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Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

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Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#81

Post by olalonde »

wkoszek wrote: post #58
hal9000xp wrote: post #10

I actually think there is a possibility that it could be easier to get into US as highly skilled migrant under Trump presidency because of his anti-immigrant polities. If he raises a minimum income bar for H1B to 150K and keep the same cap, then it would be much less qualified applicants for H1B visas and therefore there would not be cap overflow with annoying lottery process. Of course, I can't predict what Trump is…

You confuse skill with high salary. If you're a part of HN community and work for a startup with some seed funding, good luck with (a) finding people (b) paying them $150k. Not sure how you the want government to evaluate chemical, mechanical, aerospace etc. engineers. Right now it's formal education, since I think it's hard to do it objectively otherwise. For software engineers you expected USCIS will look at our ..…

> You confuse skill with high salary.

Skill is too difficult to define objectively and it's probably not what you should be discriminating on anyways (in a purely economic sense).

What you need to go for is "valuable" (scarce and in demand) engineers and salary is a decent proxy for that (more so than formal education). You also don't want the government to "evaluate" engineers because doing a good job at that would mean, pretty much by definition, selecting the very same engineers companies elect to hire.

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#82

Post by jedberg »

android521 wrote: post #21
simple10 wrote: post #3

That Peter Thiel is really good at picking winners and disruption.

let's hope that Peter Thiel can use his influence to do some good and not just for himself.

Why would he? He's a hardcore Libertarian. His core philosophy is "do good for myself and the world will be better".

The only way he'll help anyone else is if their interests happened to be aligned with his.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the guy (barring recent endorsements) but you have to understand where his philosophical basis is.

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#83

Post by grandalf »

It probably means very little. A president does not really have the power to make significant change. It happens with collusion from congress and apathy from the public.

The Silicon Valley outcry about Trump was mostly a social signal intended to make people seem enlightened -- how enlightened does one really have to be to be disappointed a presidential candidate makes rude/racist remarks?

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#84

Post by tajen »

willvarfar wrote: post #17
edblarney wrote: post #12

I predict that not that much will change WRT valley issues. His bombastic statements were populist, I don't see anything on the policy agenda that seems it will hit the Valley in any meaningful way. Even if there are some trade-barbs with China ... the Valley doesn't export much there ...

American tech manufacturing is outsourced to Asia, right? Will a trade war with China, for example, impact gadget production and raise costs and lower demand for the gadgets that the valley produces and profits from? If there are trade-barbs with China then I would expect that to hit the valley hard.

Low factory jobs may come back to US, hopefull with better pay than in China and selling gadgets at a higher price point, while China starts focussing on producing for their own population. I look at this quite optimistically, as it makes end-user price closer to the real cost of production, and it makes production local which brings the concerns for extremely-poor workers closer to the consumer.

In other words, no-one cared for Chinese slaving away, but reimporting those jobs and having Americans factory workers in the same indecent position may trigger more empathy, or at least more health/education budget is available to cater for them. Maybe we'll even charge 10x for IoT gadgets (or kid games, or Ikea lamps), so that workers get a decent situation. It will hit the Valley hard, but only startups who distribute moderately useful gadgets that rely on the poverty of the Chinese workforce.

Maybe it will go as far as paying the Macbook price for a PC, but that's ok if workers get proper working conditions.

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#85

Post by andygates »

grandalf wrote: post #83

It probably means very little. A president does not really have the power to make significant change. It happens with collusion from congress and apathy from the public. The Silicon Valley outcry about Trump was mostly a social signal intended to make people seem enlightened -- how enlightened does one really have to be to be disappointed a presidential candidate makes rude/racist remarks?

With the same party wearing all three hats, the chance of change is increased.

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#86

Post by Const-me »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #40
hal9000xp wrote: post #10

I actually think there is a possibility that it could be easier to get into US as highly skilled migrant under Trump presidency because of his anti-immigrant polities. If he raises a minimum income bar for H1B to 150K and keep the same cap, then it would be much less qualified applicants for H1B visas and therefore there would not be cap overflow with annoying lottery process. Of course, I can't predict what Trump is…

H1B allows for work experience to substitute for formal college degrees. It's easier to demonstrate competency with the degree but it is not compulsory: > The nature of the specific duties is so specialized and complex that the knowledge required to perform the duties is usually associated with the attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree. > education, specialized training, and/or progressively responsible experie…

In practice, American companies who hire foreigners on H1B don’t bother.

I’m guessing, evaluating a university diploma is a well-known routine. Proofing that work experience counts as equivalent is less common, and hence unknown to the lawyers/accountants who do that paperwork.

If you don’t have an education but are exceptionally talented, O-1 “Extraordinary Ability” might be easier than H1B.

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#87

Post by alexmlamb2 »

wkoszek wrote: post #58
hal9000xp wrote: post #10

I actually think there is a possibility that it could be easier to get into US as highly skilled migrant under Trump presidency because of his anti-immigrant polities. If he raises a minimum income bar for H1B to 150K and keep the same cap, then it would be much less qualified applicants for H1B visas and therefore there would not be cap overflow with annoying lottery process. Of course, I can't predict what Trump is…

You confuse skill with high salary. If you're a part of HN community and work for a startup with some seed funding, good luck with (a) finding people (b) paying them $150k. Not sure how you the want government to evaluate chemical, mechanical, aerospace etc. engineers. Right now it's formal education, since I think it's hard to do it objectively otherwise. For software engineers you expected USCIS will look at our ..…

I would advocate for using standardized test scores. If you're a smart dropout, even high school dropout, you could take the tests within just a few weeks.

Perhaps there does need to be some kind of flexibility for people who are not native English speakers. For example, a very high math score should be able to compensate for low verbal scores.

Using degrees seems like the worst possible option, since the standards are so low these days, and the trend is for the standards to go even lower.

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#89

Post by croon »

rurban wrote: post #52
sjm wrote: post #5

I'd guess it will be a harder sell to get software developers in Europe, Australia, NZ, etc. to move to the US.

Actually it will be easier. I was very worried about a Clinton, but with Trump I hope for more legality and fairness in the processes. And the visa caps may get raised, so less cheap workers will flood the quotas, and more good devs will have a chance. The Trump bashing in Europe was evil though. As they preferred to have another criminal presidency, with enough leverage on them to blackmail them on everything. As it…

So you elected a politically inexperienced criminal instead. Brilliant.

Re: Ask HN: POTUS Donald Trump; What this means to Silicon Valley

#90

Post by spiderfarmer »

phmagic wrote: post #75
spiderfarmer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US will be moving backwards in a lot of areas.

Many would rejoice in the fact that is actually moving. Backwards and forwards to many in this election is a matter of opinion.

In countries outside of the US, the opinion seems to be almost unanimously that the US is moving backwards.

From what I hear, people expect the US to be:

- A lot less friendly place for women, people of color and other minorities.

- Preferring hateful rhetoric.

- Dismissing scientific facts.

- Bankrupting the less fortunate that need healthcare.

- Enlarging the divide between rich and poor, via tax cuts for the rich.

- Less friendly to fellow NATO members, trade partners, neighbors.

I don't know how anyone can read this and see this as a progression.

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