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Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

businessinsider.com

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Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#151

Post by zjaffee »

natalyarostova wrote: post #94
curiousllama wrote: post #31

This will fail not because it's a bad idea, but because the government will reject it. Contrary to popular belief, established universities do a very effective job of preparing tech talent for government jobs. The issues, which Schmidt seems to miss, are twofold: (1) the government, with few exceptions, is a TERRIBLE place to build effective tech skills. Slow, heavily outsourced, bureaucratic beyond belief, and low p…

Classic modern HN comment. The hard working person with a history of success who is trying a risky ambitious project will fail, because they didn't consider the few things a commentor instantly spotted as problems.

Except in the world of education there's been a substantial amount of people without their own direct experience in the field who've put out claims that they can materially change things when they have been completely unable to do so time and time again.

I do see value for an institution described as such in this post, but much more on the research side of things with a secondary focus on should a new branch of the military be established to focus specifically on cyber issues, such an institution could become valuable in the same vain as something like west point.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#152

Post by afuchs »

brlewis wrote: post #50
ghaff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could argue that we could use better schools or schools that have more of a focus on subjects needed by a modern workforce. But there's no real shortage of colleges and universities. Yes, existing universities come with lots of legacy entanglements (which can be good as well as bad) but for the most part you're probably better off investing in those schools than tearing down and starting from scratch on a prairie…

When a school rejects qualified applicants because there are too many, doesn't that indicate a shortage of that kind of school?

There may be a problem once you look at the social and economic structures that encourage students to apply to these schools.

For schools, like Harvard and Yale, isn't a large part of the value they provide to students derived from the school's network of alumnus and the prestige the school's name holds? If so, don't these schools derive a large part of the value they offer from their exclusivity?

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#153

Post by djKianoosh »

vmception wrote: post #143
Shebanator wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who in Silicon Valley thinks that? I've never heard anyone say it in my 30+ years here (until now).

Allow me to rephrase, people believe the NSA has superior technology with mystical capabilities. Who do you think that develops that stuff, where do those people come from?

contractors

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#154

Post by bumby »

vmception wrote: post #143
Shebanator wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who in Silicon Valley thinks that? I've never heard anyone say it in my 30+ years here (until now).

Allow me to rephrase, people believe the NSA has superior technology with mystical capabilities. Who do you think that develops that stuff, where do those people come from?

To be fair, I think the general opinion is they are created by private contractors with government oversight

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#155

Post by [deleted] »

vmception wrote: post #143
Shebanator wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who in Silicon Valley thinks that? I've never heard anyone say it in my 30+ years here (until now).

Allow me to rephrase, people believe the NSA has superior technology with mystical capabilities. Who do you think that develops that stuff, where do those people come from?

[deleted]

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#156

Post by zjaffee »

x87678r wrote: post #64
jonwachob91 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything in the world can be measured by pay. Sure, an FBI Criminal Profiler earns a tiny fraction of what a google dev earns. But one can take serial killers off the street, and the other just makes ads more annoying. A Social Worker earns almost nothing, but they get to help the most needy of people get the help they need. A FB engineer earns 10x the pay, but just makes ads more annoying. A teacher earns almo…

I completely agree. Just the headline I didn't agree with. Universities for teaching, social work, fbi profilers will never be as prestigious as those where you can get trained to earn millions.

Except that isn't explicitly true. West point and the navel academy are some of the most prestigious universities in the entire country.

The fundamental difference between these things lies in the fact that a lot of government work comes with higher levels of responsibility and ownership in terms of the way in which you want to do your job.

There's tremendous demand to join things like the US foreign service officer program because as these people move though their career, there's basically an unwritten promise that they will have a legitimate impact on US state department policy for the countries they work in. Something that will only really ever be true in the world of government enterprise software work if you're the PM.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#157

Post by TheCoelacanth »

natalyarostova wrote: post #94
curiousllama wrote: post #31

This will fail not because it's a bad idea, but because the government will reject it. Contrary to popular belief, established universities do a very effective job of preparing tech talent for government jobs. The issues, which Schmidt seems to miss, are twofold: (1) the government, with few exceptions, is a TERRIBLE place to build effective tech skills. Slow, heavily outsourced, bureaucratic beyond belief, and low p…

Classic modern HN comment. The hard working person with a history of success who is trying a risky ambitious project will fail, because they didn't consider the few things a commentor instantly spotted as problems.

You could flip it around and say that the commenter is the exact type of person that Schmidt needs to sell on this idea for it to be a success (people who would study tech and then go work for the government) and they aren't buying it.

Schmidt failed to consider the perspective of one of the key stakeholders in the area he's trying to change. His idea would get laughed out of the room if he wasn't already a billionaire.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#158

Post by MR4D »

mturmon wrote: post #144
pb7 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very odd statement indeed. I have never heard anything even remotely corroborating this. In fact (highly anecdotally, take it as entertainment at best), I have read that public opinion holds NSA's technical capabilities in high esteem but in reality, the talent is vastly below that of the top consumer tech companies because most tech employees would never contribute to the type of work the government does.

I hear you, and appreciate your caveat ("highly anecdotally"). But consider a couple of data points: -- KH-11 satellite, and presumed successors -- Stuxnet -- Utah data center ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center ) -- The rather enormous intelligence budget that allows all kinds of creativity The above indicates that there must be some corners of these agencies that are extremely technically skilled, and…

You should have ended your post with "".

Pretty hard to argue with that list.

A friend of mine (who went to NMSU) worked for NASA. He wrote the code that determined what angle the solar panels need to be at to get the right amount of sun to power the ISS. Crazy number of edge cases, and people die if you have a bug.

Was pretty impressive to hear the things he had to do and the processes they had for minimizing the risk of someone dying. I'd put that on par with many things, too (although Stuxnet has its own place for genuflection).

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#160

Post by tehlike »

jason0597 wrote: post #65
tehlike wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the other just makes ads more annoying" The meme that never dies. Advertising funded tons of tons of businesses on apps and on web, employed hundreds of thousands directly and created a large economy. Disclaimer: Former google, current facebook employee, working in ads.

The US army also employs hundreds of thousands. Does that mean it's good to pump so much money into it and keep it that strong?

Depends on who you ask. The general us population owes its army their way of life, quality of life, and wealth.
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