinese as much as westerners. The things you need to "innovate" are wealth and security. Innovation is a luxury. The chinese will innovate as they get wealth and security.

The chinese are risk averse and yet they love gambling. They are risk averse and chinese have immigrated all over the world.

[erva]

> academia is a reflection of how wealthy and educated the population is

This is correct, but that doesn't mean causation. Look at any civilization and look at what came first wealth or academia. It seems to me that wealth creates academia.

> That's an "observation" based on racism and nonsense.

Saying something is "racist" does not constitute an argument. I didn't say whether it was "good" or "bad" to have a culture that promotes or suppresses risk taking...no one can. It is not "racist" to say that two things are not exactly the same.

> The things you need to "innovate" are wealth and security. Innovation is a luxury.

Dead wrong. Wealth and security create complacency. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is not just some stupid quip.

>What makes you think they won't?

I don't. My entire post was a postulation, which is why I used phrases such as "it could be", "general observation" and "there may be", etc. It appears that you are merely looking for a fight instead of having a conversation.

[MarkMMullin]

A key Chinese collaborator of mine on this https://hackaday.io/project/21966-quamera and I have chatted about the 'old' China and the 'new' China - he thought up, designed, and built a company around making a general purpose FPGA that allows for a wide range of imagers to be attached via standardized I2C/SPI or USB bussing. He's very much the new China, and while there are cultural differences, there's no question that an ever growing number can be either incredible collaborators or fearsome competitors - a lot of that choice is up to us.

[dilemma]

It's not about "talent".

It's about environments that are able to support new ventures in businesses, technology, and what have you. China is increasingly such an environment.

[dilemma]

>It is a general observation that east asian cultures tend to suppress risk-taking and innovation. Whereas, western cultures seem to promote risk-taking and innovation.

It's not a general observation. It is an idea promoted by westerners to make them feel superior. Creative, innovative thinking is not the norm anywhere. Everyone who thinks new thoughts is an outlier by definition, in every society.

[dragonwriter]

> Not to sound like an anti-intellectual, but could it be a misnomer to assume that innovation comes from academia.

The use of “misnomer” in that sentence is, itself, misnomer. What you describe is, perhaps, a mistake, but not in naming.

[erva]

A wordsmith I am not. Thanks for the correction.