UK's hardware talent is being wasted

Post by fragmede » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 6:19 PM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #800

As a former hardware engineer and a lover of all things hardware, the only country that isn't currently wasting its hardware talent is China. The rest of the world has been spoiled by the easy money in software. Only China has produced a stable flow of hardware startups, and they have generally been very impressive.

Post by qazxcvbnmlp » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 6:22 PM UTC

flir wrote: post #779

hintymad wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK ignited the First Industrial Revolution. It's sad to see that UK has slipped to number 16 or lower when it came to the market share of global manufacturing. And the problem is not to just UK, but to pretty much all the developed countries. Many nations and people have benefited greatly from globalization, but I have to ask: is it worth it if the cost is forfeiting my own country's manufacturing know-how and supply…

When I was a kid (80s) I knew old boys with lathes and mills and pillar drills at the bottom of the garden. They were the last generation, I think, of a tradition rooted in the Victorian era which informally transferred a lot of knowledge from one generation to the next. My pet theory is that their disappearance is tied closely to the cost of land. I see US-based hardware hobbyists' shops on YouTube, and I think "I c…

Post by SkiFire13 » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 6:27 PM UTC

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,…

Post by archsurface » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 6:29 PM UTC

ashergill wrote: post #663

> The reality for most graduates is even grimmer: > • £25,000 starting salaries at traditional engineering firms > • Exodus to consulting or finance just because it's compensated better This is _exactly_ my career so far. The key thing about the British economy is that while most things operate in a free market, construction is centrally planned by councillors who are incentivised to block most development. So the wh…

  Australia      2,303 214
  New Zealand    2,174 202
  United States  2,164 201
  Canada         1,948 181
  UK               818  76

Post by Symbiote » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 6:41 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #743

pjc50 wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the Americans can't manage economic isolation. It takes a global civilisation to build a smartphone. We might have been able to get closer to it by being in the EU, but now we're on our own on that one.

Realistically in order to prosper the UK needs to join up as part of a "greater NAFTA" trade bloc. But the UK no longer has anything that the USA needs so they'll have to make major concessions to get a deal done.