Creativity and Conformity, Like Oil and Water

The Japanese and the Germans are famous (stereotyped?) for certain qualities. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker quotes Karen Arnold, a Boston University researcher on the education system worldover:

“We are rewarding conformity and the willingness to go along with the system.”

Later in the book, Barker writes:

“Following the rules doesn’t create success; it just eliminates extremes – both good and bad.”

I wonder if that explains why conformist societies like Japan and Germany rarely seem to change the world? What is the last new thing that either of them invented? The Walkman maybe?

Barker makes another interesting point:

“We spend too much time trying to be “good” when good is often merely average. To be great we must be different.”

“Different” in this case means being non-conformant. Japan and Germany both seem to worship conformance. And therein may lie the explanation as to why neither country invents anything new:

“The same traits that make people a nightmare to deal with can also make them the people who change the world.”

After the success of the non-conformant, we usually hear comments like this one by George Szell:

“That nut’s a genius.”

But while the non-conformant was plodding his way around, these are the two possible outcomes:

“They thought every failure was an anomaly and they kept going. And it’s only reasonable that these people end up either (1) utterly delusional or (2) far more successful than you or I.”

And Japan appears like it is “trying to be Batman”. Huh?

“(Batman) can never lose a fight. While a professional boxer with a record of thirty wins and one loss is extremely impressive, for the Dark Knight it means death. The villains of Gotham don’t let referees stop the bouts. So to be Batman means never losing. Ever. You cannot afford to fail.”

Ironically, the country that created Batman acts like it’s not Batman!

“But you’re not Batman. You can fail and quit and learn.”