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Scotland, where I live, has an incredible history of invention, but the days of Scottish engineers and inventors changing the world are in the increasingly distant past (even Dolly the Sheep has been dead for 10 years).
It has never, for example, produced a software company of note (other than maybe OWL for those who know their hypertext history). I'd like to see this change, and my hunch is that if you can plant some seeds in the minds of enough smart 15 year olds, then by the time these kids are 20-25 they are going to be way better placed to do great things.
In some places (i.e. SV) this can happen serendipitously through interactions with cousins, sisters, neighbours, etc. who are in the industry, but when the ecosystem is so well hidden (as it is here), most kids just don't know about this stuff until much later on (i.e during Uni).
Anyway, I've got quite a good bunch of slides pulled together and I speak fairly well at these sort of things (its no Steve Jobs commencement address, but it is ok).
However, I wanted to round the talk off with a bit of a discussion about ways to put themselves in the best position to do whatever it is they want to do, even if they don't know what it is yet.
Any thoughts on this would be most welcome...