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If you kicked out every company that's done anything unethical or amoral, you'd have no companies left. If Berliners really want to shoot themselves in the foot

If you kicked out every company that's done anything unethical or amoral, you'd have no companies left. If Berliners really want to shoot themselves in the foot like this then Google can take its operations elsewhere at no loss while the locals are out better paying tech jobs and a market signal that would invite more tech companies and startups to the area. I'm glad I don't live in Berlin right now.

pdimitar 9y ago
I think you are overestimating the IT market's talent abundance right now. There are many people trying to get good programming wages and that doesn't make them good programmers. IMO Google -- and any other corp -- has a lot to lose if they close an office. Real talent doesn't just exist everywhere you go. I am not supporting or attacking the website, just clarifying the above point.
- jimmaswell 9y ago
  > Real talent doesn't just exist everywhere you go. Colleges outside cities, like the one I went to, are brimming with compsci students that are then forced to move when they graduate, like I was. I'm sure if companies set up locations in such areas, they'd be able to tap into a decent amount of people like me who'd take a moderate pay cut to be able to live and work in a less dense region - not just the graduates I mentioned, but people who'd moved away from their home town and now could move back, or at least to somewhere more resembling it.
  - pdimitar 9y ago
    I don't disagree but it seems to be a bit like the chicken and the egg problem: companies would love to tap on that talent but most business developers want hard evidence that the investment will repay itself, and for that to happen somebody has to actually try. It becomes a mutual deadlock. Furthermore, emphasizing on hiring graduates isn't a very sustainable strategy; many startups prey on the naivete and energy of young people and their hiring strategy usually revolves around draining a wave of young people of their creativity and energy, fire them when they realize what's going and then hire the next wave of naive and energetic youngsters. Many companies do that, not only startups. But for that model to work they need a big hiring pool. Not sure if rural-like areas have the volume of candidates for that hiring model to be sustainable.
nextstep 9y ago
I love comments like this. Probably not intended as a critique of capitalism but this guy is clearly very close to seeing how exploitation is at the very heart of our system.

pdimitar 9y ago

I think you are overestimating the IT market's talent abundance right now. There are many people trying to get good programming wages and that doesn't make them good programmers. IMO Google -- and any other corp -- has a lot to lose if they close an office. Real talent doesn't just exist everywhere you go. I am not supporting or attacking the website, just clarifying the above point.

jimmaswell 9y ago
> Real talent doesn't just exist everywhere you go. Colleges outside cities, like the one I went to, are brimming with compsci students that are then forced to move when they graduate, like I was. I'm sure if companies set up locations in such areas, they'd be able to tap into a decent amount of people like me who'd take a moderate pay cut to be able to live and work in a less dense region - not just the graduates I mentioned, but people who'd moved away from their home town and now could move back, or at least to somewhere more resembling it.
- pdimitar 9y ago
  I don't disagree but it seems to be a bit like the chicken and the egg problem: companies would love to tap on that talent but most business developers want hard evidence that the investment will repay itself, and for that to happen somebody has to actually try. It becomes a mutual deadlock. Furthermore, emphasizing on hiring graduates isn't a very sustainable strategy; many startups prey on the naivete and energy of young people and their hiring strategy usually revolves around draining a wave of young people of their creativity and energy, fire them when they realize what's going and then hire the next wave of naive and energetic youngsters. Many companies do that, not only startups. But for that model to work they need a big hiring pool. Not sure if rural-like areas have the volume of candidates for that hiring model to be sustainable.

nextstep 9y ago

I love comments like this. Probably not intended as a critique of capitalism but this guy is clearly very close to seeing how exploitation is at the very heart of our system.