Reading 06: Why America is culturally superior to Europe (and all other countries)

 I think the success of modern hackers is just another example of the sort of entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking that is present in American culture compared to other cultures, especially European cultures. While Europe has had some notable startups (Skype, others probably), they pale in comparison to the amount of American startups (even Silicon Valley on its own). Part of that is the fact that America more so than other countries rewards risk taking and starting your own business. Part of it is boring and somewhat legal in nature - it is a lot easier to start a company in America, and regulations are very favorable compared to those in other countries. However, a large part of it is cultural in nature. It’s often said that Americans live to work and Europeans work to live, and studies looking at average hours worked by country bear this out. Obviously starting up a company requires massively more work than working at an already established company, so Americans clearly have an advantage there. This attitude towards work likely also helped the development of hacker culture, considering how much early hackers worked in MIT (30 hour days). In addition, there is a cultural difference in how failure is seen between Europe and America. In the more risk averse countries in Europe, people are more likely to try and avoid failure, and working for an already established company is therefore the best possible outcome. However, America is a country that actually rewards risk taking. I read an article a few years ago discussing the differences between the tech scene in America and Europe that said that in Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs mention the number of companies that they started up with pride, even if those companies all failed. In Europe on the other hand, failure gets you ostracized and is therefore something to be avoided.

While initially I wanted nothing to do with starting up my own company, my time at Notre Dame has actually caused me to reconsider that. Although I’m still planning on working for a larger company, the idea of starting up my own company is no longer something I see as anathema. I had the chance to meet Dave Finocchio (Founder of Bleacher Report, former Alumni Dawg) 2 years ago over spring break, and he talked about the process of starting up Bleacher Report. In his eyes, he saw a problem that many people had (wanting more access to sports news) and created a pretty simple solution to it (a website + newsletter that eventually evolved into a mobile app). I think hearing him talk about his experience in that regard, along with reading some of Paul Graham’s work has had me look at founding my own company in a different light. It’s no longer something I see as something that “other” people do, but something that I can do as well, now that I know that everyone starts somewhere. I don’t think I’ll start up my own company, but maybe if one of my friends decides he has a good idea and it sounds good to me, I might join him on the ground floor.