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In Eastern Europe it is a cultural thing perhaps. Math and programming Olympiads I think are taken more seriously and are often a gateway to a good college. In
by rdtsc 10y ago
In Eastern Europe it is a cultural thing perhaps. Math and programming Olympiads I think are taken more seriously and are often a gateway to a good college. In some cases those who rank higher get to skip entrance exams. In US it might be more of a hobby with a lot less at stake. Not sure about India and China.
Also note that it is possible to train to do well in those but not necessarily be a good full time programmer.
- a_bonobo 10y agoCould it be an overhang from the Soviet Union's focus on chess? See for example http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/09/red_squares.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20...
- rdtsc 10y agoCould be. I used to watch chess competitions on TV with my dad like people watch football here in US.
- MrBuddyCasino 10y agoYeah we've got quite a lot of eastern european developers here in Germany, especially Ukraine. They are mostly top notch.
- zerr 10y agoI guess it's also related to survival - I can't imagine how people live on salaries in "humanities" fields. This is less relevant to west where people have more or less good jobs/salaries outside tech as well.