The Fallacy of the Two-Hour Lunch Break

Michael Arrington took a shot at european entrepreneurship at the last Le Web Conference in Paris and manage to infuriate just about every European there judging from the reactions on the web and the fact that a poll taken indicates that they don’t want him back.

First the disclaimers, I was born French, educated in England, worked both in France and in England before moved to the US in 1989, became America in 1999. My bio has a more information about my work history here.

I think Arrington has a valid point but delivered it in a cack-handed way. Europeans seldom take two hour lunches anymore, I think he was just extrapolating from his (brief and sumptuous) experience there as a conference guest.

I also think that you cannot generalize about Europeans, Europe is a collection of countries each with their own systems, laws and cultures. Viewed from the United States it is easy to assume that Europe is an homogenous block. Just as it is easy for Europeans to assume that United States is an homogenous block as well, which it isn’t as I frequently point out to Europeans I talk to. The United States is a collection of States each with their own governments, cultures, strengths and weaknesses. Europe is the same.

The things Arrington should have been pointing out to the Europeans are these:

France is somewhat hostile to entrepreneurs, as it Germany and some other countries. Employment is very rigidly controlled, making it difficult to fire people makes management think twice before hiring people. Employer taxes are high making it costly to hire people, Europeans automate where Americas hire. France is particularly backwards is some respects, limiting the workweek to 35 hours, having punitive tax rates, with a culture of ‘Dirigisme’ where control over the economy (and industry) emanates from the center of power (the government), something that is deeply rooted in the culture of the country, going back to the First Empire under Napoleon, and kept going by De Gaulle (with various revolutions and republics in between).

But when you look to the UK, or Ireland, or Spain, you find a different culture, one which is much more conducive to entrepreneurship. The reasons are diverse, ranging from large scale deregulation (in the UK) and a vast influx of European money (Ireland and Spain).

You need a set of preconditions for entrepreneurship to flourish, fluid hiring and firing practices, a willingness to take risks, an acceptance of failure as a normal part of business, the ability to keeps one’s gains relatively tax free so that they can be reinvested in future business, etc… All things which are hard to find in Europe, and all things which Europeans should press their leaders to deliver.

What Arrington should have been pointing are the differences between Europe and the US, specifically what makes Europe hostile to entrepreneurs and what makes the United States attractive to entrepreneurs. At least then a constructive dialog could be started, as it is there is no real dialog which is a loss to both sides.

Updated – Dec 24th, 2009, I forgot to add this quote from a very recent article in the Economist about a French entrepreneur called Malamine Koné:

Other than that, he has made his own way. “The French system is more rigid, more cautious and less risk-taking than the American one,” he says. “In France, the entrepreneur is afraid of failure.” Airness has succeeded despite the closed French elite, not because of it.

Landline-Free

More and more people in the US are going landline-free these days, 16% in fact, I joined those 6 months ago, relying on my iPhone and Skype.

Facebook Picture updates

I have been updating my Facebook account with some pictures, some of which are already on my Flickr account, and others which are not such as the B17 flight, and scuba pictures of yours truly.

DVD Preview Madness

I bought a DVD recently, Wall-E if you must know, I decided to get the special edition because I wanted the extra material, and paid the extra $$$ to get it. So why do I have to sit through an interminable number of unstoppable previews before I can get to the main menu of the DVD. I gave up after 5 minutes of being subjected to previews for movies I would never watch, and a sales pitch for Blu-Ray which I am not going to buy. So they lost me and I ejected the DVD from the machine and moved onto some other task. Actually they more than lost me because I am not likely to buy another movie from this studio.

Upgraded my Cable Internet Access

Today I upgraded my cable internet access to DOCSIS 3 getting 16Mbps/2Mbps, basically 5 times faster than what I had before, very sweet.

Enceladus Up Close

Amazing pictures of Enceladus up close:

Saturn’s tiny, icy moon Enceladus has recently been visited by NASA’s Cassini orbiter on several very close approaches – once coming within a mere 25 kilometers (15 miles) of the surface. Scientists are learning a great deal about this curious little moon. Only about 500 kilometers wide (310 miles), it is very active, emitting internal heat, churning its surface, and – through cryovolcanism – ejecting masses of microscopic ice particles into Saturnian orbit. Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for over 4 years now, and has provided some amazing views of tiny Enceladus, some collected here. Another close flyby is scheduled for Halloween, October 31st.

Big Pictures

If you are into photography as I am, you might be interested in “The Big Picture” weblog where they publish large scale photographs around a specific theme every weekday.

You might also be interested it the HD video podcasts from Earth-Touch.com. They offer some stunning video podcasts in SD and HD, with or without commentary. I prefer the HD version without commentary.

B17 Flight

This weekend I took a flight in a B17 (909), part of the Collings Foundation collection:

(Those are my knees.)

Speaking as a Yahoo! shareholder

I have been mute on this story since it came out, but I wanted to pen some thoughts about the whole Microsoft/Yahoo! debacle.

First the disclosures, I am a Yahoo! shareholder (have been for a while), I am also a Google shareholder (have been for a while too) and was a Microsoft shareholder too (wasn’t performing, dumped it).

I am not sure what Yahoo! was thinking by walking away from the deal, by all accounts it was a good financial deal for the shareholders who were being offered a premium for their (languishing) Yahoo! stock. I can understand that Jerry Yang would be emotionally attached to his company and worried about what the future would look like under Microsoft. After all I did co-found a company and put 4 years of work into it. I am also fully aware that you need to look dispassionately at the options being laid out in front of you and do what is best for the shareholders, who ultimately are the true owners of the company.

But at the end of the day I think that Jerry Yang has let his emotions guide his thinking on this. The clearest indication is that he and the board have not offered any convincing alternative plans aside from the claim that the company is worth more than the offer on the table (never mind the stock price.)

The truth is that Yahoo! is a languishing property. Sure it has lots of traffic and some great properties (Yahoo! mail and Flickr are two great instances) but it has turned into a hodge-podge of offerings without a clear focus. We have known that for a while, so this should not be news to anyone (“peanut butter memo” anyone?)

Microsoft likewise has had a spotty record when it comes to internet offerings, and I suspect the hope was to merge the best of the two entities and produce an entity that could convincingly compete against you-know-who.

So I am glad that Carl Icahn has stepped up and is trying to force the issue.

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of issues one could pick to talk about in regards to conservation. I would like to draw attention to one I feel strongly about, shark fishing. Sharks are vastly overfished for their fins (to make shark fin soup.) The process is as horrific as it is simple, sharks are fished in very large numbers, their fins are cut off and they are tossed back (alive) into the ocean where they die by drowning (most sharks need to swim to ‘breathe’.) We also need to dispel the notion that a good shark is a dead shark, this is simply not the case, I have swum with sharks on many occasions and have never felt threatened by them even when they bumped into me (*).

This issue is pithy because the Shark Conservation Act of 2008 was recently introduced to Congress. Jim Toomey (who authors the Sherman’s Lagoon comic strip) explains why this is important:

April could turn out to be a pivotal month for shark conservation here in the U.S. Just a few days ago, the Shark Conservation Act of 2008 was introduced to our Congress. There are also lots of other activities this week and month that could go a long way toward much needed shark fishing regulations both here and in international waters. But before the political will must come the public interest. So, this week, it’s my goal to demonstrate to policy makers in Washington that public interest in shark conservation is quite strong, and the old notion that “the only good shark is a dead shark” is not a concept the public embraces anymore.

This Sunday, April 20, I have devoted my color Sunday “Sherman’s Lagoon” comic strip to creating awareness and public interest in saving sharks from extinction. Recent population studies done by numerous independent marine biologists confirm that many species of large sharks – from great whites to hammerheads to tiger sharks – are being overfished to the point that only 5% of their historic populations remain. This fall, international shark catch limits are going to be reevaluated by scientists, and the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is going to establish much more stringent catch limits in US waters. The US regulations could set an international precedent, which is badly needed, since most of the overfishing is now happening in unregulated international waters. Having gained adequate limits in the US, the NMFS will have an opportunity – and the clout – to propose and fight for the first international catch limits for sharks in a key international meeting coming up this November.

We have a chance to show the NMFS that the public does indeed care about sharks – that they aren’t considered pests but a vital part of nature. When the Sunday April 20 cartoon gets published in your local paper, or here on this website, you will have an opportunity to participate in this public awareness effort. Dr. James Balsiger, director of NMFS, who will be the recipient of all of your mail-in cartoons, is aware of this campaign and is actually looking forward to a heavy response as a way to point out to the fishing communities and regulatory bodies that this is an issue the the public cares about. Please help him make that point, which could go a long way toward creating much-needed regulations, not only in US waters but around the world.

Thanks,

Jim Toomey

It could not be simpler, go to this page, print the image, draw your favorite shark on it and mail it to the address listed. I put mine in the mail yesterday.

(*) Interestingly more people are killed every year in the USA by pigs than by sharks. One would be forgiven thinking otherwise given the media coverage generated when the latter happens.