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It wasn't until I retired from the tech industry and drove Uber and delivered Uber Eats for something to do that I realized how many Indian and Chinese engineer

It wasn't until I retired from the tech industry and drove Uber and delivered Uber Eats for something to do that I realized how many Indian and Chinese engineers are in Silicon Valley. Huge 6 story apartment buildings covering a city block filled with engineers, often doubling and tripling up in small apartments. Some of the Indian engineers would tell to me (they were always friendly, the Chinese would often just go to sleep in the back of the car) that their agency was making most of their money. My hats are off to you guys and gals for working hard in America. I know the death marches and conditions you have to put up with. Caste concerns in America shouldn't be one of them.

mosdl 5y ago
Odd, did you never rent in sv? Most apartment complexes have at least on unit that is tripled like you mentioned.
- mwattsun 5y ago
  I'm talking about 3 ppl in a 1 bdrm apt, not 3 bdrm apts
  - mosdl 5y ago
    Yup, with bunk bed setups in each bedroom. It's fairly common, seems to be tolerated by apartment complexes.
01100011 5y ago
I've long felt there needs to be some sort of dramatization of the lives of Asian, specifically South Asian(*), engineers and their contributions to modern technology. I feel like the average westerner just doesn't appreciate the sacrifices and hard work that have gone into the technology they base their modern lives on. * No offense to non-South Asians, it's just those are the folks I worked side by side with in the 00's and saw working multiple jobs and working themselves to death in a foreign land. Certainly this is nothing new in the history of the world, but I feel like the particular angle of their contributions to cell phones and the internet is worthy of a movie or something.
- mwattsun 5y ago
  I agree. Maybe I'll be the one to write it. It'd be easy. Just start driving Uber again and delivering food and start collecting stories.
- jumpkick 5y ago
  Check out “The Tiger Hunter.” I watched it on Netflix a while back. It’s a comedy but it fits some of what you’re looking for. And it’s a great movie.
- dash2 5y ago
  Dinesh in Silicon Valley was a pretty compelling character. Given that it's a satire, was it accurate or far from the mark in this respect?
ralph84 5y ago
> their agency was making most of their money Allowing body shops to sponsor H1B visas is ridiculous and directly leads to this kind of exploitation. Requiring the place where the person actually works to sponsor instead would make so much more sense. Of course simple reforms like this can never happen because the current debate on immigration in the US is 100% closed borders vs. 100% open borders so the broken status quo continues on.
- verall 5y ago
  Yeah us immigration supporters really believe in 100% open borders. Yeah, right lmao
- aldebran 5y ago
  Won’t stop it. I was paid $11.75/hr as a Masters holder while on OPT. Should CPT/OPT be killed?
  - ralph84 5y ago
    OPT is basically an internship. Internships are often at/near minimum wage, regardless of degree level or immigration status.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - j_koreth 5y ago
      OPT can be 2-3 years as far as I'm aware. I think a little longer than a lot of internships.
    - oatmeal_croc 5y ago
      "Often" is key here, many I know (including myself) made 350k or higher on OPT.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  Of course that’s by design. Big company development centers in out of the way US cities are really offshoring operations in the US. The governments make money (guest workers pay taxes and send remittances home), the companies make money and don’t get grief for offshoring, the wages for low/moderate tech skills are suppressed, and the worker gets screwed.
nopenopenopeno 5y ago
If they are an engineer in America, they are practically guaranteed to be Brahmins or at least upper caste, so castes are not only less of a concern but literally why they were able to get an education and move to the US in the first place.
- mwattsun 5y ago
  the article mentions at least 1 lawsuit by a low caste engineer against upper caste managers in sv
kamaal 5y ago
>>Caste concerns in America shouldn't be one of them. It is a concern. As much as struggle stories you hear there in the US, they are on top of some next level cheating, privilege and machiavellian play involved in trampling people back home in India and arriving there in US and then acting all fair and merit. Multiply this with discrimination at every level in office places. This is at many levels religious, class, caste and even linguistic basis. I've seen the absolute worst of humanity(from Indians to Indians) during my stay there as an Indian immigrant until I returned, its literally dog eat dog. Prior discussions here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23697083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23697083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24552047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24552047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24952698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24952698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26435117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26435117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24555492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24555492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17531795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17531795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23798922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23798922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24933169 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24933169 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24065132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24065132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23703325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23703325
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  All of these seem like anecdotal examples, and frankly these stories reek of an anti-Indian bias because they involve an amplification of a few lone samples. I’ll also point out that it is easy for people who aren’t happy with their station in life or particular outcomes to find an external thing to lay blame on, like discrimination. But I find some of these stories suspicious, simply because we don’t know the other side of the story and we don’t know why they didn’t get [a promotion or a job or whatever]. Maybe they were just bad at their job. > I've seen the absolute worst of humanity(from Indians to Indians) during my stay there as an Indian immigrant until I returned, its literally dog eat dog. I’m not sure what you mean here. You say “its literally dog eat dog”, but the word ‘literally’ has a certain meaning. Are you saying…that your coworkers are dogs and are eating each other? This type of emotional statement makes me view your prior claims with skepticism.

mosdl 5y ago

Odd, did you never rent in sv? Most apartment complexes have at least on unit that is tripled like you mentioned.

mwattsun 5y ago
I'm talking about 3 ppl in a 1 bdrm apt, not 3 bdrm apts
- mosdl 5y ago
  Yup, with bunk bed setups in each bedroom. It's fairly common, seems to be tolerated by apartment complexes.

01100011 5y ago

I've long felt there needs to be some sort of dramatization of the lives of Asian, specifically South Asian(*), engineers and their contributions to modern technology. I feel like the average westerner just doesn't appreciate the sacrifices and hard work that have gone into the technology they base their modern lives on. * No offense to non-South Asians, it's just those are the folks I worked side by side with in the 00's and saw working multiple jobs and working themselves to death in a foreign land. Certainly this is nothing new in the history of the world, but I feel like the particular angle of their contributions to cell phones and the internet is worthy of a movie or something.

mwattsun 5y ago
I agree. Maybe I'll be the one to write it. It'd be easy. Just start driving Uber again and delivering food and start collecting stories.
jumpkick 5y ago
Check out “The Tiger Hunter.” I watched it on Netflix a while back. It’s a comedy but it fits some of what you’re looking for. And it’s a great movie.
dash2 5y ago
Dinesh in Silicon Valley was a pretty compelling character. Given that it's a satire, was it accurate or far from the mark in this respect?

ralph84 5y ago

> their agency was making most of their money Allowing body shops to sponsor H1B visas is ridiculous and directly leads to this kind of exploitation. Requiring the place where the person actually works to sponsor instead would make so much more sense. Of course simple reforms like this can never happen because the current debate on immigration in the US is 100% closed borders vs. 100% open borders so the broken status quo continues on.

verall 5y ago
Yeah us immigration supporters really believe in 100% open borders. Yeah, right lmao
aldebran 5y ago
Won’t stop it. I was paid $11.75/hr as a Masters holder while on OPT. Should CPT/OPT be killed?
- ralph84 5y ago
  OPT is basically an internship. Internships are often at/near minimum wage, regardless of degree level or immigration status.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - j_koreth 5y ago
    OPT can be 2-3 years as far as I'm aware. I think a little longer than a lot of internships.
  - oatmeal_croc 5y ago
    "Often" is key here, many I know (including myself) made 350k or higher on OPT.
Spooky23 5y ago
Of course that’s by design. Big company development centers in out of the way US cities are really offshoring operations in the US. The governments make money (guest workers pay taxes and send remittances home), the companies make money and don’t get grief for offshoring, the wages for low/moderate tech skills are suppressed, and the worker gets screwed.

nopenopenopeno 5y ago

If they are an engineer in America, they are practically guaranteed to be Brahmins or at least upper caste, so castes are not only less of a concern but literally why they were able to get an education and move to the US in the first place.

mwattsun 5y ago
the article mentions at least 1 lawsuit by a low caste engineer against upper caste managers in sv

kamaal 5y ago

>>Caste concerns in America shouldn't be one of them. It is a concern. As much as struggle stories you hear there in the US, they are on top of some next level cheating, privilege and machiavellian play involved in trampling people back home in India and arriving there in US and then acting all fair and merit. Multiply this with discrimination at every level in office places. This is at many levels religious, class, caste and even linguistic basis. I've seen the absolute worst of humanity(from Indians to Indians) during my stay there as an Indian immigrant until I returned, its literally dog eat dog. Prior discussions here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23697083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23697083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24552047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24552047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24952698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24952698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26435117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26435117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24555492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24555492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17531795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17531795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23798922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23798922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24933169 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24933169 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24065132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24065132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23703325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23703325

throwawaysea 5y ago
All of these seem like anecdotal examples, and frankly these stories reek of an anti-Indian bias because they involve an amplification of a few lone samples. I’ll also point out that it is easy for people who aren’t happy with their station in life or particular outcomes to find an external thing to lay blame on, like discrimination. But I find some of these stories suspicious, simply because we don’t know the other side of the story and we don’t know why they didn’t get [a promotion or a job or whatever]. Maybe they were just bad at their job. > I've seen the absolute worst of humanity(from Indians to Indians) during my stay there as an Indian immigrant until I returned, its literally dog eat dog. I’m not sure what you mean here. You say “its literally dog eat dog”, but the word ‘literally’ has a certain meaning. Are you saying…that your coworkers are dogs and are eating each other? This type of emotional statement makes me view your prior claims with skepticism.