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Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

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Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#42
post #23

Google has had no serious innovation in 20 years. Issue the dividend already and stop calling yourself a technology growth company.

google docs as an application of distributed data structures is IMO pretty innovative. I'm not a fan of google but they've done a handful of things since the turn of the millennium.

Also an acquisition, FWIW.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#43
post #12

I saw a "Just Have A Think" YouTube channel video recently describing the 1MV HVDC line being built across China. It is part of Belt&Road infrastructure project and will allow them to distribute excess loads to different time zones without skin effect losses of an AC line. This is a part of their COVID stimulus injection. When American $1.2k per citizen landed in accounts, I remember checking local Walmarts in the we…

And those TVs created a lot of Chinese jobs.

You are downvoted probably because it seemed snarky but I thought it was an interesting point and appreciated it.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#44
post #19

> "America does not have enough people with those skills." Seriously, I feel the US has a big education problem, with part of it being cultural I think. Seems being educated, knowledgeable, having expertise, learning about science and technology, medicine and law, just isn't valued anymore, in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. What I see instead is people pushing for anti-intellectualism and valuing the "…

It's because people being educated has become 'being elite'. Even in our own profession, I find it difficult to communicate with smart people who lack foundational knowledge, falter, ask for help and then ask me how I knew the right answer. I've had more than person tell me that there's no way this was taught at a university (threading, OS knowledge)

The US has always had a big regional divide in skill levels as well as respect for knowledge, with the out-of-the-way places having a problem with both.

The problem is political dynamics meant that the attitudes of the backward parts of the country have actually set policy for quite a while. That benefited American corporations in the short term - lots of CEO probably think for-profit, student-loan-driven education is a great idea. But it's harmed the US and even US corporations as these policies show their longer term results.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#45
post #19

> "America does not have enough people with those skills." Seriously, I feel the US has a big education problem, with part of it being cultural I think. Seems being educated, knowledgeable, having expertise, learning about science and technology, medicine and law, just isn't valued anymore, in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. What I see instead is people pushing for anti-intellectualism and valuing the "…

It's because people being educated has become 'being elite'. Even in our own profession, I find it difficult to communicate with smart people who lack foundational knowledge, falter, ask for help and then ask me how I knew the right answer. I've had more than person tell me that there's no way this was taught at a university (threading, OS knowledge)

I have a BS in CS. 90% of the concurrency I know is self taught, 98% of the I/O I know is self taught , 85% of the networking I know is self taught.

I went to RPI, which is not an ivy school but it is a good engineering school.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#47
post #19

> "America does not have enough people with those skills." Seriously, I feel the US has a big education problem, with part of it being cultural I think. Seems being educated, knowledgeable, having expertise, learning about science and technology, medicine and law, just isn't valued anymore, in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. What I see instead is people pushing for anti-intellectualism and valuing the "…

> in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed.

"Almost" really isn't necessary there anymore. There's a growing group that believes virtually all doctors, scientists, and professionals within certain fields are "in on it" and part of some big conspiracy to do some vague, undefined thing that'll take down America and corrupt their children.

These used to just be a fringe group. Now it feels like about half the people I know are buying into that stuff. Even some college-educated professionals think only their field is valid, and everyone else is part of "them."

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#48
post #32

I saw a "Just Have A Think" YouTube channel video recently describing the 1MV HVDC line being built across China. It is part of Belt&Road infrastructure project and will allow them to distribute excess loads to different time zones without skin effect losses of an AC line. This is a part of their COVID stimulus injection. When American $1.2k per citizen landed in accounts, I remember checking local Walmarts in the we…

Really, you "checked local walmarts" to inventory all their televisions? That's the biggest bunch of horse shit I've ever read, even on HN. According to the government, only 7% of recipients used any part of their stimulus money to buy household items. https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-9/receipt-and-use-of-sti...

I think it remains a valid question though. What if we had handled the unemployment by creating infrastructure jobs instead of universal handouts?

That has the added benefit of increasing the productive output of our economy.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#49
post #19

> "America does not have enough people with those skills." Seriously, I feel the US has a big education problem, with part of it being cultural I think. Seems being educated, knowledgeable, having expertise, learning about science and technology, medicine and law, just isn't valued anymore, in fact it's almost being denigrated and shamed. What I see instead is people pushing for anti-intellectualism and valuing the "…

Part of it is inability to access higher education financially without getting into debt. Part of it is structural because we have forgotten to innovate in education by offering apprenticeship.

Another big part of this is ego. We, collectively, have this massive Murica number 1 ego that we are unable to accept that we actually collectively have started sucking hard. We have elected numbnuts who don't have any desire to improve society and make it an engine of innovation instead of a society divided by issues of the last century.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#50
post #36
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of "follow your heart", "live your dreams" stuff going on around there. I say work a job that pays, and that you can tolerate, then do what you enjoy in your free time.

> I say work a job that pays, and that you can tolerate, then do what you enjoy in your free time. That's not what kids want to hear these days. They want life to be easy, and a big government ready to issue a wide safety net for them if they make bad choices in life. Perpetual childhood.

older generations always think younger generations are completely rotten for some reason
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