A lot of newspaper articles have the form, “the U.S. has problems but no other country can match our creativity so we will always have an edge” (example).
We may have the world’s highest corporate tax rates, the world’s most expensive and inefficient health care system, the world’s highest paid and least effective schoolteachers, the world’s largest unfunded pension obligations, a centrally planned economy that discourages private business investment, etc., but those drone-like Asians will never catch up to us because we are creative and they aren’t.
“The Creativity Crisis”, a Newsweek article by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, questions this received wisdom. Measured by the Torrance test, developed in the 1950s, American creativity peaked in 1990 and has been declining since then.
[A true believer in inherent mid-20th-century American superiority might note that the article does not explore the possibility that average American creativity is declining because we have been admitting so many immigrants from countries that are inherently uncreative (“the importation of dullards theory”).]
I’d have to say American creativity is on the rise. This is a country that has created degree programs in “Financial Engineering”; creative people have brought us Enron, Fannie, WaMu, naked short selling, derivates markets and the concept of retention bonuses for to keep people who fail in their roles. Amazingly creative!
Jeff: I hadn’t considered that. You might be right. The HP CEO resigned due to a scandal recently and the shareholders lost 10% of their investment as the stock price plunged. Then the shareholders had to pay the guy another $28 million in cash and stock (source). I don’t think that would have happened during our supposed golden age of creativity!
Jeff, I don’t see the creativity on the rise. I do see the few creatively people ripping off the riches of other Americans. I know you’re trying to be sarcastic, but It still get me fuming.
On the other hand, I think US is the most creative country because of its environment. It attract genius and give great reward for being creative. The new immigrant and their new views only triggers more creativity. However, when the economic going worse, environment changes, wouldn’t all the creative people want to go somewhere else?
I think that diversity as currently practiced in the US is killing creativity.
There are 2 very different diversities: one, being exposed to diverse ideas. This one is good and without it creativity rapidly deteriorates to North Korean levels. Another diversity is having to deal daily with people holding very different beliefs and values. Exposure to second type of diversity results in stress, uncertainty and sometimes fear. These conditions are not conductive to creativity.
In the 1990s USA had lots of diversity of the first kind and manageable diversity of second kind. In the 2000s thought police had visibly decreased the former and uncontrolled migration has increased the latter.
American’s might not be inherently creative on average, but the US has a couple of things going for it:
1) By far the best graduate schools in science and engineering in the world. These schools attract the worlds smartest and most creative people.
Indian and Chinese schools may compete one day, but I’m not aware of the Indian Institute of technology producing any graduates who’ve gone on to revolutionize any industry the way Google has.
2) A gigantic network of existing businesses. This means lots of rich, successful, experienced, talented people who have the potential to be angel investors/managers in a creative startup.
“Indian and Chinese schools may compete one day, but I’m not aware of the Indian Institute of technology producing any graduates who’ve gone on to revolutionize any industry the way Google has.”
That is because all the IIT graduates have decided to cash in on Wall Street instead of innovating. Wall Street is happy to take them, given that getting into a good US university is *far* easier than IIT. (I have a friend whose father moved to the US from India because he wasn’t sure if his daughter — smart enough to make it to Univ of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne — would make it to one of the IITs.)
Murali: How about using your MIT education to work with Google for a few minutes and give us some comments with references to facts, instead of just giving us your opinion or unsupported assertions? I found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institutes_of_Technology , for example, which lists IIT alumni who were founders or cofounders of tech companies such as Sun Microsystems and Cirrus Logic, as well as a guy who was an excimer laser and LASIK pioneer.
Philip,
wow, that was embarrassing/stupid.
It looks like there is present day international competition in quality universities. That being said, American schools can still attract some of the worlds smartest/most creative people. It’s also interesting to note that many of the enterprising alumni you mentioned from the IIT seem to have worked for/founded companies based in the US.
Joe: Don’t be embarrassed. I think that it shows how tough it is for us North Americans to shake off our sense of entitlement. Historically China and India were among the wealthiest and most sophisticated places on the planet (and China was among the most innovative), but not within our lifetimes so prejudice clouds our thinking (and makes us complacent to the point that we will sit and watch football rather than study something or work).
Of course the U.S. has a much better capital base on which to build than India or China. There are Chinese cities with 5 million inhabitants that are many hours driving distance from the nearest airport, for example. Indian roads are not as functional as the American Interstate system. So it should be easier to start and run a business here. And some folks might attribute that to the inherent superiority of Americans. We’re smarter, harder working, better educated, more creative, etc. It might simply be that our grandfathers built us highways and airports whereas the grandfathers of today’s working-aged Indians did not.