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You assume proximity was the only benefit. Fluent English, shared cultural norms, and work culture vary wildly between countries. The farther I’ve gone in my

You assume proximity was the only benefit. Fluent English, shared cultural norms, and work culture vary wildly between countries. The farther I’ve gone in my career, the more I’ve realized that “clean code” and “maintainable software” comes down to well written prose, in code. Why do names authors pay US ghost writers when they could outsource to Brazil? The difference between “very proficient” in English and “fluent” is night and day.

petra 4y ago
I'm not so sure about the relationship between native English and maintainable software, or in general being a great software developer. Israelis aren't particularly fluent in English, more than others. Yet Israel is considered a great source of talent.
- SicSemperUranus 4y ago
  In a way, writing software is translating human speech into machine speech. Any good software developer is fluent in the "machine" part, but trying to "translate" from a language (and culture) you don't master is a recipe for disaster.
SicSemperUranus 4y ago
I agree, people who are only fluent in one language (and who don't study anthropology) tend to ignore the huge cultural factor in these things. Indian people already have a hard time getting hired in your own country, you think your boomer boss is going to go out of his way to get them? I strongly doubt this. Outsourcing has been tried for a long time, if it was a permanent solution it would have become the norm. Not to say that there is never a time for it, but software is, ironically, where I think it's the least likely to work out, precisely for the reasons you cited.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  Outsourcing software development works great when you can specify exactly what you want ahead of time... ... software engineering history has been a lurching but ever more complete realization that the customer never knows exactly what they need ahead of time.
  - taylodl 4y ago
    BINGO!!! The work has to be well-defined and expectations clearly set, but we all know that it's rarely the case that the work is well-defined and that expectations are clearly set. What you end up with is an expensive disaster - and you can't correct from it either: you'll be black-listed in your community and people will be very leery of ever working for you again. These lessons have been learned and re-learned for the past 30 years now - going back as far as Yourdon's Decline and Fall of the American Programmer - which was published in 1992.

petra 4y ago

I'm not so sure about the relationship between native English and maintainable software, or in general being a great software developer. Israelis aren't particularly fluent in English, more than others. Yet Israel is considered a great source of talent.

SicSemperUranus 4y ago
In a way, writing software is translating human speech into machine speech. Any good software developer is fluent in the "machine" part, but trying to "translate" from a language (and culture) you don't master is a recipe for disaster.

SicSemperUranus 4y ago

I agree, people who are only fluent in one language (and who don't study anthropology) tend to ignore the huge cultural factor in these things. Indian people already have a hard time getting hired in your own country, you think your boomer boss is going to go out of his way to get them? I strongly doubt this. Outsourcing has been tried for a long time, if it was a permanent solution it would have become the norm. Not to say that there is never a time for it, but software is, ironically, where I think it's the least likely to work out, precisely for the reasons you cited.

ethbr0 4y ago
Outsourcing software development works great when you can specify exactly what you want ahead of time... ... software engineering history has been a lurching but ever more complete realization that the customer never knows exactly what they need ahead of time.
- taylodl 4y ago
  BINGO!!! The work has to be well-defined and expectations clearly set, but we all know that it's rarely the case that the work is well-defined and that expectations are clearly set. What you end up with is an expensive disaster - and you can't correct from it either: you'll be black-listed in your community and people will be very leery of ever working for you again. These lessons have been learned and re-learned for the past 30 years now - going back as far as Yourdon's Decline and Fall of the American Programmer - which was published in 1992.