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UK's hardware talent is being wasted

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Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#501

Post by corimaith »

cyberax wrote: post #226
corimaith wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well everytime somebody wants to build high density housing or really anything to alleviate the housing crisis we get the usual NIMBY screaming similar to OP about evil corporations coming to destroy the character of their local neighborhood.

If we're talking about the UK, then London is already as dense as it can reasonably be. It went all-in on public transit almost 200 years ago. And of course, it made it all worse. Now you HAVE to work in London if you want a high salary. The only real way to fix the housing is to promote remote work and decentralized companies.

Yeah.. no. Have you been to Asian cities? It's rows and rows of 100 floor apartments, it's urban centers consolidated into high density malls and commercial centers. We're talking about dozens of high rises where every floor contains restaurants and shops. I daresay there is more to eat and shop in the 1km Radius around Ikebukuro Station then entire borough of Westminster!

Nobody wants to work in some backwater in the middle of nowhere either, especially if you are young and want to meet new people.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#502

Post by GasVeteran »

piltdownman wrote: post #482
Cumpiler69 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yes, there are advantages of a stable and well functioning systems Current EU is definitely not a stable and well functioning system. Look at economic conditions, political outcomes, illegal immigration, wealth inequality, societal and political trust, homelessness rates, birth rates, free speech suppression, welfare austerity, etc Everything has been going downhill since the 2008 crash. It's a powder keg. >they are…

That's quite the conservative talk-radio shopping list. Illegal immigration is a metric of the EUs economic success and social stability compared with North Africa, Eastern European Accession States, and the war-torn middle east. If America shared land borders and direct migration routes with Islamic caliphates and the like, they'd know all about it. Economic Conditions and Political Outcomes are pretty sane and tole…

It isn't a "conservative talk-radio shopping list". It is reality in quite a few areas in Europe and the UK.

> Economic Conditions and Political Outcomes are pretty sane and tolerable for all but a select group of (surprise surprise) US backed agitators like Hungary. You have to remember that the EU is run as a society rather than an economy, and must be judged on this ethos. People are very fond of using the comparable GDPs of Bavaria and Mississippi in this conversation - forgetting to mention the life expectancy is 10 years less and infant mortality 400% higher on the US side.

This isn't true. I know many people that have moved from Spain to Hungary. Most of these people where politically fairly normal e.g. either centre-left right or centre-left. I speak to people from all over Europe regularly and many of them do not feel the way that you are describing.

> Societal and Political trust is still quite high - despite much fearmongering, the far-right are not gaining the political capital necessary to instigate significant change outside of Hungary.

That isn't true. I know many areas of Europe where the electorate keep on voting for further right parties. The same is happening in the UK. Labour only won because the Conservatives lost and the Reform party did extremely well for what is a relatively new party. I know the same is happening in Belgium (I speak regularly with Belgian nationals). Areas of Spain that are most affected by immigration have voted for further right parties. So I know this isn't true.

> Re 'free speech suppression' I'm really not sure what you're aiming at.

Just look up the hate speech laws enacted throughout Europe and in the UK and some of the cases that have been prosecuted. We do not have a right to the free speech in the UK and the majority of Europe doesn't either.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#503

Post by dukeyukey »

troupo wrote: post #408
r_thambapillai wrote: post #51

As a Brit, when I was raising the seed round for my startup, UK and European VCs would consistently try to haggle you down on price while the American VC's were exclusively focussed on trying to figure out whether this could be a billion dollar business or not (in the end we raised a $5m seed led by Spark, and have done extremely well and raised more since). The UK lost Deep Mind - which could have been OpenAI!! -- t…

> The UK lost Deep Mind - which could have been OpenAI!! -- to Google. You're focusing on one success story out of thousands. 90%, or more, of US startups only exist to be sold to the highest bidder or to coast indefinitely long in infinite investor money, and never turn a profit. There's still expectation in Europe at large that your company should have an actual business plan and a path to profitability.

I don't think thats's true in the UK as much. Loads of startups here follow the US model.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#504

Post by Shinchy »

r_thambapillai wrote: post #51

As a Brit, when I was raising the seed round for my startup, UK and European VCs would consistently try to haggle you down on price while the American VC's were exclusively focussed on trying to figure out whether this could be a billion dollar business or not (in the end we raised a $5m seed led by Spark, and have done extremely well and raised more since). The UK lost Deep Mind - which could have been OpenAI!! -- t…

I agree and it's a real shame, we used to spearhead some of the most initiative companies in technology (Acorn, Arm, Sinclair, Sage, Deepmind). Now it's just a shadow, while places like Silicon Valley or Stockholm have jetted ahead the UK just sort of stagnated - it's kind of embarrassing.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#505

Post by CalRobert »

GasVeteran wrote: post #473
CalRobert wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BUUUT MuHHH PAAARRRKiiiiNNNGGGG!! (And house values). And we can't _possibly_ make the town look different than it did in 1972 because "heritage". We're talking about a bunch of crusty old church biddies who will literally force you to put the most godawful, hideous house covering in the history of man BACK on your house because they're terrified of being reminded it's not the 70's. (Sorry for the mail link) https://…

Yes there are ridiculous rules like that are enforced. However tbh she should have checked first. Rules around how the area should look, should be decided by people that live there. There are many better examples where it makes a lot of sense for the locals to be strict about rules about what can be erected. I used to live near the Village of Corfe Castle. Generally the argument is that the place would lose its chara…

But it's _good_ when houses look different. Growing up my family would drive around new developments and say "ugg, these cookie-cutter houses all look the same, I miss when you we built unique and individual houses" and then it's jarring to move somewhere where people value conformity above all else and being different is considered bad. God forbid your house has eaves.

Explains a lot, actually.

I'm not talking about knocking down thousand-year old houses. I note that your example doesn't seem to have a problem putting car parks in, incidentally. But "locals" (aka old people with enormous amounts of time on their hands who bizarrely feel the right to tell other people what their home should look like) insisting that everything stay mediocre forever because they grew up with it this way is a bit much.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#506

Post by Earw0rm »

GasVeteran wrote: post #473
CalRobert wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BUUUT MuHHH PAAARRRKiiiiNNNGGGG!! (And house values). And we can't _possibly_ make the town look different than it did in 1972 because "heritage". We're talking about a bunch of crusty old church biddies who will literally force you to put the most godawful, hideous house covering in the history of man BACK on your house because they're terrified of being reminded it's not the 70's. (Sorry for the mail link) https://…

Yes there are ridiculous rules like that are enforced. However tbh she should have checked first. Rules around how the area should look, should be decided by people that live there. There are many better examples where it makes a lot of sense for the locals to be strict about rules about what can be erected. I used to live near the Village of Corfe Castle. Generally the argument is that the place would lose its chara…

That's fair when it comes to villages, but it's mostly the edge of small cities, and within larger ones, that growth needs to happen - because that's where infrastructure exists or can be added on.

Let the Cotswolds and Kent Weald be chocolate-box nimbyland, but keep it out of places that are trying to get work done.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#507

Post by mgaunard »

The comparison of salaries doesn't necessarily make sense there.

Cost of life in the UK is only high in London, and remains lower than California.

I remember working as a software engineer on £32k, and I could still afford a 3-bedroom house with a garden, garage and a car.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#508

Post by pja »

amelius wrote: post #395
lordnacho wrote: post #344

Here's a story I tell from time to time. When I was at uni, we had an internship as part of the course. The course was a joint course between Engineering and Econ/Management, so you could choose from a very wide variety of industries to satisfy the thesis requirement. The business school would coordinate the internships. So I went interviewing in the engineering firms to the west of the country. Aerospace, materials,…

At this point someone please explain to me how finance doesn't exist to extract wealth from the rest of us.

Finance jobs in London / New York (partially) can afford those pay rates because they extract wealth from the rest of the world.

Whether they do so in return for services rendered or are extracting rents by acting as gatekeepers is a question that never quite gets resolved. A little of each I suspect, depending on the context.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#509

Post by dukeyukey »

alephnerd wrote: post #10

I agree with this call to action. Sadly, I think there are more fundamental issues in the UK economy. For all intents and purposes, Venture Capital is dead in the UK. While companies do get funded in the UK and are technically "UK domiciled" - in action most of their Engineering and Product teams are located in Eastern Europe or India, or are startups from those markets (and China) who domiciled in the UK to raise fr…

> For all intents and purposes, Venture Capital is dead in the UK.

The UK has the 3rd largest tech VC sector worldwide - only after the US and China

> in action most of their Engineering and Product teams are located in Eastern Europe or India

London also has the largest software sector outside the US, after the Bay Area, Boston, and NYC.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#510

Post by CalRobert »

gadders wrote: post #355
lordnacho wrote: post #344

Here's a story I tell from time to time. When I was at uni, we had an internship as part of the course. The course was a joint course between Engineering and Econ/Management, so you could choose from a very wide variety of industries to satisfy the thesis requirement. The business school would coordinate the internships. So I went interviewing in the engineering firms to the west of the country. Aerospace, materials,…

Fundholding GPs don't do badly. A lot get 6 figures if they are partners in a surgery. I think most Doctors etc need to wait until they're consultants until they make decent money. But I'm like you - fell into banking due to being a Lotus Notes developer when it was flavour of the month and have never left. I reckon I'm on over double what I would be if I'd ended up working for IBM or Cap Gemini or similar. [And I sh…

Is 6 figures a lot?
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