People no longer believe that they are individually responsible for making the world better

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we outsourced "innovation" to institutions.

we got accustomed to so much convenience that we can no longer tolerate the discomfort of risk.

we created so many layers of abstraction that we forgot our Nature.

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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.

I tend to agree, I’m just not sure if there is a data for it, or just our feeling. And over what time line?

And to be clear, I wish everyone took individual responsibility for the culture they find themselves in