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Conclusion: "There is plenty of international talent that can and should be leveraged in the appropriate places and the proper ways. There are many instances w

Conclusion: "There is plenty of international talent that can and should be leveraged in the appropriate places and the proper ways. There are many instances where you’re going to want to hire a leading expert in a technical field. But most jobs, the qualifications are a core technical and subject competency combined with diligence and a willingness to learn. [..] We need to encourage a corporate mindset that believes in the importance of building up the American talent pool to tackle not only the challenge in front of them but the array of challenges that the future will bring." Related earlier post by Mark Atwood: https://markatwood.substack.com/p/america-is-an-idea-not-an-economic https://markatwood.substack.com/p/america-is-an-idea-not-an-...

toomuchtodo 24d ago
> We need to encourage a corporate mindset that believes in the importance of building up the American talent pool to tackle not only the challenge in front of them but the array of challenges that the future will bring." YC partner Ankit Gupta: hiring Americans first is DEI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467325 - August 2026 (2 comments) H-1B Middlemen Bring Cheap Labor to Citi, Capital One - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44398978 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44398978 - June 2025 (4 comments) India's Tata Consultancy Was Gaming the US Visa System - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43088906 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43088906 - February 2025 (59 comments) How middlemen are gaming the H-1B program - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41123945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41123945 - July 2024 (57 comments) [https://github.com/BloombergGraphics/2024-h1b-immigration-data https://github.com/BloombergGraphics/2024-h1b-immigration-da...] The Secret Way Silicon Valley Uses the H-1B Program - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-06/silicon-valley-s-h-1b-secret https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-06/silicon-v... | https://archive.today/qffNT https://archive.today/qffNT - June 2017 Ergo, laws will be required to "encourage" the corporate paperclip maximizer apparatus. When did asking nicely ever work? "Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphising the lawnmower."
- skmurphy 24d ago
  “If Something Cannot Go on Forever, It Will Stop.“ Stein's Law
  - toomuchtodo 24d ago
    "The labor market can remain irrational, adverse, and potentially fraudulent longer than you can remain solvent." -- me
  - nkrisc 24d ago
    Of course, but there’s a wide gulf between slamming into a wall at 80mph and gently rolling to a stop. The latter requires foresight and action, however.
    - SpicyLemonZest 24d ago
      I don't think the famously young-skewed tech industry is at any risk of slamming into a wall. If Google finds in 2035 it's running out of good seniors in their 30s because they haven't been mentoring college grads well enough, there'll be plenty of experts in their 50s and 60s to pull back in from management or FIRE or age discrimination.
- chistev 24d ago
  Your ability to consistently cite relevant sources/articles in your comments is impressive to me. It's a sign of a well informed person. Keep it up!
  - toomuchtodo 24d ago
    Thank you for the kind words. I remember everything I’ve ever read, it’s simply how fast I can aggregate links and threads based on keywords from HN search and my internal knowledge base/graph. Objective data, evidence, and facts are important as a shared foundation to discuss upon.
    - 24d ago
glitchc 24d ago
> But most jobs, the qualifications are a core technical and subject competency combined with diligence and a willingness to learn. [..] > We need to encourage a corporate mindset that believes in the importance of building up the American talent pool to tackle not only the challenge in front of them but the array of challenges that the future will bring. It's tough to square this noble thought with what's actually happening in corporate America. The culture of investing in training and mentoring to foster employee growth has been eroding for the past 40 years (if not more), to where it only seems to exist in limited capacity in legacy institutions and is completely absent in new (tech) firms. How does one convince business leaders to bring it back?
- topspin 24d ago
  > How does one convince business leaders to bring it back? There are precisely 1.0 ways to do that: make all of the alternatives more expensive. That's it. Nothing else will move the needle. I don't believe it is possible: every policy one can imagine, short of establishing a GULAG system to compel compliance, has powerful opposing interests, including workers themselves. It would require the sort of comprehensive and sustained focus that a nation aspiring to nearly suicidal liberalism can not deliver.
  - bluGill 24d ago
    Every system I can imagine as a real unintended consequence that is worse than what we have. The ideal should move to needle back - but there is no way to make that happen that isn't worse than where we are now.
- bluGill 24d ago
  When nobody is going to work for the same company for decades what is the point? This is both management's fault for not valuing the people they have (it is very common for cost of living raises to not match inflation or much less increased value as people get better), layoffs; but also workers for looking for a new job (only partially because of the above) when they have one. I think in the ideal world 30-60% of the people who retire from your company should have started there just out of school. Much less than that and you don't get the value of experience built up over time. Much more and you miss out of good ideas others are doing. However there are many ways the world will never be ideal...
nkrisc 24d ago
It’s going to need to be strong “encouragement”, either monetary or regulatory. Because it is advantageous to be the only one who doesn’t invest in it while reaping the benefits from those who do. So very few do.
- bluGill 24d ago
  That is easy to say. You can put it on a political mailing "vote for me and I'll"... However details matter. I've yet to see any detailed proposal that isn't obviously worse than where we are now.

toomuchtodo 24d ago

> We need to encourage a corporate mindset that believes in the importance of building up the American talent pool to tackle not only the challenge in front of them but the array of challenges that the future will bring." YC partner Ankit Gupta: hiring Americans first is DEI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467325 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467325 - August 2026 (2 comments) H-1B Middlemen Bring Cheap Labor to Citi, Capital One - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44398978 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44398978 - June 2025 (4 comments) India's Tata Consultancy Was Gaming the US Visa System - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43088906 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43088906 - February 2025 (59 comments) How middlemen are gaming the H-1B program - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41123945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41123945 - July 2024 (57 comments) [https://github.com/BloombergGraphics/2024-h1b-immigration-data https://github.com/BloombergGraphics/2024-h1b-immigration-da...] The Secret Way Silicon Valley Uses the H-1B Program - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-06/silicon-valley-s-h-1b-secret https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-06/silicon-v... | https://archive.today/qffNT https://archive.today/qffNT - June 2017 Ergo, laws will be required to "encourage" the corporate paperclip maximizer apparatus. When did asking nicely ever work? "Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphising the lawnmower."

skmurphy 24d ago
“If Something Cannot Go on Forever, It Will Stop.“ Stein's Law
- toomuchtodo 24d ago
  "The labor market can remain irrational, adverse, and potentially fraudulent longer than you can remain solvent." -- me
- nkrisc 24d ago
  Of course, but there’s a wide gulf between slamming into a wall at 80mph and gently rolling to a stop. The latter requires foresight and action, however.
  - SpicyLemonZest 24d ago
    I don't think the famously young-skewed tech industry is at any risk of slamming into a wall. If Google finds in 2035 it's running out of good seniors in their 30s because they haven't been mentoring college grads well enough, there'll be plenty of experts in their 50s and 60s to pull back in from management or FIRE or age discrimination.
chistev 24d ago
Your ability to consistently cite relevant sources/articles in your comments is impressive to me. It's a sign of a well informed person. Keep it up!
- toomuchtodo 24d ago
  Thank you for the kind words. I remember everything I’ve ever read, it’s simply how fast I can aggregate links and threads based on keywords from HN search and my internal knowledge base/graph. Objective data, evidence, and facts are important as a shared foundation to discuss upon.
  - 24d ago

glitchc 24d ago

> But most jobs, the qualifications are a core technical and subject competency combined with diligence and a willingness to learn. [..] > We need to encourage a corporate mindset that believes in the importance of building up the American talent pool to tackle not only the challenge in front of them but the array of challenges that the future will bring. It's tough to square this noble thought with what's actually happening in corporate America. The culture of investing in training and mentoring to foster employee growth has been eroding for the past 40 years (if not more), to where it only seems to exist in limited capacity in legacy institutions and is completely absent in new (tech) firms. How does one convince business leaders to bring it back?

topspin 24d ago
> How does one convince business leaders to bring it back? There are precisely 1.0 ways to do that: make all of the alternatives more expensive. That's it. Nothing else will move the needle. I don't believe it is possible: every policy one can imagine, short of establishing a GULAG system to compel compliance, has powerful opposing interests, including workers themselves. It would require the sort of comprehensive and sustained focus that a nation aspiring to nearly suicidal liberalism can not deliver.
- bluGill 24d ago
  Every system I can imagine as a real unintended consequence that is worse than what we have. The ideal should move to needle back - but there is no way to make that happen that isn't worse than where we are now.
bluGill 24d ago
When nobody is going to work for the same company for decades what is the point? This is both management's fault for not valuing the people they have (it is very common for cost of living raises to not match inflation or much less increased value as people get better), layoffs; but also workers for looking for a new job (only partially because of the above) when they have one. I think in the ideal world 30-60% of the people who retire from your company should have started there just out of school. Much less than that and you don't get the value of experience built up over time. Much more and you miss out of good ideas others are doing. However there are many ways the world will never be ideal...

nkrisc 24d ago

It’s going to need to be strong “encouragement”, either monetary or regulatory. Because it is advantageous to be the only one who doesn’t invest in it while reaping the benefits from those who do. So very few do.

bluGill 24d ago
That is easy to say. You can put it on a political mailing "vote for me and I'll"... However details matter. I've yet to see any detailed proposal that isn't obviously worse than where we are now.