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Isn't Sergey by most any measure an outlier however? Using him as anything more than anecdote about immigration isn't really clear thinking, is it?

InclinedPlane 17y ago
Isn't the US itself an outlier? It is both a rare, large immigrant nation and it is the largest first world economy in history. Do people think these are connected by happenstance? "Give me your tired, your poor" "The wretched refuse..." America takes the refuse of the world, and rather than treating it as refuse we give everyone a chance. We put everyone to work and let everyone realize their potential, amortized over millions all those potentials, even the small ones, add up. And we let the outliers that the rest of the world cast away as refuse shine. Carnegie, Einstein, Fermi, so many more. If he had not emigrated to the US in the 30s, John von Neumann may well have ended his life in the mid-40s in a Nazi oven instead of making key contributions to physics and computer science. Let me state this in the clearest possible terms. Prejudice is a losing strategy. You can't predict with any certainty the degree to which someone will succeed or fail in their lives. The best you can do is give damned near everyone an equal chance to PROVE themselves. This is the American model. It is through this method that the many, many outliers tossed away as refuse by the rest of the (judgmental, prejudicial, biased) world come to America and realize their full potential. America is the land where a destitute immigrant or a college dropout can become the richest man in the world (Carnegie & Bill Gates respectively). It's the same sort of "let the doers prove themselves" system that has evolved into the startup world of recent times. It's a damned amazing thing and it's something I'm utterly proud of. Please, all you short-sighted, small-minded, prejudiced people out there who don't realize how this works and want to close off America's borders and gut the goose that lays the golden eggs: DON'T FUCK IT UP!

InclinedPlane 17y ago

Isn't the US itself an outlier? It is both a rare, large immigrant nation and it is the largest first world economy in history. Do people think these are connected by happenstance? "Give me your tired, your poor" "The wretched refuse..." America takes the refuse of the world, and rather than treating it as refuse we give everyone a chance. We put everyone to work and let everyone realize their potential, amortized over millions all those potentials, even the small ones, add up. And we let the outliers that the rest of the world cast away as refuse shine. Carnegie, Einstein, Fermi, so many more. If he had not emigrated to the US in the 30s, John von Neumann may well have ended his life in the mid-40s in a Nazi oven instead of making key contributions to physics and computer science. Let me state this in the clearest possible terms. Prejudice is a losing strategy. You can't predict with any certainty the degree to which someone will succeed or fail in their lives. The best you can do is give damned near everyone an equal chance to PROVE themselves. This is the American model. It is through this method that the many, many outliers tossed away as refuse by the rest of the (judgmental, prejudicial, biased) world come to America and realize their full potential. America is the land where a destitute immigrant or a college dropout can become the richest man in the world (Carnegie & Bill Gates respectively). It's the same sort of "let the doers prove themselves" system that has evolved into the startup world of recent times. It's a damned amazing thing and it's something I'm utterly proud of. Please, all you short-sighted, small-minded, prejudiced people out there who don't realize how this works and want to close off America's borders and gut the goose that lays the golden eggs: DON'T FUCK IT UP!