If we assume that talent is evenly distributed throughout the planet, that the U.S. population is around 300 million, that the global population is 6.7 billion, and that 1/5,000 people are the top candidates to push U.S. innovation forward, that gives us a pool of 60,000 people in the U.S. and 1.28 million outside of it.
Innovation will not be spurred solely by giving those 60,000 Americans access to math or science education, but by providing the right incentives for them to enter the scientific and technical professions. More importantly, we could radically increase the number of innovation candidates through targeted immigration of the 1.28 million people that hail from elsewhere.
--Mike Speiser via gigaom.com
While this analysis isn't classically correct (America has benefited from immigration for much of the 20th century), it is compelling and provocative.
It is much too difficult for talented overseas engineers and entrepreneurs (even from Canada and the UK, let alone China or India) to come here and unleash the massive value creation they yearn to foster.
Germany is, in fact, a country of engineers. It has to be. Think about it: a cold, cloudy country ranked only 62nd in land mass, 14th in population, and yet in 2008 Germany was #1 in the world in exports by dollars! Yes, ahead of the US and ahead of China. How is that possible? Nerds! Oops, I mean engineers; engineers who design and build high-quality cars, engines, tools, machinery, scientific equipment. This is what happens when you don’t stigmatize engineers: you get a country full of engineers, self-identifying as engineers, growing up dreaming of being engineers.
via nat.org
NERD POWER! Growing up, I felt like this was important to me. Yeah, I was a nerd, and I was damn proud of it.
Turns out nerds create great things. Wouldn't it be better if creating things was the norm?
There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes to wash the dishes...
If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.
via pluginid.com
I'm blogging something now with the anticipation of getting back to work.
The most common way I lose myself in the moment when I'm really truly working through a tough technical or design challenge.
Life overall would be more enjoyable if I was always in the moment though. I wonder if it's possible.
