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UK's hardware talent is being wasted

josef.cn

301–310 of 1001 posts

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#301
The problem I see in the UK is a lack of hubs. I wrote to the Department for Levelling Up when it was a thing.

Finance has done well in the UK due to London and having a significant number of firms in a single place. I can get a new job for a different company, doing a similar thing, in the same building.

How does that work for any other industry in the UK?

Its no wonder that wages haven't risen when moving job also requires you to move house/schools/away from friends and family.

We need the government to get involved and create regional hubs for different industries and really facilitate giving them everything they need. Address transport, power concerns, housing, labour and education requirements. The government is in a far better place to be able to influence across all these requirements.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#302
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk about the Netherlands, but in France you can take your unemployment benefits for 3 years upfront as a capital investment in a new business. And there are various grants and aid you can apply for.

Can you get unemployment if you quit? Annoyingly, in 20 years of working I've never been fired or laid off.

I think recently there's been a change which says that you can if you start a new company right away. But do check with an accountant for the inevitable pitfalls.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#303
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it’s not necessarily a good thing. In Europe we are traditionalists and we retain a lot of spirit (Geist) by not striving for pure progress

Yes, there are advantages of a stable and well functioning systems that don't have disruptors and we indeed benefit of it as having good lives but unfortunately this can't last as those who go hard on progress and tear down everything and rebuilding again will eventually get ahead on everything and won't let us just be as we now see with US billionaires having impact over Europe. Americans feel more pain but are also…

> unfortunately this can't last as those who go hard on progress and tear down everything and rebuilding again

A notion of "bare progress" is the elephant in the room. Progress is a vector. It has magnitude and direction. People talk of moving "forward or back", but science also has a steering wheel.

> and the Americans and Chinese will make us adopt their ways.

This very notion of "progress" as a totalitarian force is also dangerous. The boot is on the other foot from 80 years ago. When Europe was starting a 1000 year technological master-race, more measured minds had to extinguish that fire. I see many similarities today - people seeing "progress" simply as dominance.

I liked the brain-dump in TFA, but I think it's over-complex and too tied to a contemporary interpretation of capital investment.

We've been spooging away our talent for generations here. Look at how we treated Turing. We mismanage or sell-off everything cool we invent.

What Britain still suffers from is class disloyalty. We still have a strong but invisible class system which is now international financiers. Those sorts "float above" the ordinary economy, they are disconnected from UK interests and don't give a toss about engineering, science, knowledge, education...

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#304
I’ve seen this exact trajectory play out with several friends. Get a good degree in robotics engineering or the like, options are working for civil servant pay at a defense subcontractor, or Ocado. Pretty much it.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#305
If my salary had been my only or even my main objective, I would have taken a very different route in my career. Sure, for some people it is, but there are other factors as well. But if you're from the UK, young and independent, and money is your main drive, what's keeping you from moving to the US, at least for a couple of years?

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the non-existent British NHS where getting an appointment to see a doctor is about as likely as meeting the Loch Ness Monster for a spot of tea and crumpets.

It used to be the jewel in the crown of empire though. Thatcher and the more recent 14 years of UK Conservative government seemed to have kicked it bloody and senseless like Alex and his droogs from the Korova Milkbar.

Only the Conservatives? You think Blair, Brown, and now Starmer did great things for the country? Give me a break. The whole political class is rotten. And the upcoming "Reform UK" is a joke, to say the least.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He means a safe wage job pays a third less in the UK than Germany. Not sure if it's true so let's look at some stats: Germany median for software engineer: €66,000 United kingdom median: €58,000 Note depending on source, these numbers both vary broadly within the same range, but with Germany salaries being about 10-15% higher on most sources, so nowhere near the figure claimed.

10-15% is not hugely far from 1/3 ;)

You said that UK's salaries are 2/3 of the Germany ones, but this doesn't mean that the Germany ones are 1/3 more, they are 1/2 (or 50%) more. That's pretty far from 10-15%.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He means a safe wage job pays a third less in the UK than Germany. Not sure if it's true so let's look at some stats: Germany median for software engineer: €66,000 United kingdom median: €58,000 Note depending on source, these numbers both vary broadly within the same range, but with Germany salaries being about 10-15% higher on most sources, so nowhere near the figure claimed.

10-15% is not hugely far from 1/3 ;)

10-15% in the opposite direction. That is I stated they earn 10-15% more.

33% less equates to them earning roughly 50% more. The difference between 10-15% and 50% is huge!

(trivial example, if someone is earning £100,000, then someone earning 33% less makes £66,666. But Someone earning £100,000 makes 50% more than someone making £66,666)

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be the case for most European countries, particularly here in France. We’re experiencing stagnation, or perhaps even a decline. Launching a product in Europe is significantly more challenging due to the market’s high fragmentation. I don’t have much hope for the future of tech companies in Europe.

I lived and worked in both countries and I feel like the UK is in a worse situation than France nowadays. It's hard to admit for French citizens but the EU significantly props up the French economy and reduces the structural issues of the country.

Arguing about which sinking ship is going down faster.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Talk too much about these things and you're probably getting sent to prison. This trope is getting a bit ridiculous. For the record, the event that inspired the notion that complaining online could get you sent to person involved individuals encouraging the public to burn down council offices[1] and a hotel[2]. Conspiracy to commit arson has been one of the most serious offences in English law for centuries, and th…

This gaslighting is getting a bit ridiculous. The oppression did not start in the wake of Southport, it has been in place for years. But I'm going to talk about Southport first. People were arrested for pointing out that the Southport murderer was a Muslim terrorist. Well guess what, he was: https://news.sky.com/story/southport-stabbings-suspect-faces... The media said it was all disinformation and put forth many str…

> This gaslighting is getting a bit ridiculous

Totally agree

They always take the extreme part of your posts, find a minor counter claim, then imply we have total free speech

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