there’s something about paul graham’s essays that always rubs me wrong. his latest, made in usa is about things he says americans do better than people in other countries, and why. one of the things he cites is movies, and i think he overstates the role of directors in ensuring the quality of american films. i think there is a much better explanation: quantity. relative to our population, the united states pumps out a prodigious number of films, especially once you expand the definition of the film industry to include television and the adult film industry. (and i would include them, because there is a lot of crossover of actors, writers, and directors between the film and television industries, and as i understand it, a lot of crossover of production folks between the adult and mainstream film industries.)
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"Why do the Japanese make better cars than us? Some say it's because their culture encourages cooperation. That may come into it. But in this case it seems more to the point that their culture prizes design and craftsmanship."
There was an interesting article in Fortune magazine a month or two back about the fact that Toyota doesn't have the huge pension liabilities which GM has. This goes a long way toward explaining why GM makes about $100-$200 profit per car, whereas Toyota makes well over $1000 profit per car. The lower profitability of the GM car puts pressure on GM to hold costs down. This might explain as much about why GM cars aren't as good as Toyotas as "their culture prizes design and craftsmanship."
American car companies can hire great design talent from the global work force, just as Japanese car companies can. I'm not sure the designers are all that different in terms of quality. People from all over the world go to Art Center. There's certainly a global talent pool there. And hey, the wildly successful Miata was designed in California.