4 ms·

Top 3 CS programs still seem to be in the US. MIT, Stanford, CMU. The US has its geography, weather, etc. which are not going away. China has massive scale in

by YZF 6mo ago

Top 3 CS programs still seem to be in the US. MIT, Stanford, CMU. The US has its geography, weather, etc. which are not going away. China has massive scale industrial espionage and learnt a lot by being the cheap place where things are made and stealing western companies processes. They also invested a lot in education and naturally they have a lot of smart people. I still think that as long as they have an oppressive regime the really smart people will prefer not to be there since the second you become successful you also become a threat to the regime. Their work culture is also pretty toxic. https://monitor.icef.com/2025/11/there-were-more-international-students-in-the-us-than-ever-in-2024-25-but-commencements-are-declining/ https://monitor.icef.com/2025/11/there-were-more-internation... It's hard to predict long term but the US has a culture of innovation going back maybe hundreds of years, it has relative freedom, it has capital to invest, land and resources, and overall it has good people (and crazy people which was always true). Most of the conditions that made the US what it is are still there and most of the conditions that made places like Europe unable to compete are also still there. The US is a lot more diverse than it used to be as well.

overfeed 6mo ago
> It's hard to predict long term... It's not hard at all if you can interpret charts and can observe trends. You do yourself no favors by intentionally misunderestimating an adversary, to borrow a Bushism.
mullingitover 6mo ago
> and crazy people which was always true The experiment with giving the crazy people unchecked power over every lever of government is new, however. This is perhaps a shrewd move against China: they can't steal technology and scientific advances from the US if there aren't any to steal.
- YZF 6mo ago
  Trump's power is not unchecked. He probably doesn't even win the craziest president award. Historical US presidents: Andrew Jackson -> threatened to hang his VP. https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/41212/did-andrew-jackson-threaten-to-kill-the-vice-president https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/41212/did-andrew... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson had meetings while sitting on the toilet: https://historyfacts.com/famous-figures/fact/lyndon-b-johnson-liked-to-conduct-meetings-in-the-bathroom/ https://historyfacts.com/famous-figures/fact/lyndon-b-johnso... Richard Nixon - needs no introductions? https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/13yplux/craziest_president_in_us_history/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/13yplux/crazies... Also remember we had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism and the requirement by Truman that all civil service employees be screened for "loyalty".
  - the_why_of_y 6mo ago
    There are now "loyalty tests" for those who apply to positions at the FBI, to be hired you have to state that the "patriots" on Jan. 6 2021 were the rioters attempting a coup, not the Capitol Police defending the constitutional transfer of government power. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/08/trump-administration-job-candidates-loyalty-screening/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/08/... But technically you are correct, of course. Trump never demanded that VP Mike Pence be hanged, the rioters he sent to Congress did.
    - spwa4 6mo ago
      I think the parent post is defending what somewhat older people know to be true. Nixon was far worse than Trump, also betrayed US allies for example. And where it hurts: he effectively stole gold from them. And I'm sure in another 20 years even democrat voters will remember, probably correctly, that Trump was so much better than $us_president_at_that_time.
      - mullingitover 6mo ago
        > Nixon was far worse than Trump Nixon was never credibly accused of sexual assault, never organized a mob of rioters to sack the US capitol, never published tertiary syphilis-coded rants for the world to see in the middle of the night, nearly every night. Nixon had a competent cabinet, some of them even had principles. Nixon's Attorney General was willing to resign on principle for his refusal to fire the special prosecutor. Nixon didn't put his own attorney at the head of the DOJ. I could go on. To be clear: Nixon was a corrupt thug. At the same time he was nowhere near as symptomatic of a national malignant political cancer as Trump has been. Plus there was a congress to keep Nixon in check, we don't have a functioning Congress now, just a department of a political party.
rippeltippel 6mo ago
> the US has a culture of innovation going back maybe hundreds of years Not many hundred, considering the US declaration of independence was in 1776 and there were some adjustment after that. Perhaps some decades?
wolvoleo 6mo ago
> It's hard to predict long term but the US has a culture of innovation going back maybe hundreds of years, it has relative freedom, it has capital to invest, land and resources, and overall it has good people (and crazy people which was always true). Most of the conditions that made the US what it is are still there and most of the conditions that made places like Europe unable to compete are also still there. The US is a lot more diverse than it used to be as well.. It's not all about economy though. I'm much happier living in Southern Europe than I would be in the US with probably 3x the disposable income. I'd never consider living there, really.

by YZF 6mo ago

overfeed 6mo ago

> It's hard to predict long term... It's not hard at all if you can interpret charts and can observe trends. You do yourself no favors by intentionally misunderestimating an adversary, to borrow a Bushism.

mullingitover 6mo ago

> and crazy people which was always true The experiment with giving the crazy people unchecked power over every lever of government is new, however. This is perhaps a shrewd move against China: they can't steal technology and scientific advances from the US if there aren't any to steal.

YZF 6mo ago
Trump's power is not unchecked. He probably doesn't even win the craziest president award. Historical US presidents: Andrew Jackson -> threatened to hang his VP. https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/41212/did-andrew-jackson-threaten-to-kill-the-vice-president https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/41212/did-andrew... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson had meetings while sitting on the toilet: https://historyfacts.com/famous-figures/fact/lyndon-b-johnson-liked-to-conduct-meetings-in-the-bathroom/ https://historyfacts.com/famous-figures/fact/lyndon-b-johnso... Richard Nixon - needs no introductions? https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/13yplux/craziest_president_in_us_history/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/13yplux/crazies... Also remember we had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism and the requirement by Truman that all civil service employees be screened for "loyalty".
- the_why_of_y 6mo ago
  There are now "loyalty tests" for those who apply to positions at the FBI, to be hired you have to state that the "patriots" on Jan. 6 2021 were the rioters attempting a coup, not the Capitol Police defending the constitutional transfer of government power. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/08/trump-administration-job-candidates-loyalty-screening/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/08/... But technically you are correct, of course. Trump never demanded that VP Mike Pence be hanged, the rioters he sent to Congress did.
  - spwa4 6mo ago
    I think the parent post is defending what somewhat older people know to be true. Nixon was far worse than Trump, also betrayed US allies for example. And where it hurts: he effectively stole gold from them. And I'm sure in another 20 years even democrat voters will remember, probably correctly, that Trump was so much better than $us_president_at_that_time.
    - mullingitover 6mo ago
      > Nixon was far worse than Trump Nixon was never credibly accused of sexual assault, never organized a mob of rioters to sack the US capitol, never published tertiary syphilis-coded rants for the world to see in the middle of the night, nearly every night. Nixon had a competent cabinet, some of them even had principles. Nixon's Attorney General was willing to resign on principle for his refusal to fire the special prosecutor. Nixon didn't put his own attorney at the head of the DOJ. I could go on. To be clear: Nixon was a corrupt thug. At the same time he was nowhere near as symptomatic of a national malignant political cancer as Trump has been. Plus there was a congress to keep Nixon in check, we don't have a functioning Congress now, just a department of a political party.

rippeltippel 6mo ago

> the US has a culture of innovation going back maybe hundreds of years Not many hundred, considering the US declaration of independence was in 1776 and there were some adjustment after that. Perhaps some decades?

wolvoleo 6mo ago

> It's hard to predict long term but the US has a culture of innovation going back maybe hundreds of years, it has relative freedom, it has capital to invest, land and resources, and overall it has good people (and crazy people which was always true). Most of the conditions that made the US what it is are still there and most of the conditions that made places like Europe unable to compete are also still there. The US is a lot more diverse than it used to be as well.. It's not all about economy though. I'm much happier living in Southern Europe than I would be in the US with probably 3x the disposable income. I'd never consider living there, really.