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The article makes the mistake of equating universities with talent pool. Scotland has a much smaller talent pool of developers than many other countries and tha
by ig1 14y ago
The article makes the mistake of equating universities with talent pool. Scotland has a much smaller talent pool of developers than many other countries and that's a fundamental bottleneck for any startup.
- theallan 14y agoI must admit I don't see the problem with equating universities with a talent pool. Could you elaborate on why that would be wrong? It isn't always true, but it is a reasonable assumption that graduates are of a decent calibre. I would fully agree that a university education is not required in order to be considered talented (some of the most talented people I know didn't attend university), but at the same time having a degree shows a certain level of ability. If you have a CS degree, you should at least know your way around a computer, and the post-graduate research being done by universities is world leading. Being at the forefront of your field isn't talent, what is? (again acknowledging that this doesn't make those people product geniuses - a different form of talent!) Scotland has a much smaller talent pool of developers than many other countries Presumably only because the population is smaller than many other countries?
- justincormack 14y agoIndeed and they are very good Universities. Haskell (the Glasgow Haskell Compiler ghc) was a product of there.
- hyperbovine 14y agoHaven't you heard? Hating on a college education is all the rage these days.
- justincormack 14y agoScotland has a smaller pool of people than many other places. But there are still plenty and people would relocate if there was more demand as the article says.
- objclxt 14y agoExactly - companies like Rockstar don't seem to have too much of a problem recruiting developers in Edinburgh. And re-locating from somewhere else in the UK to Edinburgh is for many people not as huge an issue as other relocations could be.
- Craigangus 14y agoI think a lot of the talent is drained away to the South, as bulk of the jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh are in Finance or public sector.
- gordonguthrie 14y agoWell, we had a 100 CEO's at the CEO To CEO @ the Turing Festival in Edinburgh two weeks ago - so I think you are wrong on that.
- Craigangus 14y ago"Scotland has a much smaller talent pool of developers than many other countries and that's a fundamental bottleneck for any startup" It wasn't clear but I was meaning talent to staff the startups, I don't think there would be a bottleneck! It would would stop the drain.