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Can't we look at places where that is the case today and see? I always hear about how in places like Russia, every student learns much harder math than here in

by initram 10y ago

Can't we look at places where that is the case today and see? I always hear about how in places like Russia, every student learns much harder math than here in the US, and they learn it better. But I don't see other countries like Russia producing better engineered products or better science than we do here. Same with China or Japan, or whoever is supposedly the best this year.

Ologn 10y ago
> I don't see other countries like Russia producing better engineered products India graduates good math and CS students from IIT, why is India not an engineering excellence hub? Because they come to the US. US STEM grad schools are full of students from China and India. I have interviewed many, many people and am usually quite impressed with the Russians interviewed. They usually do much better than American-born people. Maybe 1 out of 6 non-Russians are decent, the Russian batting average in my experience is 1 out of 2 or even 2 out of 3. They do make good engineers, the problem for those countries is the good engineers move to the US where they can make money.
mistercow 10y ago
The problem with looking at other countries is always that you can't control the other variables. Numerous economic and cultural factors affect the outcomes you're talking about, so we end up learning almost nothing about the specific factor we care about.
mistermumble 10y ago
The good ones come to the US to get better paying jobs. I ran a team of 25 software engineers. I tried to hire the most talented programmers in a tight job market. All but one of the engineers I hired were born outside the US.
- ap22213 10y ago
  It could be because people who immigrate here are significantly more motivated than people in general. I read somewhere that many of the most successful entrepreneurs in the US are foreign born. That doesn't necessarily mean that foreign born people are better than American born people (which would be unlikely). It probably just means that people who have tenacity to immigrate also have tenacity to do bigger things than average.

by initram 10y ago

Ologn 10y ago

> I don't see other countries like Russia producing better engineered products India graduates good math and CS students from IIT, why is India not an engineering excellence hub? Because they come to the US. US STEM grad schools are full of students from China and India. I have interviewed many, many people and am usually quite impressed with the Russians interviewed. They usually do much better than American-born people. Maybe 1 out of 6 non-Russians are decent, the Russian batting average in my experience is 1 out of 2 or even 2 out of 3. They do make good engineers, the problem for those countries is the good engineers move to the US where they can make money.

mistercow 10y ago

The problem with looking at other countries is always that you can't control the other variables. Numerous economic and cultural factors affect the outcomes you're talking about, so we end up learning almost nothing about the specific factor we care about.

mistermumble 10y ago

The good ones come to the US to get better paying jobs. I ran a team of 25 software engineers. I tried to hire the most talented programmers in a tight job market. All but one of the engineers I hired were born outside the US.

ap22213 10y ago
It could be because people who immigrate here are significantly more motivated than people in general. I read somewhere that many of the most successful entrepreneurs in the US are foreign born. That doesn't necessarily mean that foreign born people are better than American born people (which would be unlikely). It probably just means that people who have tenacity to immigrate also have tenacity to do bigger things than average.