Ask Paul: September 6 (Premium)

Happy Friday from Berlin! This is a shorter-than-usual installment, thanks to an incredibly busy week. But let's dive in: This weekend isn't going to weekend itself.
You so German
j5 asks:

How are the German tech journalists and Germans in general, their attitude towards tech, computers, smartphones, privacy, this sort of genre different than the attitudes of Americans towards this? We're all human beings of course. But we all have different cultural norms as well. For example, was the freak out towards CoPilot the same there as was here with us tech nerds, etc.

I'm not honestly sure. I don't know a lot of German tech journalists per se, and I didn't meet any here at IFA, or while in Berlin.

I can make some generalizations that will insult everyone, of course. :)

Being in Europe again has been interesting. I'll touch on this in a "What I Use" post soon, and my wife and will discuss this a bit in the context of a "Why Mexico?-type" post/video as well. But we've been to Europe so many times over so many years that this trip has triggered some interesting emotions and thoughts. We love it here. And it's impossible not to contrast it with home, and with Mexico.

We also have many friends in Europe, and we were lucky enough to hang out with one of them, one of our oldest friends, from France, last night. And we have all these general observations, most of which are just personally amusing or whatever. He's into tech, and so we spent a lot of time comparing notes.

To be grossly over-simplistic, Germany is very rules-focused, very orderly. Just to stick a single topic on that, drivers in cars are very observant of the road, people on bikes, people crossing the street, and so on, and no one speeds through an intersection to make a light or whatever. Meanwhile, pedestrians will wait for cross-lights even when there are no cars coming, and they won't rush across an intersection at the last second if that light turns red.

My wife and I are Americans, of course, and willfully oblivious to all this, we've simply crossed streets whenever we can, and you can almost feel the stares of disbelief and even animosity a little. I'm constantly reminded of a time on our first trip to Germany, in 2003, I was driving and stopped at an intersection in a tiny town with no other cars in sight when I saw an elderly gentlemen with a cane waiting to cross the street: He shook his cane and me and yelled some complaint, but the point was clear. I had the right of way, and I had to go immediately. He'd cross when he crossed. Meanwhile, in Mexico City, it's like a game of Frogger where everyone--in cars or on foot--is weaving chaotically around each other, each going whenever they want. It couldn't be more different.

Germans share much with the Dutch, but one of them I like is a general bluntness I share. I was at a group meal the other day with a guy from the Midwest US, a guy from North Carolina, and a woman from The Netherlands, and one of them g...