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Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

economist.com

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Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#31

Post by moultano »

raverbashing wrote: post #18
NTDF9 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no idea how this administration is systematically pushing family oriented tech people away by creating gridlocks in the legal immigration process.

Well, big companies abusing the system certainly doesn't help. Having ceilings based on a % of company number of employees or some other mechanism would go a long way (or the chance of draw being related to their salary)

Moving to a function of salary instead of a lottery would be an improvement, but not if it is accompanied by a cut in the quota which the Trump admin is reported to want. Bringing people to the US who earn more than the median wage enormously benefits Americans. We've built our economy on a brain drain from the rest of the world and we're making every effort right now to fuck that up.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#32

Post by repolfx »

l8again wrote: post #21
sergefaguet wrote: post #13

another major part of the problem is the entitled, defocused employee culture in silicon valley. generated by the fact that crazy talent competition ensures employees have a huge safety net in the form of big tech. i raise capital in silicon valley. but i do not want to hire people there. i hire amazing engineers in russia at a fraction of the cost and they: - are loyal instead of jumping to new shiny stuff at every…

So, paying competitive is now being "entitled". Engineers have been played for far too long, and this post shows that it isn't over yet. I, for one, am glad that silicon valley is going the right direction in terms of the total comp for engineers, which has been kept artificially low until facebook came to the scene.

He didn't actually say that he was thinking of high pay in respect to being 'entitled'. There are lots of other ways SV based workforces show this characteristic, e.g. the constant complaints about the exact nature of the free food I saw when I was at Google.

Whilst the no-poach agreements were wrong, I don't think comp was kept artificially low in the way you mean. What drives up comp in the valley at the moment is the existence of companies that make tons of money but have voting, share structures and cultures that don't incentivise them to return any to investors. The combination of huge profits, endless vanity hiring and no dividends or share buybacks is fairly new and it's not clear to me it's a good trend. I don't believe Facebook, Google or Twitter actually need all those engineers they're hiring.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#33

Post by repolfx »

electic wrote: post #7
imrelaxed wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m confused. There is almost no rhetoric against legal and/or qualified immigration, just the illegal kind.

You're kidding? There is more and more rhetoric being spewed relating to the legal kind as well. There is even policy being enacted to drastically cut down or make it very hard to gain legal status by burying you with paperwork. Beyond immigration talk, the constant spewing of racism coming from the administrations is a clear signal that immigrants of different backgrounds are not wanted. To that end, they simply pac…

There has always been pressure against H1Bs in the US tech industry. The one time I tried to immigrate to the valley there the visa cap was hit and I couldn't go (no regrets though). For my whole life I've seen American talk about immigration = outsourcing = lower wages. It's not new and it's not based in racism but rather money.

As for Trump, he is only talking about illegal immigration. Nobody with an engineering degree is going to care about his views on immigration, they may even welcome them because Trump apparently (I did not know this until reading the sibling links) wants to move to merit based immigration instead of a lottery scheme, which would help high skilled workers.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#34

Post by repolfx »

arcticbull wrote: post #12
weiming wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Beyond immigration talk, the constant spewing... Curious to see some examples cited.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/04/06/poli... https://www.aclu-wa.org/pages/timeline-muslim-ban https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/01/11/politics/immigrants-shith... https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/537012/ What more evidence do you need?

I clicked the first link.

I feel a strange need to show fairness to Trump here. The CNN headline is very misleading, it says "Trump basically called Mexicans rapists again" but then goes on to quote him and the quote doesn't contain any such statement. He doesn't even mention Mexicans. Rather he makes a general statement that women get raped a lot on the paths used for illegal immigration into the USA, a statement CNN actually agrees with according to their article:

"Nobody is arguing that the trip from Central America to the US is easy or that women are not attacked or exploited on it. That is a well-documented problem, one that Trump brought up to bolster his own case for tougher immigration laws."

Trump expressing concern about abuse of women on the paths used by illegal immigrants is an odd form of 'racism'.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#35

Post by scarface74 »

sergefaguet wrote: post #13

another major part of the problem is the entitled, defocused employee culture in silicon valley. generated by the fact that crazy talent competition ensures employees have a huge safety net in the form of big tech. i raise capital in silicon valley. but i do not want to hire people there. i hire amazing engineers in russia at a fraction of the cost and they: - are loyal instead of jumping to new shiny stuff at every…

are loyal instead of jumping to new shiny stuff at every opportunity. - have skin in the game

Why do companies expect “loyalty” beyond the employer gives the employee a paycheck and the employee works X number of hours per week, doesn’t try to compete with the employer while at the company, and doesn’t steal IP?

Does the employee have an ownership stake in the company? If not, the only “skin in the game” they have is will they get paid next week.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#36

Post by az123zaz »

linguae wrote: post #23
chosenbreed wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and lifestyle-wise the bay area is just unpleasant. aggressive homeless people. abysmal dating environment. awful traffic. Mmm...could you elaborate on the abysmal dating environment? :-)

I'm not the original poster, but I'll respond (disclaimer: I'm a single male, about to turn 30 in a few months, who lives near Silicon Valley): 1. Single men vastly outnumber single women in Silicon Valley due to the unfortunate gender demographics of the tech industry, making for a very competitive dating environment for single men. 2. Due to the Bay Area's high housing prices, single people living in the Bay Area w…

Come to NYC!

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#37

Post by nl »

linguae wrote: post #23
chosenbreed wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and lifestyle-wise the bay area is just unpleasant. aggressive homeless people. abysmal dating environment. awful traffic. Mmm...could you elaborate on the abysmal dating environment? :-)

I'm not the original poster, but I'll respond (disclaimer: I'm a single male, about to turn 30 in a few months, who lives near Silicon Valley): 1. Single men vastly outnumber single women in Silicon Valley due to the unfortunate gender demographics of the tech industry, making for a very competitive dating environment for single men. 2. Due to the Bay Area's high housing prices, single people living in the Bay Area w…

Try Sydney. Similar in lots of ways to California, good tech scene, and much better gender balance.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#38

Post by awucs »

l8again wrote: post #21
sergefaguet wrote: post #13

another major part of the problem is the entitled, defocused employee culture in silicon valley. generated by the fact that crazy talent competition ensures employees have a huge safety net in the form of big tech. i raise capital in silicon valley. but i do not want to hire people there. i hire amazing engineers in russia at a fraction of the cost and they: - are loyal instead of jumping to new shiny stuff at every…

So, paying competitive is now being "entitled". Engineers have been played for far too long, and this post shows that it isn't over yet. I, for one, am glad that silicon valley is going the right direction in terms of the total comp for engineers, which has been kept artificially low until facebook came to the scene.

I don't like words like "entitled". But at least as an outsider the "compensation environment" in Silicon Valley doesn't seem ideal at all. Realistically pay isn't just about appreciation, but being driven up by things like living costs. Which means that your de facto compensation is largely determined by your position in the housing market. Which is post tax no less.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#39

Post by alexpetralia »

sergefaguet wrote: post #13

another major part of the problem is the entitled, defocused employee culture in silicon valley. generated by the fact that crazy talent competition ensures employees have a huge safety net in the form of big tech. i raise capital in silicon valley. but i do not want to hire people there. i hire amazing engineers in russia at a fraction of the cost and they: - are loyal instead of jumping to new shiny stuff at every…

This is exactly why I left a quantitative trading company in NYC and moved to Poland for software engineering talent. This certainly baffled my coworkers.

More and more companies will eventually recognize the talent abroad is how you want to supply your business, while the market demand you want will still remain in the U.S.

Re: Silicon Valley is changing, and its lead over other tech hubs narrowing

#40

Post by veebat »

linguae wrote: post #26
GuiA wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point #4 will be magnified to the extreme in Tokyo.

Interestingly enough, back when I lived in Tokyo, I seemed to get more attention from women there than I ever did in California, whether it was the Central Valley, the Bay Area, or the Central Coast. But I was pining for someone back at home while I was on my internship (spoiler alert: I was rejected as soon as I returned home), and so I ignored the attention I received. This has nothing to do with the dating scene,…

That really speaks to the horrors of America, given that in Japan, as a white male foreigner with command of "hai", "arigato" and on good days, "ah, so desu ne", I definitely got the sense of being put up with - albeit more so in Tokyo than elsewhere.

But at the same time I can sympathize in that street interactions in California have grown openly hostile across the board. The level of polite hospitality is so low and paranoia so high that it is actually hard to go outside and do business without ending up in a confrontation of some kind. Just the other week I was crossing the street in SF after seeing a movie[1] and a lady(a white lady) crossing the other direction gave me the finger and screamed "fuck you, fuck you" for no reason I could fathom.

We passed, and then I had a feeling of deja vu and thought, "didn't that happen the last time I saw a movie here too? Does this woman just go around in the evening cursing out strangers for self-care?"

And that is the kind of thing that sounds dreadfully believable for SF these days. The privilege spares me from most avenues of material loss, but that's hardly something to be proud of.

[1] The film was Sorry to Bother You, if it matters. I enjoyed it

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