> His employment at Hooked ended soon after in what is best described as a mutual decision: he tendered his resignation when the CEO notified him he was fired
classic
Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
131–140 of 442 posts
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe Europe can create its own SV by following the USA's route: the Europe's equivalent of DoD (which has access to unlimited funds, tens of trillions of euros), needs to come up with a grand multi-decade project and invest into companies that are going to work on related sub-projects. For USA it was the worldwide surveillance system, but for Europe it may be something else, like ITER (but on a bigger scale) or…
A first step might be to expand the European University system to handle the influx of Graduate students that were previously headed to the US. Give funding, poach the frustrated non tenured profs from the US. Essentially reverse what happened during and after WW2, when the anti semitism caused Germany and then mainland Europe to lose all the amazing talent to the US.
No, a first step would be increasing social mobility. It's pretty hard to attend school in large parts of Europe. If you are from Europe realize you might be in a bubble of people that speaks English very well -- in general, I've noticed such people are high performers relative to many.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can no one but the US pay developers well? The GDP per cap is there in many countries... but for some reason developers are only key employees in the US?
Or are developers paid a disproportionate wage in comparison to other jobs? Why should a software developer get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, while those who weren't lucky enough to be born with the required intelligence (despite what coding bootcamps say, not everyone is cut out to write code) are doomed to work a low-wage job for their entire life? It's the height of privilege. And if you subscribe…
Because the companies that employ them make lots of money from their labour. Paying them less would mean tech shareholders and CEOs make more profit. Electricians wouldn't somehow magically get paid more if software engineers made less. I guess you're asking society to value buildings more and software less?
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aversion to risk. I was told by German entrepreneurs that they can get funding only when they give bank/VC/investor a collateral of the same value or if they are already profitable and don't need it anymore.
Look at the consequences of personal bankruptcy in Germany [1]. They are severe and permanently close off entire career paths. Europe’s culture is less risk tolerant, fundamentally, than America’s. That said, entrepreneurship isn’t the sole path to innovation. Germany has a solid history of non-entrepreneur value finding. [1] http://www.privatinsolvenz-hilfe.org/en/german-bankruptcy-la...
Personal bankruptcy does not apply to corporate contexts. And it is much rarer than in the US
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#135"That evidence does suggest the engineers drew on knowledge and skills they gained from Hooked to develop a product for their new employer––but California’s policy favoring free mobility for employees specifically allows that. (See Whyte v. Schlage Lock Co. (2002) 101Cal.App.4th 1443, 1464 [rejecting the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine, under which a claim for trade secret misappropriation is stated if an employee’s…
>Which is why Silicon Valley is in California, and why attempts to create a startup culture elsewhere have mostly failed. Silicon Valley's origin pre-dates these labor laws. Hewlett-Packard was started in the late 1930's. Silicon Valley's success has much more to do with a critical mass of talent and infrastructure that started a long time ago. The labor friendly laws were created as part of California trying to nurt…
Bah humbug. Westinghouse was in New Jersey, as was Bell Labs, and IBM was in New York. And there was, at the time, a much larger population base in the East Coast. California had to try harder, and in the end, they won.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can no one but the US pay developers well? The GDP per cap is there in many countries... but for some reason developers are only key employees in the US?
Or are developers paid a disproportionate wage in comparison to other jobs? Why should a software developer get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, while those who weren't lucky enough to be born with the required intelligence (despite what coding bootcamps say, not everyone is cut out to write code) are doomed to work a low-wage job for their entire life? It's the height of privilege. And if you subscribe…
Your post is a literal summary of why the attitude and performance of software engineers in other countries is so utterly subpar. Having spent a lot of time in Australia, I found the work ethic and culture of the office-bound workers there to be completely unacceptable by American standards.
You wouldn’t understand American standards because you don’t understand the difference in work intensity and performance. There’s a reason all of the good workers still head to California.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#137"That evidence does suggest the engineers drew on knowledge and skills they gained from Hooked to develop a product for their new employer––but California’s policy favoring free mobility for employees specifically allows that. (See Whyte v. Schlage Lock Co. (2002) 101Cal.App.4th 1443, 1464 [rejecting the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine, under which a claim for trade secret misappropriation is stated if an employee’s…
> Which is why Silicon Valley is in California I don't think that's the reason -- California's labor market hasn't always been so fair and for that reason it makes complete sense why the court ruled in Apple's favor. Apple, Google, Adobe and some other companies used to have anti-poaching agreements with each other. But, then the courts found that to be unfair to the labor market (people) and the companies settled fo…
Anti-poaching agreements are bad, but they aren't nearly as bad as non-competes. Anti-poaching agreements mean one company won't cold contact employees at another. But employees who want to switch of their own initiative are still able to do so. Non-competes blocks even employees who want to switch of their own initiative.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can no one but the US pay developers well? The GDP per cap is there in many countries... but for some reason developers are only key employees in the US?
Developers work in many different companies, and most of them don't make products that can, or could in even in theory make enough money to make paying as much worthwhile. It's a chicken and egg problem.
In my experience, the "Software is Eating the World" thesis is looking largely correct. The number of software developers at modern non-tech companies can be surprising.
Even in my limited experience, I have seen big, well-funded software teams in companies doing retail, manufacturing, transportation, shipping, food service, etc. Those developers do not typically make SV wages (and generally have better work-life balance), but they do frequently earn comparably to lawyers in their cities.
An example in the insurance industry from Dallas, a city not known for being a tech hub: https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/417604/mid-senior-level-net-d...
Or telecom in Atlanta: https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/392595/senior-software-engine...
It might be fair to say these industries have more leverage in the US because they can serve a bigger market. But it's not all about the types of products they make, there are definitely bigger issues that drive the comp differential. I would love to learn more.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can no one but the US pay developers well? The GDP per cap is there in many countries... but for some reason developers are only key employees in the US?
Or are developers paid a disproportionate wage in comparison to other jobs? Why should a software developer get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, while those who weren't lucky enough to be born with the required intelligence (despite what coding bootcamps say, not everyone is cut out to write code) are doomed to work a low-wage job for their entire life? It's the height of privilege. And if you subscribe…
You briefly grasp the answer in your post: skill
>In Australia, a skilled electrician can earn the same salary as a software developer
What about the unskilled electrician? Are they paid the same as the skilled one?
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Labor mobility is really low in Europe. In france you can be tied up in litigation (tribunel through appeals) for 10 years easily on an employment termination (my info is from 2016 time frame so may be dated). There is no such thing as at-will employment. Also, noncompete's are weird. If someone is receiving full pay on gardening leave they can work for someone else. If you instead have them work till end of notice p…
Another way to describe "low labour mobility" is "high job stability". It's easy to sit in an ivory tower on a $200k+ silicon valley salary, with a healthy job market if you get the sack, and bemoan the fact that workers have rights and can't be fired because their employer feels like it.
You can have high labor mobility and high job stability by reducing supply of labor and/or increasing the demand for it.