Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life, 5.16.2022
Steve Kelman, Harvard Kennedy School prof, moderate Dem, pro free speech/anti cancel culture, pro tax rich, pro-Israel. Research improving gov performance, China interest. Blog reprints Facebook posts
Startup founders not all 19 years old
Interesting data in the Don't trust your Gut book about the age of business founders. A study of 2.7 million entrepreneurs found the average age of a business founder was 42 years old, and older founders were more likely to succeed in creating profitable businesses than younger ones. A 60 year old startup founder has 3 times the probability of creating a valuable business than a 30 year old one. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are not representative.
Harassment of Jewish students
The Globe has a disturbing article today on growing harassment of Jewish students on campuses. The Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine has called on students to boycott Jewish groups. The organization criticizes Jewish groups that support a two state solution, which the organization rejects because it "fails to recognize Israel as a settler colonial state and Zionism as a white supremacist ideology."
OTOH
I used to think that my ignorance about acronyms was a product of my age, that younger people used acronyms much more than older ones. But I note that I see on Facebook a surprising number of people my age who use acronyms I've never heard of before. Just now A good friend used the acronym OTOH. As I always do, I looked on Google and discovered it means "on the other hand." I am curious how many of my Facebook friends more or less my age knew that acronym already?
My knowledge is pretty limited to BTW and LOL.
Successful companies haven’t had more “lucky breaks”
A large scale study of very successful companies compared with only averagely successful once showed that the former did not have a larger number of "lucky breaks" than the latter
Reform Judaism in Israel
Interesting article in The Times today on reform Judaism in Israel. There are now more than 50 Reform synagogues in Israel, I am surprised the number is this large. A relative of mine is the rabbi of one of them in Jerusalem.
Swedish Social Democrats will support Nato membership
After 200 years of alliance-freedom, the governing left of center Swedish Social Democrats have just announced they will support Nato membership. This is an amazing development, that would have been utterly inconceivable before Ukraine. The Social Democrats have been closely associated with alliance-freedom. As someone with deep personal and friendship ties to Sweden, I am pleased that Sweden is definitively casting its lot with the West.
Hong Kong: Do what you’re told
The South China Morning Post reports that a top Chinese official has told Hong Kong to accept the “inevitability and urgency” of the "rise of patriotic power." In other words, shut up and do what you're told.
Not using best covid vaccines in China
Despite the priority for fighting covid in Chinese government policy, they have refused to allow more effective Western mRNA vaccines. They seem to want to wait until a Chinese mRNA vaccine is developed. So much for putting human lives first.