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Re: Questions

#261

Post by philwelch »

CM30 wrote: post #173
unixhero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

> Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads o…

One of the vanishingly few things the Soviets did right was to emphasize STEM education. This seems to have stuck in Russia. And I’ve heard the same was true across the eastern bloc.

Re: Questions

#262

Post by [deleted] »

jstimpfle wrote: post #172
petra wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason(or maybe the common excuse) is often "we need to have full control". That's a reason most managers can get behind. So that's a common reason slowing every shift to a higher level language or library, to tools that automatically create stuff for you(GUI, optimized code from dsl), to using a platform controlled by another company(one important channel for newer tech, with some strong ux benefits over open-so…

> One reason(or maybe the common excuse) is often "we need to have full control". That's a reason most managers can get behind. On modern machines, this excuse is even better. Full control can easily mean 100x difference in speed. Most importantly, how do contemporary lisps deal with arrays of unboxed structs or primitives?

[deleted]

Re: Questions

#263

Post by Aeolun »

mercer wrote: post #209
chucky wrote: post #35

> Why are there so many successful startups in Stockholm? Several reasons. First, you need to recognize that any Sweden-based startup will, when it gets to be known internationally, have a Stockholm-based office. So it's not about a city of 1 million inhabitants, it's a country of 10 million that's the true number here. As an example, I believe Spotify opened their original offices in both Stockholm and Göteborg more…

Most of the things you mention also apply to The Netherlands, except for possibly the tax-free computer scheme (not sure about that one). As far as I can tell we're not really all that note-worthy startup-wise. Assuming that's true, any ideas what might be the differentiating factor? From what I understand, both Holland and Sweden are culturally similar enough that I can't immediately think of other factors that make…

It may just be me, but I have a feeling that Dutch startups have a tendency to focus on the Netherlands first, and either don’t feel the need to go global or just fail to do so.

Also, compensation. The Netherlands has a lot of good people, but they’ll leave for greener pastures.

Re: Questions

#264

Post by chubot »

mercer wrote: post #209
chucky wrote: post #35

> Why are there so many successful startups in Stockholm? Several reasons. First, you need to recognize that any Sweden-based startup will, when it gets to be known internationally, have a Stockholm-based office. So it's not about a city of 1 million inhabitants, it's a country of 10 million that's the true number here. As an example, I believe Spotify opened their original offices in both Stockholm and Göteborg more…

Most of the things you mention also apply to The Netherlands, except for possibly the tax-free computer scheme (not sure about that one). As far as I can tell we're not really all that note-worthy startup-wise. Assuming that's true, any ideas what might be the differentiating factor? From what I understand, both Holland and Sweden are culturally similar enough that I can't immediately think of other factors that make…

That's an interesting question, especially taking into account that I know of and worked with many computer scientists from Holland, but not from from Sweden. You would think that Holland would have the expertise to form many startups.

Obviously, there is the business side in addition to the computer science side. I don't know much about that with respect to Holland.

But one possibility is that Dutch computer scientists tend to leave Holland to work. That explains why I know of so many as an American? (e.g. I worked with Guido van Rossum and Werner Vogels advised my master's project)

Re: Questions

#265

Post by jalfresi »

kryogen1c wrote: post #252
ronilan wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver’s “Second Narrows” bridge was built in the late 50s and completed in 3 years. Midway through the project a major accident killed 19 people. It was the result of an engineering error. In the mid 90s the bridge name was changed. It is now generally referred to as the “Ironworkers memorial bridge”. Anyone crossing that bridge since is constantly reminded of that engineering error. “Better safe than sorry” is r…

> “Better safe than sorry” is rising belief. I think this is a cowardly and inaccurate belief and agree it is what it driving changes across all areas. It is the institutional flaw of democracies and free markets. People (demand) are capable of acting irrationally and emotionally leading to a reduction of individual and public good.

"I think this is a cowardly and inaccurate belief"

Throughout history you find the people who believe this are not the ones who's safety is sacrificed in pursuit of some grand project...

Re: Questions

#266

Post by almost_usual »

iamwil wrote: post #255
unixhero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

But then if that's true, you wouldn't get lots of devs in the Bay Area California. Lots of great weather here.

How many devs have you met that grew up in the Bay Area?

Re: Questions

#267

Post by branchless »

trimbo wrote: post #191

> The Empire State Building was built in 410 days At least one reason is that we have substantially different safety regulations since we're not accepting of deaths on a project like that. 5 people died on that project. 11 died to build the Golden Gate. Original Bay Bridge? 24. They actually had a rule of thumb at the time: 1 death for every $1M spent on a project[1]. Any metric like that would be absolutely unaccept…

They seem pretty happy to let people die due to homelessness in the USA, or lack of medical care. Why are they so concerned this time?

Re: Questions

#268

Post by fit2rule »

batty_alex wrote: post #86
elorant wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel doesn't have long dark winters and yet they're the pioneers of innovation and start-up culture.

As someone who has worked with teams from Israel, I'd like to hear more about this if you have good sources. In my experience, it's been the opposite. They like to play office politics, focus on keeping work off their plate, and they're not really team players. I may just have a bad sample of Israel tech workers, though.

I have also experienced this - in addition, rampant nationalism is an issue when dealing with Israeli companies, in my experience (5 different customers, similar problems..)

Where I think Israeli tech startups get most of their mojo, is desperation. Their culture involves so much struggle and effort .. and I think the reaction to it at a personal level, results in the laziness, non-team-playing, political problems.

Re: Questions

#269

Post by almost_usual »

cryptozeus wrote: post #223
unixhero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good observations! You forgot one major thing. This goes for all of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The winter is horribly dark and boring. (Unless you're super rich). Therefore most turn inwards, staying indoors, thinking deeply at problems, spending endless afternoons and nights on things. Be it software development, game development, car tuning, car engine work, engineering, knitting or just reading loads of…

Then how do you explain Silicon Valley? Outdoor life is great here. You have good point but may not be as important as you think.

How many engineers have you met that grew up in Silicon Valley?

Re: Questions

#270

Post by teabee89 »

bachbach wrote: post #68

There needs to be a club of people focusing on these sorts of questions consistently. There are only so many Gwerns and Scott Alexanders and Dredmorbiuses out there. There really are not that many people out there thinking about and discussing the Big Ideas and you keep running into the same ones over time. I fear many club members are lost in the blogosphere and near impossible to find with Google. Some possible ans…

>> Why is US GDP growth so weirdly constant?

> My guess is energy.

Your guess is correct. Energy is what drives the economy. We've been going from least concentrated to most concentrated energy sources: human/animal muscle to wind, river flow, to coal, oil, nuclear. Oil being the best tradeoff between ready-to-use and energy concentration. GDP is what people are paid, but the people have magical machines that run on energy.

Any bell curve looks exponential in the beginning, but when you run out of that concentrated energy you're left with less concentrated energy unable to sustain the same level of growth.

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