TinkerX

My advice to those in law school right now: learn to speak Chinese.

I’m now about two-thirds of the way through "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. It is fascinating, insightful and engrossing. I’ll have an in-depth review later, but I’m on the section now that describes why America should be afraid… very afraid… of our future in the Flat World, unless we get our act together very quickly.

I won’t go into all the statistics he quotes — there’s lots. Big lots. Big scary lots from all directions, from many sources, in all kinds of sectors. But the short version is that the US is falling way behind in terms of education in science, math and engineering. We are actually decreasing our  government funding of many science sectors, and our kids’ scores in science and math are falling in real terms, and are falling even faster when compared to kids in other countries. When you start looking at percentages of global population, and consider the math/science scores of kids in the new whiz-bang-capitalist countries of India and China… look out.

At just about the time  the Baby Boomers’ retirement hump will be peaking — around 15-20 years from now — we’ll have a huge deficit of workers in the top-tier science and engineering industries. We will have failed to inspire our grade-school and middle-school kids with the work ethic that is required for these disciplines. We will have failed to fund the programs that get them excited about the sciences. We will have failed to provide them with examples and mentors. We will have failed to keep the best teachers in the system. We will have failed to keep the best professional scientists, professors and universities in the US. And then… it will be way, way, way too late. Because it takes 15-20 years to grow a world-class scientist or engineer.

When I was studying English Lit at Cornell, I thought it was odd (and kinda funny) that all my science TA’s were Asian. I don’t think it’s funny anymore. That was in the mid 80’s. And that should have been the initial wake-up call. Even though we were still in the Cold War, and even though people were flocking to our universities from all over the world, someone should have woken up and said, "Hey… why aren’t our kids filling the upper ranks of post-graduate science programs at the same rate as in the 60’s and 70’s?"

We were coasting. We still are. If Friedman is right — and his evidence is pretty compelling — the free ride is pretty close to being over. Even today, major US high-tech companies are having to look to other countries for top researchers. Not to save money — but to get the best brains. That’s right — the brain drain is now going the other way.

Friedman quotes venture capitalist John Doerr on the difference between the Chinese government’s understanding of the situation and ours:

You talk to the leadership in China, and they are all the engineers, and they get what is going on immediately. The Americans don’t, because they’re all lawyers.

Bill Gates adds:

The Chinese have risk taking down, hard work down, education, and when you meet with Chinese politicians, they are all scientists and engineers. You can have a numeric discussion with them — you are never discussing "give me a one-liner to embarrass [my political rivals] with." You are meeting with an intelligent bureaucracy.

The best line in the book thus far on this issue is as follows:

In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears — and that is our problem.

Gay marriage? Terri Schiavo? Social Security? Ten judicial nominees out of 200? More cures for male impotence? Cloning? Abortion? These are the things we’re most worried about? Without a world-class educational base and national push to support science and engineering research, development, invention, ingenuity and entrepreneurship, all those issues will eventually seem like minor scratches compared to the fact that we’ll be running around with our arms chopped off.

We are fiddling while Rome burns, my friends. None of that stuff will matter much if we don’t have the highly educated, well-trained work force we’ll need to compete globally.

We won the Cold War. What did we think was going to happen when it ended and 2.5 billion people walked onto the capitalist field? What did we think was going to happen when we wired the world? What did we think was going to happen when we preached a gospel of customer-first consumerism, radical process refinement and reinvention? The rest of the world looked at America and said, "Yes! That’s what we want!" Now they are listening to Nike, and "Just doing it."

Did we think the rest of the world would be satisfied to be our sweat shops forever? Or our resort islands and diamond mines and oil fields? The greatest wealth comes from the products and services much higher up the value chain. If you were running a developing nation’s economy, would you recommend Industrial Age products, or Information Age services to your young workers and students?

What did we think was going to happen when everyone started emulating us?

In a race for the top, we can’t stop other countries from playing. All we can do is try to run faster. If we stay out of the race, we automatically lose.

And right now… we ain’t doing nothing but slowing down. And, in some cases, there seem to be some people who are actively trying to decide if we should maybe even go backwards a few steps.

My 5-and-a-half year old son wants to be a mechanical  engineer. He wants to design and build space shuttles, trains, jets and robots. I’m actively encouraging those ambitions. Earlier today we built a model of Spirit, the mars rover, out of a bankers box, giant Tinker Toys, some cardboard tubes, an egg carton and a bunch of pipe-cleaners. Lots of fun. When he goes to college, I want him to be able to get the best science and engineering education possible. And if his TA’s are all Asian, that’s no big deal. But I have a sneaking suspicion that, unless we get our act together real soon, they’ll be Asian because the best engineering schools will be in Asia.

If I have to send my boy to Hyderabad, I will. But I’d rather visit him in Cambridge, Mass.