Why are the English so uncreative?

[Bruce Wayne]

Our football team seldom quicken the pulses, our rugby teams of both codes tend to play very conservative forward dominated games, whilst our cricket team suffer terribly in limited over cricket because of their lack of flair and originality.

The same is the case in the business world, with very few leaders displaying any form of originality, whilst the nation produces very few innovative startups.

Are the English naturally uncreative?

 

[McBain]

I'd venture to say you sent all your best genes offshore.

And we perfected them.

 

[Whitebootman]

I’m no creative genius, but what I see around me is worrying. We seem to have created a culture where risk taking is discouraged. Between the health & safety culture and a government that seems to introduce a new law against something every week there seems to be more and more red tape put in front of new ventures than ever before. There seems to be no reward for risk taking. If something is not successful right away people seem reluctant to support the idea.

I think the most creative people are the young. Those that stay in education end up with a massive debt. It would take a brave soul to ignore the debt and, for example, work on an idea that may take years to develop. If they did, how would they fund it? Those who do not choose to get a degree still need to find funding to support development of their ideas. Eventually we all end up tied to our debt, be it student loan or mortgage.

Over the years I have noticed we seem to be turning into a nation of conformists, we are getting comfortable with our lot and less inclined to make waves. There seems to be less protest, less demand for change, and fewer leaders who really challenge the establishment.

I wish I was smart enough to end this with a solution, sadly I’m not.

Damm.

 

[little curly alan ball]

Our football team seldom quicken the pulses, our rugby teams of both codes tend to play very conservative forward dominated games, whilst our cricket team suffer terribly in limited over cricket because of their lack of flair and originality.

The same is the case in the business world, with very few leaders displaying any form of originality, whilst the nation produces very few innovative startups.

Are the English naturally uncreative?

D.N.A./ Computers / Internet / Penicillin / etc = US

( As I noted y'day ); The Barbi / The Beer Hat / The Didgireedoo / and Board Shorts = McB's firm .

 

[McBain]

D.N.A./ Computers / Internet / Penicillin / etc = US

( As I noted y'day ); The Barbi / The Beer Hat / The Didgireedoo / and Board Shorts = McB's firm .

Why dont you just add 'The Universe' too.

 

[little curly alan ball]

Why dont you just add 'The Universe' too.

There is that , of course .
And , 2 World Wars and 1 World Cup !!!

 

[Welton Toffee]

I'm well creative, me.

*eats ham and blueberries

 

[Bruce Wayne]

D.N.A./ Computers / Internet / Penicillin / etc = US

They're all inventions. In both hardware and software there is a glaring lack of British companies. On the web the likes of Google, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, eBay etc. dominate. The only large British equivalent is LastMinute. A pretty poor return. Likewise with drugs. GSK is a major player but in the biotech sector we're severely lacking.

It's not for lack of brains as we have some of the finest universities in the world, but something somewhere seems to be going wrong.

 

[McBain]

There is that , of course .
And , 2 World Wars and 1 World Cup !!!

You woulda got bashed if it wasnt for us.

Heres what we have invented...

The Box Kite
Differential gears
Permaculture
The Granny Smith Apple
The combine Harvester
Dynamic Lifter
The ScramJet Engine
Inflatable escape Shutes on Airplanes
Cement Mixing Trucks
The Hills Hoist
The Electric Drill
The two stroke Lawn Mower
Insect Repellant
The Garage Roller Door
Pre Paid Postage
Plastic Bank Notes (We make Currency here for 18 countries)
The Refrigerator
The Wine Cask
Instant Hot Water Heater
The Secret Ballot
The Pacemaker
The Bionic Ear
Asprin in a tablet
Spray on Skin for burn victims
Uniloc Software (when you buy trial software, then when you buy the full version you get registration key- yep we invented that)
Wifi Internet
Google Maps
The Fairlight (music sampler)
The very first Feature Motion Picture
Freestyle Swimming (or the Australian Crawl)
Speedo swimwear
The winged Keel
X-RAY Crystallography
The dual flush Toilet

And most controversially

"As World War Two rages, a small team of scientists at Oxford University, led by Australian Howard Florey, make one of the greatest discoveries in the history of medicine: penicillin. As news of their funny yellow powder leaks out to the press, wartime Britain looked for a hero. Instead of Florey and the Oxford team, they choose someone else to shower with honours, Alexander Fleming, How it happened is a fascinating story of wartime scarcity, personal conflicts, and a sobering lesson in the damage done to truth by wartime propaganda."

 

[monty]

We are creative, the trouble is that unless you have outlets for that creativity then you become stumped. A prime example of what I mean is the Manchester Velodrome, one of the best in the world and it has produced winners, the overall standard of swimming pools have has also been improved and results have followed suit. Where as cricket is never taught in schools these days, very few grass root school matches take place and the sport suffers dreadfully, that is why we rely on 'not quite English players' to bolster the team, Strauss, Peitersen, Swann are prime examples of being born abroad and getting into our squad without drawing breath. Football is now a business and in the main only the cream is taken in but again we don't encourage growth of the sport at grass roots, incredibly we are now depending on foreign managers to run the game.

Abroad sporting heroes are nurtured far better than we do which is a great shame as the stars are there we just have to 'grow' them correctly, More has been done for 'minor sports, but much more needs doing including competitive matches at school level

 

[McBain]

We are creative, the trouble is that unless you have outlets for that creativity then you become stumped. A prime example of what I mean is the Manchester Velodrome, one of the best in the world and it has produced winners, the overall standard of swimming pools have has also been improved and results have followed suit. Where as cricket is never taught in schools these days, very few grass root school matches take place and the sport suffers dreadfully, that is why we rely on 'not quite English players' to bolster the team, Strauss, Peitersen, Swann are prime examples of being born abroad and getting into our squad without drawing breath. Football is now a business and in the main only the cream is taken in but again we don't encourage growth of the sport at grass roots, incredibly we are now depending on foreign managers to run the game.

Abroad sporting heroes are nurtured far better than we do which is a great shame as the stars are there we just have to 'grow' them correctly, More has been done for 'minor sports, but much more needs doing including competitive matches at school level

Very true, but Ive never been to an English pool without poop floating in it.

 

[monty]

Very true, but Ive never been to an English pool without poop floating in it.

the only reason for that would be you putting it there

 

[ART]

There is that , of course .
And , 2 World Wars and 1 World Cup !!!

two world wars with the help of the yanks and a world cup with the help of a bloke from Russia

 

[teppic]

two world wars with the help of the yanks and a world cup with the help of a bloke from Russia

it's called delegating the work. the most creative are experts at it

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

firstly, i've never encountered a floater in a pool here.


as for creativity in industry, it's pretty difficult to create stuff and come up with new products when there aint much industry left. apprentices that have been trained in the last 25 years are few and far between, lots of graduates in engineering etc but with very little practical experience at all. add to that the fact that companies are totally profit driven with every bean counted and every work minute put into an equation to maximise profit, and what you get is unskilled production lines with no ongoing development of products and production techniques. a lot of man-hours go into r & d, which the bean counters see as a liability and not profitable.
if you need the answer as to how industry became like that then i can say without batting an eyelid that you should go knock on the door of the conservative party h.q.

as for creativity on the sportsfield, well thats been trained out of them as the coaches want players who can execute set plays in a technical way, none of this off the cuff stuff that is considered to be 'risky'. imagine us losing the world cup final on pens because some 'maverik' decides to do a fancy arsed penalty that the goalie saves, he'd be putting his whole family at risk so is more likely to stick a hoof behind it as thats more acceptable to us.