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Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

businessinsider.com

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Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#131

Post by natalyarostova »

curiousllama wrote: post #108
natalyarostova wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic modern HN comment. The hard working person with a history of success who is trying a risky ambitious project will fail, because they didn't consider the few things a commentor instantly spotted as problems.

Yea, that's fair. I should - I do! - commend the effort. Some good things here: (1) It's good to try to solve problems. (2) There is a shortage of tech talent in the country (3) Eric Schmidt is very smart. Sure as heck smarter than me. Still - from my admittedly-limited vantage point, I can name a four people with degrees in public policy and CS (or similar) that tried and failed to get good jobs in government, so th…

:)

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#132

Post by pmorici »

Maybe this article is missing some important details but I don't see how having a special university is going to help the problem of getting more technical talent into government work.

There are already tons of government scholarship programs with strings attached in the form of post graduation service requirements and other hiring funnels that bring in new graduates. The government's problem isn't hiring new grads it's keeping those people once they get a few years experience. The biggest drain is probably government contracting companies who often offer literally twice the salary for the same work. Combine that with the soul sucking aspects that you would find at any large company and you have the perfect recipe for not being able to recruit and retain qualified mid career people.

It's hard to imagine how any amount of indoctrination in the ideals of public service at a special school will overcome those things without something else changing.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#133

Post by sdinsn »

Animats wrote: post #100

Who's supposed to fund this? Is Schmidt putting up the money himself? Is this to be a real college, with accreditation, or something like "Singularity University" or Udacity or DeVry?

> Who's supposed to fund this?

The government- Schmidt is making a recommendation to Congress.

> Is this to be a real college, with accreditation

Yes

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#134

Post by tdfx »

pb7 wrote: post #130
Shebanator wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who in Silicon Valley thinks that? I've never heard anyone say it in my 30+ years here (until now).

Very odd statement indeed. I have never heard anything even remotely corroborating this. In fact (highly anecdotally, take it as entertainment at best), I have read that public opinion holds NSA's technical capabilities in high esteem but in reality, the talent is vastly below that of the top consumer tech companies because most tech employees would never contribute to the type of work the government does.

> most tech employees would never contribute to the type of work the government does

I don't even think it's ideological. The reason the defense industry lacks top tier talent is because it's quite literally the most stifling and frustrating place to work possible. You're mired in endless bureaucracy, incompetent management, arcane rules and regulations surrounding secrecy, and some of the world's least flexible working arrangements. It ends up being a great place for people who want to punch a clock and get a reliable paycheck, but a deadend for anyone trying to make their mark.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#136

Post by p1esk »

pb7 wrote: post #130
Shebanator wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who in Silicon Valley thinks that? I've never heard anyone say it in my 30+ years here (until now).

Very odd statement indeed. I have never heard anything even remotely corroborating this. In fact (highly anecdotally, take it as entertainment at best), I have read that public opinion holds NSA's technical capabilities in high esteem but in reality, the talent is vastly below that of the top consumer tech companies because most tech employees would never contribute to the type of work the government does.

I thought the dominant public opinion is government agencies are staffed with mediocre engineers. Not even because of any moral concerns, just because of bureaucracy and low pay.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#137

Post by Jtsummers »

thephyber wrote: post #125
Jtsummers wrote: post #39

Interesting. I don't see the point, though. The issue with the US government and software is not a lack of talent (within the country, or even within the government itself). But a poor structuring and assigning of responsibilities and a severely risk-averse culture, paired with the overreaction of a risk-accepting culture occasionally showing up and fucking it all. There is, or will be, sufficient talent in the US to…

While these issues exist, we should look to the countries that have successfully overcome them and shamelessly copy their successful strategies. The US government already does really well at training people for the military, both leaders and fresh high school grads. Personally, I think we need to stop passing 2000+ bills into law and instead give our technocrats some high level requirements that they can figure out t…

Perhaps. So what countries overcame these issues by training new people and not addressing the internal systemic issues that lead to the drain or burnout of skilled workers?

How does training of new people address the established culture that encourages hitting milestones (internal) but not achieving the overall mission? How does training of new people address the fundamental problem of developing and testing using 3-20 separate networks with data sharing consisting of bobnet (sneakernet but Bob is the only one authorized to move data between systems)? How does training of new people prevent poaching by contractors or private companies paying 2-3x the salary? How does training of new people fix the problem of inexperienced (training isn't experience) novices running acquisition programs and getting bullied by contractors?

The fundamental model of IT acquisition and software development within the US government is broken. Training the next generation isn't enough, and universities already do that well enough. You have to break the existing system.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#138

Post by ghaff »

refurb wrote: post #111
bluedevil2k wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're underestimating the egos of billionaires and how they love winning compared to other billionaires. A name on a building is nice. A name on a university that's mentioned with Duke and MIT...now that's something you can brag about. The owners of NBA teams - all billionaires, most willing to lose money year-to-year in order to win and beat the other billionaires. The women's basketball league in Russia - teams ow…

Prestige takes a LONG time to build. You’d basically need your graduates to becomes titans of industry. Bezos would be dead long before that happens.

I'm not sure that's literally true. Given sufficient money:

- Desired faculty: We'll triple your salary and hire your spouse too. Oh, and give you unprecedented freedom.

- Desired students: Free tuition and board and a great campus environment.

At the least you could jump-start a pretty darned interesting educational institution at least within a certain focus. But I'm not sure the money is realistic, at least at a scaled undergraduate level.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#139

Post by [deleted] »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #127
Upvoter33 wrote: post #45

"Palo Alto-based Stanford University ... and MIT have historically been the primary talent pools for the tech industry" This is far from true. If you look at the total workforce in tech, the majority is by far from much larger, public schools, like Berkeley, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, Texas, Wisconsin, etc., etc. MIT and Stanford have had amazing great people, but they are far from the "primary" source of talent…

Yeah, it's honestly insulting copy, and ignores other North American schools like Waterloo that make up a disproportionate part of big tech.

[deleted]

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#140

Post by chillacy »

p1esk wrote: post #136
pb7 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very odd statement indeed. I have never heard anything even remotely corroborating this. In fact (highly anecdotally, take it as entertainment at best), I have read that public opinion holds NSA's technical capabilities in high esteem but in reality, the talent is vastly below that of the top consumer tech companies because most tech employees would never contribute to the type of work the government does.

I thought the dominant public opinion is government agencies are staffed with mediocre engineers. Not even because of any moral concerns, just because of bureaucracy and low pay.

I learned from Snowden's book that the real way to make money working for the government is to quit and become a contractor.
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