Google Says, Make Sure Government Does Not Get In The Way of Business

Google Speaks Truth to Power 

From Will at The Other News:

(WSJ) Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, recently recounted a dinner in 1995 featuring a talk by Andy Grove, a founder of Intel:

"He says, 'This is easy to understand. High tech runs three times faster than normal businesses. And the government runs three times slower than normal businesses. So we have a nine-times gap.'

All of my experiences are consistent with Andy Grove's observation." Schmidt explained there was only one way to deal with this nine-times gap, which this column hereby christens "Grove's Law of Government." That is "to make sure that the government does not get in the way and slow things down."

He contrasted innovation in Silicon Valley with innovation in Washington. "Now there are startups in Washington," he said, "founded by people who were policy makers. . . . They're very clever people, and they've figured out a way in regulation to discriminate, to find a new satellite spectrum or a new frequency or whatever.

They immediately hired a whole bunch of lobbyists. They raised some money to do that. And they're trying to innovate through regulation. So that's what passes for innovation in Washington." 

Read the full story here.