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Uber CEO Wants to Shift More Engineering Jobs to India, Sparking Internal Debate

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Re: Uber CEO Wants to Shift More Engineering Jobs to India, Sparking Internal Debate

#221

Post by CydeWeys »

treis wrote: post #182
MagnumOpus wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not that hard, however. Every copycat mentioned above replicated it using a few dozen programmers, as did Yandex and Didi and Bolt. The competitive advantage does not lie in the software quality for Uber, but in other things (customer install base, driver base, brand awareness).

That's true for all the FAANGs except Apple and parts of Google. For example, a few dozen programmers can easily whip up a credible competitor to Facebook. The problem is getting enough users to compete.

> For example, a few dozen programmers can easily whip up a credible competitor to Facebook.

This is one of those oft-repeated tropes on HN that needs to be out out to pasture for good.

No, you can't do the same job with a few dozen engineers that is currently taking the market leader many thousands of engineers to pull off. That's just hubris. The reality is that it's more complicated than you yet realize, and if you were to really delve into it you'd see the fractal complexity.

Re: Uber CEO Wants to Shift More Engineering Jobs to India, Sparking Internal Debate

#223

Post by biesnecker »

treis wrote: post #182
MagnumOpus wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not that hard, however. Every copycat mentioned above replicated it using a few dozen programmers, as did Yandex and Didi and Bolt. The competitive advantage does not lie in the software quality for Uber, but in other things (customer install base, driver base, brand awareness).

That's true for all the FAANGs except Apple and parts of Google. For example, a few dozen programmers can easily whip up a credible competitor to Facebook. The problem is getting enough users to compete.

And then the problem is scaling rapidly enough to handle those users. A whole lot of the engineers at FAANGs are running infrastructure that, for the startup with zero users, doesn’t exist.

Re: Uber CEO Wants to Shift More Engineering Jobs to India, Sparking Internal Debate

#224

Post by treis »

CydeWeys wrote: post #221
treis wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true for all the FAANGs except Apple and parts of Google. For example, a few dozen programmers can easily whip up a credible competitor to Facebook. The problem is getting enough users to compete.

> For example, a few dozen programmers can easily whip up a credible competitor to Facebook. This is one of those oft-repeated tropes on HN that needs to be out out to pasture for good. No, you can't do the same job with a few dozen engineers that is currently taking the market leader many thousands of engineers to pull off. That's just hubris. The reality is that it's more complicated than you yet realize, and if yo…

We've seen Snapchat, Reddit, Instagram, and Twitter off the top of my head build out competing social networks with dozens of engineers (or less).

Re: Uber CEO Wants to Shift More Engineering Jobs to India, Sparking Internal Debate

#225

Post by erik_seaberg »

clavalle wrote: post #48
bberenberg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Assuming you can get the same (or similar) talent in India instead of the US" I am not aware of anyone who has succeeded at this in practice. Do you know anyone?

I've had mixed results. Romania has been great. Pakistan was /terrible/... India has been a mixed bag. Firms tend to be terrible. Individuals tend to be good to great. The great devs tend to move here as soon as they're able.

This is pretty much what I've seen. If you invest time and money in opening a branch office and interviewing full-time staff, you'll find sharp and dedicated people like you would here. But you cannot shortcut this process by paying a no-name body shop, because you will get "deliverables" that obviously weren't tested at all because they don't compile.
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