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I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

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Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#61

Post by tonyedgecombe »

agent008t wrote: post #53
mvc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And therefore, why cannot the UK fund PhDs more effectively than the EU? I always assumed the whole raison d'etre of Brexit was that Conservatives wanted to avoid the obligation of paying into funds like this. Sounds lovely in theory but leaves less government money available to companies with social/professional connections to the cabinet. Funny to see the red wallers finally realizing that too now.

I still think the whole divide over Brexit was less about the principle of it, but more about whether you are more aligned with the current EU political leanings or with those of the current UK ones (reflected in its Tory leadership). If you are more aligned with the EU political leanings, you would want them to be able to force the UK government to do what you believe is the right thing. If you are more aligned with…

I'm doubtful about that. For one thing large amounts of left wing areas voted for Brexit including Wales as a whole. Also the Tory leadership at the time was pro-remain whereas the Labour leadership was lukewarm at best.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#63

Post by NetBeck »

There's EU draft regulation regarding AI utilization. Prohibited AI would be described as, "...systems or applications that manipulate human behaviour in order to circumvent the free will of the users."[0]

[0] https://www.ey.com/en_ch/ai/eu-draft-regulation-on-artificia...

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#64

Post by an9n »

agent008t wrote: post #53
mvc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And therefore, why cannot the UK fund PhDs more effectively than the EU? I always assumed the whole raison d'etre of Brexit was that Conservatives wanted to avoid the obligation of paying into funds like this. Sounds lovely in theory but leaves less government money available to companies with social/professional connections to the cabinet. Funny to see the red wallers finally realizing that too now.

I still think the whole divide over Brexit was less about the principle of it, but more about whether you are more aligned with the current EU political leanings or with those of the current UK ones (reflected in its Tory leadership). If you are more aligned with the EU political leanings, you would want them to be able to force the UK government to do what you believe is the right thing. If you are more aligned with…

Regardless of the left/right false dichotomy, if either the EU, national governments thereof, or the UK were to start looking after their electorates' interests rather than doing the bidding of faceless globalist puppet-masters, it would be a start.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#65

Post by fmajid »

iso1210 wrote: post #33
KaiserPro wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London does sales well, if you want a sales office you open it in london. What it doesn't do well is spaff money indiscriminately at any old idiot with an idea. Even less so to someone with a crap idea. Despite the article author's claim, most of the startups in the generation that I joined (2018+) have focused on getting a decent business model, rather than hyper growth above all else. They also had to do much more…

> What it doesn't do well is spaff money indiscriminately at any old idiot with an idea. That's what government's for

No, the UK government requires you to have no clue (but be chums with a minister or Tory MP) before it spaffs torrents of money your way.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#66

Post by an9n »

Not particularly convinced about the Brexit angle or the comments on sales - for example, you can bet that The City has some highly aggressive salesmen/women given its status. But from my perspective Europe suffers from a problem of culture - there is seriously old money here and, I'd assert, a related, outdated zero-sum/dog in the manger mentality. Anything like FAANG, Tesla, SpaceX etc that seriously threatens to disrupt the status quo is either stillborn, strangled at birth or shortly thereafter as this guild's dead hand does its work.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#67

Post by brianmcc »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #43

Sounds like the author is upset that Brexit has closed the valve on the pipeline of cheap labour from EU workers. There's no shortage of talent in London trust me, it's just that you're going to have to start paying more than a pittance to get it. Brexit so far has been a positive thing for tech workers' salaries.

"cheap EU labour" tends to apply more to fruit pickers than AI PhDs I suspect

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#68

Post by aigo »

SassyThrowaway wrote: post #47
aigo wrote: post #5

> Almost my entire R&D team who received PhDs from British universities had them funded by the European Union Well, there you go.

I did not understand that point at all. The author writes: "The loss of this funding and scientific exchange is a major loss for British and European academia — and innovative companies who need to hire the best scientific and technical talent." But what is it exactly that the UK lost [funding-wise, science-wise] due to Brexit?

The quote in my post about funding can no longer happen. The EU only funds research at EU universities, and UK universities aren't that any more.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#69

Post by aigo »

maccard wrote: post #58
agent008t wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was the UK not a net contributor to the EU budget? And therefore, why cannot the UK fund PhDs more effectively than the EU? I would've thought being less removed from the universities and research groups would make funding more effective.

That was the suggestion that was made to many industries and regions, yes. In reality it seems that those funding sources are not being met, e.g. Cornwall [0] and the red wall [1] [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-55279468 [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-levell...

The top-rated comment on this FT article [0] spells it out really quite clearly.

English regions used to receive funds of £1 billion a year from the EU regeneration fund for poor regions with the final year om 2018 the final figure being £1.12bn of the £8.4 billion total over the seven year period.

For 2018, this worked out to be Midlands (£190m), Yorkshire (£143m), Cornwall (£95m), the north west (£88m) and the north east (£80m).

Now this figure of £1.12bn (£8.4 billion over the seven year budget) has been cut to £220m for 2021-22 and £3.6bn in total for the same period.

[0] https://www.ft.com/content/eb56347b-42bb-4c56-906a-2ea24bd54...

p.s the comments section on the FT is probably the best on the internet, apart from maybe here

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#70

Post by SassyThrowaway »

aigo wrote: post #68
SassyThrowaway wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not understand that point at all. The author writes: "The loss of this funding and scientific exchange is a major loss for British and European academia — and innovative companies who need to hire the best scientific and technical talent." But what is it exactly that the UK lost [funding-wise, science-wise] due to Brexit?

The quote in my post about funding can no longer happen. The EU only funds research at EU universities, and UK universities aren't that any more.

Historically, Israeli computer scientists have been able to apply and win ERC grants. That said, I have not checked if anything has changed for the UK in this regard, hence why I am curious.
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