3 ms·

The assumption that those are the only people that are able to build something like that is simply false. There's plenty of talent around, it just needs capita

The assumption that those are the only people that are able to build something like that is simply false. There's plenty of talent around, it just needs capital.

apexalpha 2y ago
Why reinvent the wheel? When US companies chase a competitor they always just poach people directly. No one is saying those are the only people who could do it. But they have experience and hiring the senior people directly would greatly speed up the process in Europe I think.
- redrove 2y ago
  FWIW I've recently seen this exact thing play out, I can't really go into the nitty gritty but someone who had VP/Director positions in well known US public companies was brought in on a big project that's local to Europe and he's failing spectacularly. So your theory might not work as well in practice, just my 2c from what I've seen in the real world.
  - apexalpha 2y ago
    Yes well, perhaps. But this kind of defeatism has never brought anyone to victory.
    - TeMPOraL 2y ago
      Right. But how about: if he's failing spectacularly here, he's not winning over there. On the net, this is actually a win for Europe, because failure here doesn't make our IT industry much worse than it already is, while winning in the US can be leveraged into more winning. Not that I condone such "crabs in a bucket" mentality, but put this way, it's no longer defeatist :).
      - sam_lowry_ 2y ago
        If he is not winning here, he probably did not win there, just got landed in the right place at the right time and had his free ride. There is a lot of bullshit jobs in US IT companies, FAANG are not an exception. This is why Bert talks about local technical competence.
menaerus 2y ago
It's not false. Those are the people who have already proven that they have the necessary experience to build those products so the rate of success is simply much higher rather than seeking the talent elsewhere. Startups and US companies apply this strategy all the time - you want success, poach the good people from competing companies. I think people outside the domain often underestimate the complexity of Internet-scale infrastructure software and hardware. You don't find such challenges very easily elsewhere so simply paying more money to random engineer doesn't stand more chance than paying the same money to already established engineer in that domain.
- Aeolun 2y ago
  > so the rate of success is simply much higher rather than seeking the talent elsewhere This is true to some extend, but I don’t want the riffraff that built AWS building the EU infrastructure. It works to some extend, but some consistency would be a very welcome addition.
  - menaerus 2y ago
    I don't understand what is your concern. What consistency? If you need engineers with storage engines domain expertise at scale, or query execution challenges, where else do you find those people if not in existing businesses that have already proven they have a workforce delivering exactly that type of work?

The assumption that those are the only people that are able to build something like that is simply false. There's plenty of talent around, it just needs capital.

apexalpha 2y ago

Why reinvent the wheel? When US companies chase a competitor they always just poach people directly. No one is saying those are the only people who could do it. But they have experience and hiring the senior people directly would greatly speed up the process in Europe I think.

redrove 2y ago
FWIW I've recently seen this exact thing play out, I can't really go into the nitty gritty but someone who had VP/Director positions in well known US public companies was brought in on a big project that's local to Europe and he's failing spectacularly. So your theory might not work as well in practice, just my 2c from what I've seen in the real world.
- apexalpha 2y ago
  Yes well, perhaps. But this kind of defeatism has never brought anyone to victory.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    Right. But how about: if he's failing spectacularly here, he's not winning over there. On the net, this is actually a win for Europe, because failure here doesn't make our IT industry much worse than it already is, while winning in the US can be leveraged into more winning. Not that I condone such "crabs in a bucket" mentality, but put this way, it's no longer defeatist :).
    - sam_lowry_ 2y ago
      If he is not winning here, he probably did not win there, just got landed in the right place at the right time and had his free ride. There is a lot of bullshit jobs in US IT companies, FAANG are not an exception. This is why Bert talks about local technical competence.

menaerus 2y ago

It's not false. Those are the people who have already proven that they have the necessary experience to build those products so the rate of success is simply much higher rather than seeking the talent elsewhere. Startups and US companies apply this strategy all the time - you want success, poach the good people from competing companies. I think people outside the domain often underestimate the complexity of Internet-scale infrastructure software and hardware. You don't find such challenges very easily elsewhere so simply paying more money to random engineer doesn't stand more chance than paying the same money to already established engineer in that domain.

Aeolun 2y ago
> so the rate of success is simply much higher rather than seeking the talent elsewhere This is true to some extend, but I don’t want the riffraff that built AWS building the EU infrastructure. It works to some extend, but some consistency would be a very welcome addition.
- menaerus 2y ago
  I don't understand what is your concern. What consistency? If you need engineers with storage engines domain expertise at scale, or query execution challenges, where else do you find those people if not in existing businesses that have already proven they have a workforce delivering exactly that type of work?