[DataDaoDe]

Germany has tons of potential, but Germany is one of the most risk averse countries on the planet (see Uncertainty Avoidance Cultures)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_avoidance]. This makes it amazing at building high quality industrial products, taking innovation done elsewhere and refining and polishing it, slowly over many years - building standards as you say. However, it doesn't help much in the innovation department. Also as probably the world leader in data privacy and protection that's another vector working against innovation. And then there is the robust legislation and bureaucracy (in a controlling sense) around all financial products (not to mention in general), which gives Germany advantages in certain industries but is also a distinct disadvantage for innovation in many sectors. There is also a massive union culture, which provides Germans with a great quality of life, but again, that's something probably negatively correlated to innovation.

I'd like to see more innovation in general and if this leads to that its good. But I don't personally think that innovation needs to happen in Germany, so long as it happens somewhere and Germans can do what they do best with it.

[throwaway2037]

    > Uncertainty Avoidance Cultures

How do you explain all of the groundbreaking technologies and processes that have come from Japan and Korea? Both are at the extreme end of uncertainty avoidance.

[andrepd]

> Also as probably the world leader in data privacy and protection that's another vector working against innovation

Extremely thick irony here

[Dracophoenix]

How does the Germany of today reconcile itself with the iconoclasts of its past from mathematicians, physicists, chemists, explorers, filmmakers, and industrialists who set the stage for modern life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

[svara]

There were way more young people back then. Germany as a country has the mentality of a retiree, because that's who lives there.

I say that as a German doing a startup in Germany. There's upsides as well but it's true.

[Tainnor]

It has something to do with an episode of German history that took place between 1933 and 1945.

[rkachowski]

In my experience it generally generally doesn't, and instead revels in the prestige of past successes. Titles and self mythology seem to be more valued than achievement and performance.

It's a sad frustration, as there is so much potential here.

[throwaway2037]

    > the robust legislation and bureaucracy (in a controlling sense) around all financial products

Germany has the world's largest, most liberal, and most liquid listed (<-- read that term twice before you rebut with an unlisted market!) equity structured products market. These products are essentially leveraged equity/FX options packaged as a bond. I'm confused. Can you be more specific about which particular "financial products" you think are excessively regulated in Germany?

[chme]

> There is also a massive union culture, which provides Germans with a great quality of life, but again, that's something probably negatively correlated to innovation.

Hmm... So if people struggle in life and have live from hand to mouth in multiple jobs to support their family and loved ones, they are more innovative?

[xenospn]

A quick trip to sub-Saharan Africa will prove this is both true and untrue.

[FirmwareBurner]

It engrains the idea into people early on, that they should work to upskill themselves or build their own jobs, instead of coasting on the idea the government will always be there for them to provide jobs and security.

Also, plenty of people in Germany live hand to mouth now. Poverty has been on the increase due to CoL.

[fhd2]

So, your hypothesis is that greed fuels innovation? Those innovating are rarely the ones benefiting financially. I think it rather fuels hustling. The end game of hustling are monopolies, which have little to no interest in innovation.

From what examples I can think of right now, innovation actually appears to require a certain level of coziness. I'd say great ideas come from curiosity, and if you're struggling to eat, that's usually limited. The trick is, perhaps, to be cozy, but not so cozy that lifting a finger seems pointless.