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Dr McAfee (right) speaking at the NYT Global Forum Asia yesterday, with moderator Thomas Friedman beside him. Dr McAfee read from an ST report on how the Singapore Institute of Technology wished to turn its students into ''thinking tinkerers'', and said he believed Singapore may well succeed. -- ST PHOTO: NEO XIAOBIN
A sound education system, good infrastructure and a focus on innovation are among the things that Singapore gets right, which would help it thrive in an interconnected world.
But what could it do better?
For one, it could be more tolerant of "weirdness", said Dr Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He said this at the New York Times (NYT) Global Forum Asia yesterday, in response to a question from the floor. He was one of several speakers at the day-long forum, moderated by NYT columnist Thomas Friedman.
Tolerating "weirdness", by which he meant a willingness to change the world in unconventional ways, is crucial to being competitive in the Information Age, he said.
That is because such weirdness creates the sort of risk-taking and tolerance of risk that deep-pocket investors are most willing to bank on, said Dr McAfee.
