Aardvark

[Bruce Simpson]

This column is archived at: http://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2008/1022.shtml

The NZ Steel story shows that Kiwis still have what it takes to achieve the impossible and solve the unsolvable problems.

So given that we have all these smart people to whom impossibility is no hurdle, what's stopping us from moving up the OECD list of nations and becoming a major player in the hi-tech world?

We seem to have the ingredients (grit, determination, skill and knowledge) - so why are we languishing so badly?

Is it a lack of proper venture capital funding?

A lack of vision?

A lack of suitable government policy?

Or are we just victims of that other great Kiwi saying "she'll be right"

[johnthetech]

[mad]

[paulw]

[Ian O]

[edwin]

Bruce, that is a great story.

So if we are one of the best innovators in the world, I assume we reguarly have exhibits at the world's largest invention expo (http://www.inventions-geneva.ch/)? And I assume we regularly receive a prize or two?

[Octagon]

NZ Steel.
I assume they make #8 wire?
Says it all really.....

[WesleyParish]

It's also a sense of self-satisfaction. I got really pissed-off with the average Kiwi smugness in 2003, when people in the Chch Press were writing in daily it seemed, praising ourselves and patting ourselves on the back because of Richard Pearse. He's the classic case of how to stifle inventiveness in its cradle - and this stifling stupidity's also homegrown Kiwiana.

The NZ Steel team are brilliant, and well worth the praise, but scoring a hole-in-one once in a lifetime doesn't make you a Golf Pro.

I myself suspect we can blame the Great Kiwi Knocking Machine for our lack-luster performance as a nation of inventors. There's nothing like a pack of "peers" - piers more like it - telling you that you're a loser for trying, and refusing to help, etc, to put a hole in the side of any boat you're trying to float.

[edwin]

Whilst I can't claim to have invented anything (yet!), I have tried many different things and made a number of different attempts.

Always I've found that people are generally very supportive. No-one wants to knock me down, no-one tries to suggest I'm a nutter for trying. Everyone says positive things.

So just where are these supposed tall poppy people? I actually think they don't exist and that they're a figment of our imagination. I've yet to meet one of these people that put other people's ideas down.


At the same time, I'm with WesleyParish in that sometimes we seem to go on about how good we are and call up the usual repertoire of 3 or 4 well-known kiwi inventions that were developed some time in the last 50 years. It just doesn't cut it.

I'd be the last person to get tall poppy syndrome, but I'm also the first to recognise that we often think we are much better than we really are. C'mon, let's keep it *real*.

[Peter]

I think we can get a bit big headed over "our" accomplishments. Have to remember we are only a tiny part of the work population - we are 0.000667% of the world population, so we can't expect to figure highly in the world invention scales.

I don't think much of the so called tall poppy myth either.

I have invented a few things and come up with ideas, have tried to get somewhere with the odd one or two but have not carried them through. Partly due to time, partly due to finance, and partly due to a lack of confidence in them actually being as great ideas as I had originally thought. Some ideas I have had have appeared as other peoples successful ideas.

It isn't practical to throw money at every "great" idea anyone comes up with, most are probably not commercial viable anyway. And some may be great ideas that just aren't made to work commercially. Bad luck, bad timing, bad execution. Some take a lot of time.

There are a lot more than a handlefull of kiwi inventions, happening beneath the normal radar. A god example is a company I have been keeping an eye on for a few years - Blis. Their product took 20 years to develop by university scientists and has been commericalised over the past 5 years, and it is hard to say still whether it will succeed. Another is BotryZen, sounds to me like a great natural product but it has really struggled to make commercial headway. It's hard to make it here.

[chrismn]