Woz says Apple could not emerge in Singapore

Philosophically, Woz is right, but in reality, he doesn't know what he's talking about! Woz never knew anything about business & still doesn't! He needs to stick to what he knows! If Steve Jobs had listened to him, they'd both be BROKE today!

Having walked around Singapore more than once, there are design schools and beautifully sculpted buildings (old and new) and gardens that proudly display artistic efforts from professionals and students. Singapore may have strict roots but there are strong progressive and artistic presences there now.

Uh oh - professor Vivek Wadhwa isn't going to like to hear this.

I'm a member of an online arts community and there are plenty of Singaporean artists who submit work. In fact, Singapore is the second biggest buyer on that site outside the U.S.
I visited Singapore this year and I found that it was a wonderful place with wonderful people. Living in the U.K. and having experienced this years riots first hand, a more structured society isn't such a bad thing.

I'm singaporean and I think Woz is right. DAMN right infact.

Ya, I would have to agree its not that simple.

Look at Japan, aberrant behavior isn't tolerated either - although in their case it's enforced by society at large rather than a central government.
They do just fine creativity-wise.

Having lived here all my life, I believe there are many reasons for our "lack of creativity":

- small population
The country has only around 2-3 million people for most of its existence. Innovation is also partially about luck, the more people you have to throw at a problem the higher the chance you will solve it.

- the country started out with a poorly educated population
It has been 46 years since independence, 67 since WWII, it has taken quite a while to raise the education level of the entire population - my later grandmother can't read, quite a few of my aunts can't either.
This is in contrast to developed nations which were already fully industrialized even before WWII.

- heavily guided development
Singapore's development, especially in its early days, was tightly controlled by the government. IMO this was "necessary evil" due to lack of resources. As in order to succeed, all avaliable resources had to be focused on whatever the objectivity was at the time. Not much "room" for people to strike out on their own.

- the people are risk adverse
I think this is partial due to Singapore heavily guided development, people would rather take the safe route and do whatever the government was pushing at the time rather that risking it and going at it alone.

A lot of us have a "do what the government says" mentality, this is due to the "iron fist" rule of earlier Prime Ministers (a necessary evil at the time due to the prevalent social chaos) and the fact that our government has been fairly competent and makes good decisions a great deal of the time.
So most people just went along with it and let the government take care of things.

That said, the government is well aware that at our current stage of development, the "old ways" are obsolete and have started taking a more hands off approach to things.
Ironically, they have gotten quite a bit of criticism for it, with people crying "How did the government let this happen?!" when something goes wrong, as the government loosen it's grasp on and stop micro-managing various aspect of the country.

I agree with Brett. (re. Apple has a MASSIVE presence in Singapore).
After 8 years in Singapore I now live in Japan and the technology and its use outside the big two cities is just so dated. Floppy disks are still in use! The majority of 17 yr olds can't use computers properly (see OECD stats if you disbelieve me), people here consume not create, if something is not made in Japan then it gets little publicity (even the iPhone struggles to gain acceptance outside the major cities of Tokyo and Osaka), and 'being different' is frowned upon in society. IMHO I think Singaporeans have a much more creative mindset because the country is exposed to international views, technologies and ways of doing things. It has little to do with politics. And some schools in Singapore are terrific (with 1:1 laptop initiatives... and I remember the eMate initiative at RGS). I think Woz is wrong. In terms of technology, Singapore is a much more creative, vibrant country than Japan. Check out the brilliant Singapore Mac Users Group to see what I mean.
http://www.macusersg.org/forums/

Singapore has an enormous creative scene with several very good design schools, a burgeoning media sector...
Creativity flourishes best in places where "difference" is tolerated (see "The Rise of the Creative Class" by Richard Florida) but it also flourishes when free thinking is frowned upon. That's when creative solutions are most required.
Singapore is an odd state - it defies broad descriptions.
All I know is that the people I met over there know how to find ways to express themselves and are far more politically motivated than those I've met in the west. When you don't take your freedom for granted, perhaps you value it more?

"it's hard to believe the government would loosen up all of those restrictions just to support their tech industry"

Huh? Woz was pointing out that the Apple of 30 years ago with it's hippie roots could not have emerged in a culture like Singapore. That has absolutely nothing to do with being able to foster a modern tech industry. Fostering an industry, and creating an environment likely to spawn the next Apple out of a garage are entirely different things.

Microsoft, Samsung, IBM, Sony, LG, and the vast majority of tech companies would have no problem operating in Singapore. While there have certainly been rare exceptions, overall the vast majority of the tech industry is populated by engineering, scientific, business, and corporate types than those with any deep artistic leaning.

@Brett Robertson We don't have "big electronic brand stores" probably because we are a financially tight bunch of people who look for the best bargains. which is why those stores in sim lim, street side hawkers who fiddle with computers and phones thrive.

However, if you look at Japan vs Singapore, this is where you can see that Woz is correct. We do take well to technology, thank you very much, probably adore it more than we really should. However, where Japan had modified the CDMA phones (for example) since the late 90s to have colour and more, Singapore was quite content to enjoy whatever phones that were internationally available to us.

The idea of not deviating from the norm (aka no creative thoughts) permeated throughout the society so much that , despite efforts to encourage creative thinking in argumentative essays and creating a pilot program for projects in 1999-ish (for inducing thinking out of the box), teachers themselves clamp down hard on anyone who suggested anything too radical.

So Woz is right. However, I would like to think that with the recent... changes and activities that Singapore's youth has shown themselves in the last election, that this is likely to change in the future. Not the near future, but definitely some time in the future.