Productivity, Innovation, Ideas, Immigration
Homogeneity breeds group think.
Building innovative and productive work environments is a formal discipline in Innovation. The most prolific scholar in the space is Stephen Johnson. The most profound book published is “Where Good Ideas Come From”.
This article will borrow his human design work and graft bio-mimicry on to it from the discipline of ecology and chemistry.
Innovation=Evolution
If you are obsessed with innovation then you are obsessed with evolution. Since innovation is the human transfer of knowledge from generation to generation. For a detailed essay — i will publish my academic paper at another time.
There are two kinds of evolutionary patterns. Mutation and natural selection. Most pandemics, or viruses like ebola are a mutation. Something happens, and a virus is born that has never been seen before. It has no natural defenses. It is so deadly that it begins to kill its hosts. It breeds homogeneity because it consumes all resources and kills the host.
However all organisms have a pre-programmed direction to evolve in the direction of their own survival. Therefore as natural selection takes over and the virus becomes less and less lethal, because only a less lethal version of the virus can survive, it becomes less and less deadly to the environment.
The COVID-19 virus when through the exact same evolutionary pattern.
- It emerged early 2020- most likely in China
- It began to spread around Feb as the elites who move around vacation in Europe during Valentines Day.
- From there it began moving hub to hub- increasing in transmissible due to the nature of air flow on aircraft. Most air is recycled.
- It starts with an incubation time of about a week, and 14 days once symptomatic to death. Or recovery
Luckily, it followed the same pattern as the bird flu. And in Asia they had protocols. They initiated full shut down events immediately to short circuit the spread.
Masking hygiene is common place. Anyone who coughs or has a minor flu, self selects to wear a mask. In addition due to the amount of pollution, everyone is already masking.
Once the curfews begin- all other protocols were initiated. Medical, military, defense, aviation.
Except in Western Countries.
The largest problem WHO had was the Western Countries had neither any experience with it, nor any regard for how eastern knowledge is valuable.
The virus was going to rip through the world. But as many could be contained were in the east. There were line ups to cremate the dead. Which is their natural custom, but also how bodies that have unknown or transmissible viruses are disposed of globally.
Eventually as the virus mutated, again and again for its own survival, it began to act like a flu. The virus we consider a common flu now also had the same exact pathology of evolution and created the exact same socio-economic conditions, the spanish flu.
Countries that had more biologies in play, fared better. For the simple reason that the virus could not homoginize. it had to evolve through the various genetics. As our global genes defended humanity against annihilation, that very diversity of genetic strength began to come under attack because we were in isolation.
So it seems fitting to use that same science to explain how innovation and productivity works. This is not to help those who locked out the entire economic cycle from the genetic variations that defended their life, but in the hope that those genetic variations from some localized homogeneous supremacists reference point can take hope knowing, it is the our very differences that make us stronger together.
The movement of ideas:
Ideas move around all the time. This is the fundamental premise that made the Silk Road the most affluent trading route ever in existence. They move ideas and culture and create a new evolved understanding of the world.
So if we look at the discipline of immigration from the perspective of the amount of value it can give to an economy- then let us examine how each demographic of traveler is valued until, like all travelers, they become boring because their environment refuses to let them leave and adopts them as their own.
Most people arrive in a new environment and they feel the natural outsider. Their skills may be irrelevant when they get to the new place because they need to first find their bearings to understand what the new home environment is like and how they can contribute.
As such here is a breakdown of how most new comers identify themselves from how they feel when they arrive:
Illegal migrant: omg i cant fucking believe i survived that. Just give me bread. Nothing can be worse than what i just came from. We lost everyone.
Refugee: Are you serious? we cant go back home. this is home now. omg what happened? i have no idea what to do here. i barely speak this language!
Legal immigrant: well this is awesome. how do we start making some friends here. i cant believe we made it!! this is a dream come true.
Foreign Student: I cant believe my family was able to send me here. i have to make everyone proud. I hope i can adjust, i really miss home.
These people can be humanized by the following human beings who shared these experiences:
- Manhoham Singh — Former PM of India
- Malala Yousafzai — Education activist
- Chamath Palihipitya- Canadian/ American/ Sri Lankan VC
Innovation Potential Quotient:
People who come to through these experiences have a disproportionate desire to assimilate. They form a highly reactive innovation potential. They tend to react to most ideas around them that enable them to become part of the economic future of a place.
In addition their academic background and experience is of no relevance. Those are denominators used by the west to weed out what is considered the “unwanted”. The reality is that if non english speaking migrants are allowed the chance for a fair job, they would be the ideal person to employ. Their state of living is most improved in the worst of standard improvements.
Those individuals who have education and experience or came to acquire them are the ideal nodes to connect business opportunities. They form the best ambassador.
Lets take an example of someone who escapes a place like somalia. No education manages to come to Europe.
Europe needs to build technology, any technology built that is designed for:
- water purification
- solar development
- renewables at large
- all telecommunications
- all education tech
- all housing innovation
Would have the ability to sell direct into a place like Somalia that has need for all of it. In addition, a refugee who barely speaks english but is grateful for the chance to help their host, while bringing economic development to their home is the ideal salesperson.
They are also the ideal person to help being the MVP. These are the people who know the practical limitations of their localized environments.
The bad actor problem:
As we saw at the end of world war 2, when the jewish people were liberated concentration camps, many nazis disguised themselves and fled as well.
The treatment of jewish settlers in places like New York was so harsh that the community turned inward. They had just survived the crematorium, so any improvement was significant for them. They began creating localized economies. As they were unable to build bridges with local law enforcement they had to live side by side with people they knew were Nazis.
It is presumed that wall street was able to become wall street and not be burnt like Tulsa because at some level the Jewish people’s color enabled them to blend in.
However, most communities that escape violence prefer to live in peace. They are the best individuals to help law enforcement detect and prevent crime because they know how to tell the local criminals apart.
Therefore these individuals and communities, when empowered to help their hosts, are also the effective “white blood cell” of the human ecology that connects us all.
Criminalizing all individuals, and promoting a form of self selection based on homogeneity has been scientifically proven to be the least resilient form of population growth. As evidenced by how dogs that are purebred are often rife with genetic diseases. The same issues have been noted throughout history as most royalty married other royalty to keep the blood “blue” rendering most royalty genetically cognitively deficient.
Individuals who move from one environment to another that is not familiar to them also form the exact profile of the ideal entrepreneur. They question everything because everything is unfamiliar to them. They bring improvements from all places they have seen. The take calculated risks. Because they understand the price of rushing in without risk mitigation.
Industry Interlopers:
It is important to note that the over emphasis of “industry experience” and years in a certain job is antithetical to the productivity of society. Prior to the current form of Human Resource software, people moved around in industries all the time.
An industry is not specialized, and a job function where someone can come from a different sector enables them to question the common practices of one industry that might not be conductive to productive innovation.
Examples of such variations:
- Kaisen
- Six Sigma
The term “immigration” implies the moving into a new country. A country can be re-defined as a cultural environment.
If biology, ecology and chemistry are taken to be the backbone of a thesis that can inform immigration, then the scientific reality is that people are people. If we treat them like people, they will treat us like people. All people have ideas. All ideas are valuable. Depends on how you can mobilize knowledge not how they can beg for acceptance of it.
Alas- Cowboy take me away.
