Category: Society

Economy and society, entrepreneurship, innovation, Society

Disruptive Innovation: Ignore the Elite, Bet on the Underdogs

History is full of unfortunate predictions. However, the New York Times’s claim in 1903 that human flight would not be possible for another one to ten million years is one of the most striking examples. Is this a classic case of pessimism from an era unable to anticipate technological progress? Not quite. The story is far more interesting. It’s about an elite that uses its own failure as proof of impossibility while underdogs persist in trying and ultimately succeed.

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innovation, Society

The Navy’s star lesson: Why fundamental skills matter more than ever in the age of AI

When discussing the rapid advance of technologies such as AI, two opposing reactions emerge: a strong fear of the consequences (“The accounting profession will disappear”) and unbridled enthusiasm (“Everyone can be a Michelangelo now!”). Both reactions assume that professional skills will become less important in the face of machines. However, this is far from certain. An interesting decision made by the US Navy sheds light on this issue.

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Society

Trapped in our beliefs: the (true) lesson of the MAGA mind

In an ideal world, the presentation of objective facts should naturally lead individuals to revise their beliefs. But experience tells us a very different reality: we are trapped in our beliefs and opinions, even absurd ones, and we often remain unshaken in the face of contrary evidence. Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) electoral base is an extreme textbook case that fascinates researchers. But, as always, there is a “but…”, and the lesson is not what it seems.

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innovation, Society

Defend science? What if universities started by putting their own house in order?

Under the slogan “Stand up for science,” marches were organized on March 7 to defend science as a pillar of democracy. These demonstrations were aimed at protesting the budget cuts and massive layoffs in American organizations and universities decided by the new Trump administration. No institution, even the most prestigious, seems to have been spared from this wave of repression. But academic institutions are not simply innocent victims. They bear a large part of the responsibility for the crisis of legitimacy they are experiencing, having long since forgotten the ideal of truth in order to serve ideological causes.

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Society

Why Categorical Solutions Fail to Solve Complex Problems

A member of parliament who voted in favor of low-emission zoning (banning older vehicles from city centers) recently confessed to the writer Alexandre Jardin, who is strongly opposed to this measure: “We wanted to do the right thing, even if we misjudged the impact”. One might have thought that laws were passed precisely on the basis of their expected impact, but this is clearly not the case. Instead, they seem to be passed on ideological principles. In this respect, they constitute what economist Thomas Sowell calls categorical solutions, claiming to provide a single, simple answer to what are in reality complex social problems. Categorical solutions have become commonplace today, eclipsing pragmatic, nuanced and fair approaches, and the consequences are catastrophic.

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Economy and society, Society

Progress versus the environment: the toxic belief that condemns Europe

The causes of a society’s decline are often internal. It declines because it maintains or adopts beliefs that prevent it from adapting to a changing world. When a crisis weakens its model, it is tempted to adopt external beliefs that promise an easy solution. These can prove fatal. This is what happened to Europe. Over the past twenty years or so, it has convinced itself that it must sacrifice its industry and agriculture and abandon technological progress to save the environment. This belief is toxic and must be reconsidered if Europe is to halt its decline.

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Society, Strategic surprise

The illusion of certainty: what Donald Trump’s victory teaches us about willful blindness

We live in a world of surprises, leading to unexpected events, sometimes with far-reaching consequences. But what’s striking about each of these events is that not everyone is surprised by them. In other words, what surprises us depends on who we are. Surprise is a largely self-inflicted phenomenon, the product of blindness. This is the result of blinding beliefs, certainties reinforced by social mechanisms, a bubble of illusion in which we enclose ourselves with those who believe the same things as we do. A typical example of this blindness is Donald Trump’s second victory in the US presidential election.

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Economy and society, entrepreneurship, innovation, Society

Europe’s competitiveness: the missed opportunity of the Draghi report

Electroshock. Emergency call. Existential threat. The report on Europe’s competitiveness that Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank, presented to the President of the European Commission on September 9 has caused quite a stir, to say the least. The report marks a salutary awakening to Europe’s decline, the symptoms of which it clearly identifies. But the proposed remedies remain conventional – a plan, a loan and an industrial policy. It’s a missed opportunity, or almost.

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Economy and society, entrepreneurship, innovation, Society

In praise of indirection, or how problems aren’t always solved by problem solving

Problem solving is a universal paradigm, and a very dangerous one. We believe that the world is full of problems and that we can solve them if we really try. But this is not true. Many problems are solved indirectly, thanks to a solution that was not imagined by those who faced them. That’s why it’s important to allow free innovation, i.e. solutions without problems, no matter how absurd they may seem.

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