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This reads like some slightly useful, but obvious, advice mixed with attempts to "stick it" to companies based in the US. I think it's telling in your example
by sbov 11y ago
This reads like some slightly useful, but obvious, advice mixed with attempts to "stick it" to companies based in the US.
I think it's telling in your example that the friend laughs because their grandma did it, not that the friend themselves did it. Beyond that, by your own admission all the money in tech makes bootstrapping harder, not easier, because it drives up costs. So your example makes even less sense, unless you intend to point out the ignorance of laughing at someone bragging about it.
You're also not the first to recognize that labor is more expensive in the US. Many companies acted on this information in the early 2000's, and it did not exactly result in a complete exodus of software development jobs. Culture, language, and even timezone differences can be a problem. Paying someone in Eastern Europe 30k/year instead of a US developer 100k/year to develop a product does not necessarily result in 70k/year worth of savings.
Interestingly I feel like some of what you say here goes against your recommendations in your internationalization article: the implication is that we should all hire Eastern European developers, but your internationalization article talks about the perils of thinking that all you need to do is slap a new language on your product and think that it's OK for another country.
If you're developing a product to be sold in a given country, and you hire developers from that country, you can empower your developers to act with more discretion.
- LouisSayers 11y agoI think you're missing the point here. He's coming at it from a sales perspective. I.e. if you're trying to sell into Romania then there's no point bragging about being bootstrapped because that is a normal way of life for them. You also should recognise that they can produce the same products at a fraction of the cost, and so you may just be too expensive. On the R&D thing, of course there are issues with going international with development, but if you find the right people, you'll find that many are extremely competent and easy to communicate with.
- nostrebored 11y agoArticles like this completely ignore brain drain. "Extremely competent" becomes more of a rarity when high-quality developers in Eastern Europe move to Germany or the US. The reality is that nearly all of the time it's not "the same product." When it is, it's great for whoever made it, but when it's not, you're making the very serious decision to release a worse product to cut your costs. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not.
- LouisSayers 11y agoThis is true - I've been told that Twitter has actively recruited university students in Romania. However, some people would simply prefer not to move to the US because of personal reasons. The cheaper clones may also be a lot worse in practice, but hey, it seems to be working for China ...
- michaelmrose 11y agoThe country that can't produce baby formula or pet food without plastic and or poison in it you mean.
- vonmoltke 11y ago> This is true - I've been told that Twitter has actively recruited university students in Romania. This may be because Romanians seem to have a disproportionate interest in natural language processing.
- devy 11y agoBrain drain from Eastern Europe to the US are still few and far between because every year the H1B program for IT workforces are still predominately occupied by Chinese and Indian workers.[1] Also, keep in mind that in some of the fast growing developing countries and regions, reverse brain drain is happening [2]. With booming economic development in those places and the rising of Donald Trump alike politicians, reverse brain drains is only going to become more common. [1] https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports%20and%20Studies/H-1B/h-1B-characteristics-report-14.pdf https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Re... Section 3.2 Table 4A [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_brain_drain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_brain_drain
- xyzzyz 11y agoIf you want to move out of Eastern Europe, there's little reason and lots of hurdles when you want to move to the US. On the other hand, moving to UK or Germany is extremely easy, so that's what most people do.