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This reminds me of a quote from Neal Stephenson's epic Snow Crash novel: “When it gets down to it — talking trade balances here — once we've brain-drained all

This reminds me of a quote from Neal Stephenson's epic Snow Crash novel: “When it gets down to it — talking trade balances here — once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries, once things have evened out, they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here — once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a nickel — once the Invisible Hand has taken away all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity — y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone else: music movies microcode (software) high-speed pizza delivery” ― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

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mjevans 10y ago
I'd rather work at the Central Intelligence Corporation (IE Google / etc) than at USCAS or whatever that 'military turned software hell hole' (think EA) was...
mirimir 10y ago
Yeah, he pretty much nailed it. But pizza delivery was a euphemism, I think.
- eridius 10y ago
  Hiro Protagonist is literally a pizza delivery driver, so it's not a euphemism. Neal Stephenson could perhaps have used pizza delivery as a metaphor for something, but if so, I have no idea what, so it's probably actually just commentary on America's obsession with fast food.
  - mirimir 10y ago
    Uncle Enzo, maybe?
polynomial 10y ago
> There's only four things Weaponry.
- saiya-jin 10y ago
  not as clear - many states prefer russian offers simply because it's cheaper per weapon, sometimes as good as US counterpart, sometimes even better (S-400 out of many examples). china will catch up soon too. one example - many americans still prefer AK-47 to AR-15, since ammo is much stronger for short and medium range combat, guns are simple, super cheap and never fail even without any maintenance. exact opposite of AR-15 system
- quanticle 10y ago
  That's not necessarily true. Excluding the obvious comparisons with Russian and Chinese weapons sales, France, Sweden, and Israel also have significant defense exports. America has a huge export market for weapons because America has a huge defense industry. Even a small percentage of that turning into export sales results in some pretty eye-popping numbers. I would be willing to bet that, as a proportion of their overall defense industries, French and Swedish export sales are much larger than America's.

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[deleted]

mjevans 10y ago

I'd rather work at the Central Intelligence Corporation (IE Google / etc) than at USCAS or whatever that 'military turned software hell hole' (think EA) was...

mirimir 10y ago

Yeah, he pretty much nailed it. But pizza delivery was a euphemism, I think.

eridius 10y ago
Hiro Protagonist is literally a pizza delivery driver, so it's not a euphemism. Neal Stephenson could perhaps have used pizza delivery as a metaphor for something, but if so, I have no idea what, so it's probably actually just commentary on America's obsession with fast food.
- mirimir 10y ago
  Uncle Enzo, maybe?

polynomial 10y ago

> There's only four things Weaponry.

saiya-jin 10y ago
not as clear - many states prefer russian offers simply because it's cheaper per weapon, sometimes as good as US counterpart, sometimes even better (S-400 out of many examples). china will catch up soon too. one example - many americans still prefer AK-47 to AR-15, since ammo is much stronger for short and medium range combat, guns are simple, super cheap and never fail even without any maintenance. exact opposite of AR-15 system
quanticle 10y ago
That's not necessarily true. Excluding the obvious comparisons with Russian and Chinese weapons sales, France, Sweden, and Israel also have significant defense exports. America has a huge export market for weapons because America has a huge defense industry. Even a small percentage of that turning into export sales results in some pretty eye-popping numbers. I would be willing to bet that, as a proportion of their overall defense industries, French and Swedish export sales are much larger than America's.