Interesting points : Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:35 pm  

Sorry for linking to this guys articles two days running, but I thought today's was interesting, especially points 1 and 2: http://www.cityam.com/article/138257722 ... r_Homepage Seems higher education has been over-expanded? Amazing to put iPhone sales in context and think that such a huge revenue generating product can spring up almost overnight and more particulary could disappear overnight. Just shows the power of innovation and the need for it. If as a country we spent less time thinking about financial "products" and house prices and managed some world class innovation we could all be alot better off!

Sorry for linking to this guys articles two days running, but I thought today's was interesting, especially points 1 and 2: http://www.cityam.com/article/138257722 ... r_Homepage Seems higher education has been over-expanded? Amazing to put iPhone sales in context and think that such a huge revenue generating product can spring up almost overnight and more particulary could disappear overnight. Just shows the power of innovation and the need for it. If as a country we spent less time thinking about financial "products" and house prices and managed some world class innovation we could all be alot better off!

Re: Interesting points : Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:30 am  

Dally wrote: Sorry for linking to this guys articles two days running, but I thought today's was interesting, especially points 1 and 2: http://www.cityam.com/article/138257722 ... r_Homepage Seems higher education has been over-expanded? Amazing to put iPhone sales in context and think that such a huge revenue generating product can spring up almost overnight and more particulary could disappear overnight. Just shows the power of innovation and the need for it. If as a country we spent less time thinking about financial "products" and house prices and managed some world class innovation we could all be alot better off! This is one the greatest countries for innovation, the number of hi-tech products developed in the countries puts many a bigger country to shame.

Dally wrote: Sorry for linking to this guys articles two days running, but I thought today's was interesting, especially points 1 and 2: http://www.cityam.com/article/138257722 ... r_Homepage Seems higher education has been over-expanded? Amazing to put iPhone sales in context and think that such a huge revenue generating product can spring up almost overnight and more particulary could disappear overnight. Just shows the power of innovation and the need for it. If as a country we spent less time thinking about financial "products" and house prices and managed some world class innovation we could all be alot better off! This is one the greatest countries for innovation, the number of hi-tech products developed in the countries puts many a bigger country to shame.

Re: Interesting points : Fri Oct 25, 2013 8:09 am  

Dally wrote:

... If as a country we spent less time thinking about financial "products" and house prices and managed some world class innovation we could all be alot better off!

The article doesn't tell us much that we didn't already know BUT I'd agree with this comment insomuch as the economy would be better balanced if manufacturing etc represented a greater proportion of it.

I was reading yesterday that the City in general and the top-end of the pay scale have already more than recovered (48% of the UK's GDP growth is in London) whilst the incomes, living standards and (now wobbly) financial security of the "squeezed middle" are still heading downwards.
Basically, those who got us into recession are doing fine now because we bailed them out, as are the few who benefit from "trickle-down", thanks very much.

Now that they've gobbled-up Royal Mail shares, they'll be wanting (our) Banks shares on the cheap next.

Re: Interesting points : Sat Oct 26, 2013 4:04 am  

Dally wrote:

Seems higher education has been over-expanded?

Allister Heath wrote:

A mismatch between the supply and demand of university degrees is an increasingly tragic problem.

The tragedy is the lack of quality jobs for people on leaving university. It isn't the over supply of education that is the problem, it is the under supply of good jobs that is the problem.

Now you and Heath would both argue these waiters and cleaners have wasted their time on money on getting their degrees. But not having their degrees would mean that they are excluded from EVER getting any available good job. They'd be stuck forever as waiters and cleaners.

If as a country we spent less time thinking about financial "products" and house prices and managed some world class innovation we could all be alot better off!

I guess you didn't understand what he was getting at when he said: "Fancy your chances as an entrepreneur? Ready to head to Silicon Roundabout to set up a tech firm, or to Mayfair to launch your very own hedge fund? Here’s the bad news: there is a 0.00006 per cent chance of building a company that will eventually be worth $1bn."

World class innovation is good. In fact it is great. But Apple wasn't a success because of world class innovation. They basically just copied the innovations of other companies and improved upon their products, added on good design and simplicity, got lucky that the world deemed them super cool and watched the ocean of cash wash over them.

Pointing to Apple and saying "Do what they did" is like pointing at Gareth Bale and telling British football clubs to do that. But British football clubs would just point at the 1,000's of kids who have received pretty much exactly the same training as Bale and say they have been doing that. It's just a freak occurrence when a Bale is produced, most of the time you'll end up with someone who will end up as a part time player at a non-league club.

A great deal of the innovation that made giants like Apple and Microsoft was created by Xerox at their Palo Alto Research Centre. Without the work at Xerox Parc and other centres of innovation then companies like Apple and Microsoft would have never become successful. But IMO you and Heath with your "if we have people parking cars with degrees it means we need less degrees" mentality means that there is going to be far less innovative *failure* which can spawn massive success in others.