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> What I don't get is, how on earth developers in the USA jumped on the boat of WFH. I think the general US ethos is something like “if we can offshore it, we
by csa 2y ago
> What I don't get is, how on earth developers in the USA jumped on the boat of WFH.
I think the general US ethos is something like “if we can offshore it, we will… find something where you can add more value”.
That said, I think a lot of non-US-based programmers grossly over-estimate the value of pure programming skills versus things like understanding a market, problem solving, empathy, English proficiency, similar time zone, professional trust, etc. on top of programming skills goes a long way.
No good programmer is afraid of their employment status, imho.
On the other hand, the number of offshoring nightmare stories abound, just like we did last time offshoring was the next hot thing.
> It has been quite some time to see some outstanding American innovation.
At a minimum, there is plenty of innovation that is not publicly known.
Is the US as prolific as some times in the past? Probably not.
Is that a fair comparison? Also probably not.
> Was it hubris? … because if you include Asia you end up claiming that its communism and centralized economies are actually the big success stories.
This sounds like sock puppet rhetoric.
As someone with a bit of experience in asia, including China, I’m happy to bet on Asia being good and sometimes the best at certain things, especially areas of incremental improvement.
That said, I’m willing to make large bets that Asian ascendency to the top of the general innovation leaderboard will not happen in my lifetime.
- mrtksn 2y ago> That said, I think a lot of non-US-based programmers grossly over-estimate the value of pure programming skills versus things like understanding a market, problem solving, empathy, English proficiency, similar time zone, professional trust, etc. on top of programming skills goes a long way. I agree, but IMHO when WFH many of these are weakened or even completely lost for the local American employees too. When WFH, the cultural integration(which provides the empathy, market understanding and other) gets reduced into whatever they can get from their neighborhood and from the internet. The internet part is available to everyone globally and the neighborhood culture is already not very strong in the USA apart from few places like NY. The rest are skills people can develop just as they can develop their programming. It's true that good programmers don't have to be afraid but there're good programmers all over the word and when the market is not as hot, even the best will feel it.
- csa 2y ago> I agree, but IMHO when WFH many of these are weakened or even completely lost for the local American employees too. Fair point, but that’s WFH done poorly, imho. “100% remote” wfh teams should almost always have periodic get togethers on the company dime (among other things) to enhance/develop the relationships within the company. Programmers will definitely lose some of their current market power in the future, but I don’t think that off-shoring will be seen as the main culprit. I can’t tell you how much off-shoring is largely seen as a joke except by the VPs who are trying to get a promotion via cost-cutting. The quality of work needed is just not there at scale.