5 ms·

Honestly a lot of these "global" rating systems are ridiculous. The US easily produces the most innovation globally. This is similar to ranking systems that co

Honestly a lot of these "global" rating systems are ridiculous. The US easily produces the most innovation globally. This is similar to ranking systems that consider McGill the Harvard of Canada or consider Babson College the #1 for Entrepreneurship.

nkassis 9y ago
Your examples aren't terribly good at proving your point. How is McGill reputation related to ranking systems? In fact even if Babson is a small school, the number of startups to student ratio isn't devoid of value as a ranking system. These types of ranking show country or organizations that punch above their weight.
fauigerzigerk 9y ago
>The US easily produces the most innovation globally As would be expected given the size of the US population. The only two more populous countries are both developing nations. But a ranking that didn't normalise over the size of the population would make even less sense than this one.
- virmundi 9y ago
  The EU is a confederation. They need to be considered as a block now. Don't look at Germany. Look at the EU.
  - fauigerzigerk 9y ago
    I can't. There are tons of EU countries missing from this list.
    - virmundi 9y ago
      They should have rolled them all up into the EU. It infuriates me that no one does. Not for crime reports. Not for economic reports. The media doesn't do it right.
      - AnimalMuppet 9y ago
        Does the EU? Do they produce EU-wide crime reports? EU-wide economic reports? If not, don't blame the media...
        hanbura 9y ago
        Yes, on all common metrics, in great detail: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
  - AnimalMuppet 9y ago
    True, the EU is a confederation. Also true: it's not a country. What's a country? Well, it has a single currency. The EU does... almost. A country has a border that it controls. The EU does... more or less. A country has a military. The EU absolutely does not. And a country thinks of itself as a country. The EU does not. I suspect that this last reason is why the media doesn't report on the EU as if it were a single country.
    - virmundi 9y ago
      The US didn't think of itself as a country until after the civil war. Even once the Federal government took power, individuals aligned more with their state than their State. As to the EU having a military? They're getting there with the US finally starting to get tired of defending the region with little respect. https://www.wikitribune.com/story/2017/11/15/european_union/eu-to-increase-its-defense-budget-as-23-member-states-sign-a-commitment/20544/ https://www.wikitribune.com/story/2017/11/15/european_union/...
  - tormeh 9y ago
    The countries in the EU go to war independently, the states of the US do so as one. I think that's where the line goes, really.
- CandidlyFake 9y ago
  > As would be expected given the size of the US population. How about california innovates more than germany or UK combined? How about massachussetts innovates more than France? Would that be better? The beauty of stats is that you can manipulate and twist to for whatever agenda you want to show.
  - mempko 9y ago
    Is this like a gut feeling or something? Like, totally based on like, the HN bubble, like totally.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  By the same ranking, China is way below the US. It has a lot of educated people, we can argue that it has innovation in its first tier cities, but it also has A LOT of uneducated farmers.
- baron816 9y ago
  Yeah, innovation levels differ much more within countries than between them. Rankings of metro areas would make more sense.
alkonaut 9y ago
It would perhaps be more interesting to look at cities, or for the us at least states.
wenc 9y ago
> McGill the Harvard of Canada You seem to have an axe to grind. No published ranking I know of ever uses that phrase. The phrase really only appears in newspaper articles, and only because American reporters want to pep up their piece about universities in Canada, which the average American knows close to nothing about. McGill is a good school. It's silly to be a "Harvard" of anything.

nkassis 9y ago

Your examples aren't terribly good at proving your point. How is McGill reputation related to ranking systems? In fact even if Babson is a small school, the number of startups to student ratio isn't devoid of value as a ranking system. These types of ranking show country or organizations that punch above their weight.

fauigerzigerk 9y ago

>The US easily produces the most innovation globally As would be expected given the size of the US population. The only two more populous countries are both developing nations. But a ranking that didn't normalise over the size of the population would make even less sense than this one.

virmundi 9y ago
The EU is a confederation. They need to be considered as a block now. Don't look at Germany. Look at the EU.
- fauigerzigerk 9y ago
  I can't. There are tons of EU countries missing from this list.
  - virmundi 9y ago
    They should have rolled them all up into the EU. It infuriates me that no one does. Not for crime reports. Not for economic reports. The media doesn't do it right.
    - AnimalMuppet 9y ago
      Does the EU? Do they produce EU-wide crime reports? EU-wide economic reports? If not, don't blame the media...
      - hanbura 9y ago
        Yes, on all common metrics, in great detail: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
- AnimalMuppet 9y ago
  True, the EU is a confederation. Also true: it's not a country. What's a country? Well, it has a single currency. The EU does... almost. A country has a border that it controls. The EU does... more or less. A country has a military. The EU absolutely does not. And a country thinks of itself as a country. The EU does not. I suspect that this last reason is why the media doesn't report on the EU as if it were a single country.
  - virmundi 9y ago
    The US didn't think of itself as a country until after the civil war. Even once the Federal government took power, individuals aligned more with their state than their State. As to the EU having a military? They're getting there with the US finally starting to get tired of defending the region with little respect. https://www.wikitribune.com/story/2017/11/15/european_union/eu-to-increase-its-defense-budget-as-23-member-states-sign-a-commitment/20544/ https://www.wikitribune.com/story/2017/11/15/european_union/...
- tormeh 9y ago
  The countries in the EU go to war independently, the states of the US do so as one. I think that's where the line goes, really.
CandidlyFake 9y ago
> As would be expected given the size of the US population. How about california innovates more than germany or UK combined? How about massachussetts innovates more than France? Would that be better? The beauty of stats is that you can manipulate and twist to for whatever agenda you want to show.
- mempko 9y ago
  Is this like a gut feeling or something? Like, totally based on like, the HN bubble, like totally.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
By the same ranking, China is way below the US. It has a lot of educated people, we can argue that it has innovation in its first tier cities, but it also has A LOT of uneducated farmers.
baron816 9y ago
Yeah, innovation levels differ much more within countries than between them. Rankings of metro areas would make more sense.

alkonaut 9y ago

It would perhaps be more interesting to look at cities, or for the us at least states.

wenc 9y ago

> McGill the Harvard of Canada You seem to have an axe to grind. No published ranking I know of ever uses that phrase. The phrase really only appears in newspaper articles, and only because American reporters want to pep up their piece about universities in Canada, which the average American knows close to nothing about. McGill is a good school. It's silly to be a "Harvard" of anything.