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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

#511

Post by readarticle »

romanoderoma wrote: post #436
adventured wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As for innovation? US isn't even top 10 when it comes to Nobel prize per capita Your per capita list is an epic compliment to the US. The fact that the US is #15 per capita is extraordinary, given your list is comparing the US to top ten countries like East Timor, Saint Lucia, Luxembourg and Iceland, where if you get one or two you leap ahead of the entire world. Among large population nations, only the UK and Germ…

> extraordinary, given your list is comparing the US to top ten countries like East Timor, Saint Lucia, Luxembourg and Iceland Compare that with the resources available and it will look much less extraordinary It is extraordinary that countries with much less resources, much less competition and orders of magnitude smaller pool of talents to chose from (4 orders of magnitude in the case of Iceland, East Timor and Lux…

for a grand total of 103 Nobel prizes won by US citizens*

Meaning not only does the US outperform in Nobel laureates as a massive nation at a per capita level, it’s simultaneously attracting even more.

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

#512

Post by fiblye »

krick wrote: post #181
fiblye wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 peo…

I mean, it is hard to reason with you on your opinion, since anybody who doesn't echo what you say would be just classified by you as a member of this group and his opinion automatically dismissed. And this wouldn't even make you doubt yourself, since "half the people you know are buying into that stuff" already and you seem to be pretty confident that it is them who are fools buying into some cheap nonsense, not you…

Doctors on average know more about medical subjects than non-doctors. Engineers generally know more about engineering than non-engineers. Climate scientists know more about what’s going on with the climate than non-climate scientists.

Facebook-educated woke people who think everyone is just some con man and they know more than them are simply people with too much confidence. Laying evidence out in front of them will only make them angry or mock it because it collided with their world views instilled by clownery they saw on TV or from equally “woke” people.

Are doctors wrong sometimes? Of course. Are some particularly bad doctors wrong a lot of the time? Yes. Are a massive group of doctors out there “hiding the truth” and people with no formal education have the real solutions, but their answers are being suppressed? No.

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

#513

Post by Balgair »

jnathsf wrote: post #209
lgleason wrote: post #69

"This high skills immigration is crucial to American competitiveness, global competitiveness, building these new companies and so forth," he said. "America does not have enough people with those skills." Translation -- US software engineer salaries are still too high for his liking, so he wants to dilute the market with more to lower the overall cost.

That’s the cynical perspective. The flip side is that the US has traditionally attracted the best talent in the world. This class has gone on to win the most Nobel prizes and create the most valuable companies in the world. Focusing on a real negative externality (labor arbitrage) fails to recognize the immense benefits skilled immigrants bring to this country. I’m a son if one of them. My dad came this country in th…

> That’s the cynical perspective.

Google under Eric Schmidt literally colluded with other large SV companies to depress wages. There was a court case, it was a big deal, ~$400M was paid out over it.

""I believe we have a policy of no recruiting from Apple and this is a direct inbound request. Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening? I will need to send a response back to Apple quickly so please let me know as soon as you can. Thanks Eric". Schmidt's email led to a recruiter for Google being "terminated within the hour" for not having adhered to the illegal scheme."

It's not cynical, it's true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt#Role_in_illegal_n...

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

#514

Post by monkeydreams »

88840-8855 wrote: post #248
fvdessen wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was still not that long ago an incredible amount of innovative companies and products in Europe. But at that time companies were still built for their home markets first and on that regard the USA is big and unified. Since software is mostly winner takes all it means that when the USA companies came to Europe they had already won the USA and could steamroll the local competition There is for example no way a sw…

I like your points and agree on your conclusion. Further, I would like to add a few ideas: - innovation in Europe can only scale if we achieve a higher degree of unity in Europe, including one common language, one common jurisdiction and law framework. Localization is just too expensive in Europe and hinders scaling. - a certain degree of protectionism is good. I am a big fan of how China made it. They have a really…

I just want to say you articulated the difficulty with innovating in the European market very well.

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

#515

Post by specialist »

R0b0t1 wrote: post #499
galimaufry wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US higher ed already is a public service. Only 25% of students are in private colleges/universities, and ~every professor who does research is funded mostly by government. I believe that what's actually happening with US higher ed supply is that we stopped founding large research universities. Many of the great public schools were endowed using federal land[1] and eventually the government ran out of valuable agricul…

The institutions themselves are mixed and the student funding is also mixed but can lean towards private, especially if you are not a first pick for higher ed but are still capable. In non-US locations there can be no private funding option. Student tuition has replaced a lot of government funding. As we can see it has gone to administrative spending. Do you think new unis would fix that?

I was staff (vs faculty) for a public uni. It was understood that all state funding would eventually go away, effectively making it a private uni. I'd have to look up the numbers, but state funding went from 80% in the 1970s down to 10% in the 2010s.

Obviously, rising administrative overhead is due to cost disease, and misc adjacent theories, like Graeber's bullshit jobs).

But I haven't seen anyone discuss the corollary of "keeping up appearances". Parents now spending ~$3,000 per credit hour (non-resident) have high expectations. Better housing, better food, better amenities, responsive office staff, etc. All that cruise ship caliber fluff needs that much more bureaucracy.

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

#516

Post by Nasrudith »

puranjay wrote: post #348
fvdessen wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was still not that long ago an incredible amount of innovative companies and products in Europe. But at that time companies were still built for their home markets first and on that regard the USA is big and unified. Since software is mostly winner takes all it means that when the USA companies came to Europe they had already won the USA and could steamroll the local competition There is for example no way a sw…

Europe isn't able to compete with American tech salaries, plain and simple. American tech salaries, on the other hand, are inflated by exaggerated tech stock valuations.

I believe it is not /willing/ to as opposed to not able to judging by GDP per capitia.

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

#517

Post by Nasrudith »

captainredbeard wrote: post #352
puranjay wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe isn't able to compete with American tech salaries, plain and simple. American tech salaries, on the other hand, are inflated by exaggerated tech stock valuations.

> American tech salaries, on the other hand, are inflated by exaggerated tech stock valuations How does a company’s stock price affect salaries? Companies only receive capitalization (via stock) at IPO. Stock market valuations do enable higher total comp through RSUs / options.

At best very indirectly by having to compete with "lotto tickets" in theory for start ups and total compensation but in practice not really since the sensible default financial assumption when factoring in equity stake at a random start up is "worth $0 because it will probably fail".

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

#518

Post by Nasrudith »

fastball wrote: post #281
gigatexal wrote: post #230

Xenophobia and nationalism sure don't help. We used to import the smartest most capable people from all across the world to develop and market their inventions and ideas and maybe even become rich in the process. Now, not so much.

Eh, I'm actually not sure it's that simple. Something tells me the modern left (which generally isn't seen as xenophobic or nationalistic) would not take very kindly to the importation of Nazi rocket scientists in [current year].

The number of Nazi rocket scientests is also truly negligible in 2020 unlike the 1940s.

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

#519

Post by romanoderoma »

readarticle wrote: post #511
romanoderoma wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> extraordinary, given your list is comparing the US to top ten countries like East Timor, Saint Lucia, Luxembourg and Iceland Compare that with the resources available and it will look much less extraordinary It is extraordinary that countries with much less resources, much less competition and orders of magnitude smaller pool of talents to chose from (4 orders of magnitude in the case of Iceland, East Timor and Lux…

for a grand total of 103 Nobel prizes won by US citizens* Meaning not only does the US outperform in Nobel laureates as a massive nation at a per capita level, it’s simultaneously attracting even more .

You have to understand two things

- as Mark Kastner said "these prizes are a lagging indicator. They show us what we were doing right decades ago"

- Much of the research that lead Joachim Frank, a German born chemist, to win the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2017 took place in Europe and it was based on base research that took place outside of the US. The trio who was appointed was formed by Jacques Dubochet from Switzerland, Richard Henderson from Scotland and Frank from Germany. Frank was affiliated with US institutions when he was nominated, hence the prize has been claimed by US. They are basically buying Nobel prize winners post facto.

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

#520

Post by scarface74 »

jen20 wrote: post #506
scarface74 wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T-mobile’s standard plans include 3G roaming for data and calls(?) in Canada and Mexico and 2G data roaming in most other countries. You can also get a $5 “day pass” for 3G data and calls in most countries. As an aside, their rate plans are all inclusive no extra taxes or fees.

I'm aware - but Google Fi offers 4G roaming at no extra charge across a much wider range of countries (importantly for me, most of Europe).

It is an “extra charge”. Don’t you pay for every gigabyte of data that you use? It’s all bundled with T-Mobile. What’s the advantage of that over just getting another sim while you’re out of the country? Especially now with e-Sims being a thing.
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