I attended the Cap&Design event today about why Sweden is doing worldclass work for the web. Sweden is producing stunning work for the web. Agencys like North Kingdom, Farfar and more are leaders in the business. But some thing has changed. In 2000 Sweden was leading almost everything that had anything to do with the web. Today we are outrun in every area except consumer communication. The UK is better then us in design and the US is far ahead of us in development.

So what happened?
Why are we outrun?

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that failure is by default bad in the swedish culture. If you fail you are a failure. Period. And you will be a failure for a longtime. If a swede fail we shy away hoping that noone do remember where others draw wisdom from the experience and advances.

I think that has ruined the personal risktaking. It has made creators and developers think twice before launching a startup or diving head first into an idea that they believe in.

So instead of continue the trial and error mentality of the 2000 era we have focused our creativity on presentation instead of innovation. We use existing technologies to dress existing problems in new solutions instead of creating new technologies for new needs.

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