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From ChatGPT which is pretty insightful:
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1. “We outsourced ‘innovation’ to institutions.”
Evidence & Data:
• Corporate & Government R&D dominance:
• According to NSF data, over 70% of U.S. R&D is funded by businesses and government institutions, not individuals or small startups.
• NIH, DARPA, and other agencies drive foundational innovation in biotech, defense, and energy—often funding research that startups then commercialize.
• Decline in “garage-style” innovation:
• The mythos of 1970s–90s innovation (Jobs, Gates, Wozniak) contrasts with today’s environment of regulatory hurdles, capital-intensive tech, and institutional gatekeeping.
• A Brookings Institution report noted a decline in the number of high-growth firms started by individuals or small teams relative to the 1980s and 1990s.
• University dominance in research:
• Top-tier universities (e.g., MIT, Stanford) produce a disproportionate share of patents and research papers. While valuable, this centralizes innovation in elite academic ecosystems.
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2. “We got accustomed to so much convenience that we can no longer tolerate the discomfort of risk.”
Evidence & Data:
• Rise in risk-aversion among youth:
• Studies (e.g., Pew Research, Deloitte Millennial Surveys) show a decline in entrepreneurial intent and greater financial conservatism among Gen Z and Millennials compared to previous generations.
• The percentage of Americans starting new businesses has dropped from ~12% of the adult population in the 1980s to ~8% in recent years (Kauffman Foundation).
• Comfort economy growth:
• The explosive rise of services like Amazon, Uber, and food delivery apps reflects a cultural prioritization of convenience.
• These services are optimized to reduce friction, but may also reduce people’s tolerance for uncertainty and failure.
• Cultural avoidance of discomfort:
• Self-help and mental health discourse has increasingly shifted toward safe spaces, trigger warnings, and harm reduction, often criticized as reducing exposure to resilience-building stressors.
• The increase in overprotective parenting styles (“helicopter” and “snowplow”) has been linked to lower risk-tolerance in young adults (Twenge, Lukianoff & Haidt).
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3. “We created so many layers of abstraction that we forgot our Nature.”
Evidence & Data:
• Disconnection from physical world:
• Americans spend over 7 hours/day on screens and less than 10 minutes/day outdoors on average (EPA, Nielsen).
• The average time spent in nature is in long-term decline, especially among youth.
• Loss of manual/physical skill sets:
• DIY and skilled trades have declined in popularity. U.S. labor data shows a shortage of electricians, plumbers, farmers, and machinists—while digital/office jobs have exploded.
• Technological abstraction:
• Few people understand how the systems they use work (e.g., smartphones, AI models, power grids).
• The term “technological alienation” (Ellul, Postman, Heidegger) refers to this: people living in systems they depend on but do not understand.
• Rise of virtual reality over physical reality:
• The increasing substitution of simulated experiences (e.g., social media, VR, remote work) for embodied, communal, or tactile experience supports this idea of abstraction detaching us from Nature. 1 reply
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