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Dear Europe, please wake up

klinger.io

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Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#261

Post by aleph_minus_one »

KronisLV wrote: post #74
devdao wrote: post #34

A reasonable article that proposes 1 EU Corps 2 Standard English language schooling Seems wise enough. What will it take?

I'm surprised that most of the comments seem to focus on other comparisons of EU and US, there's very little on those two points. Personally, I think that English as the lingua franca makes sense in many contexts, since that's pretty much the case in IT already. For example, trying to translate various terms in any given language from English usually causes inconvenience and confusion (everyone needs to know the loca…

> For example, trying to translate various terms in any given language from English usually causes inconvenience and confusion (everyone needs to know the localized version and then translate it back into English to find literature etc.). Therefore, it makes sense to teach everyone English.

Similarly, translating a lot of terms from German or Russian to English often causes inconvenience and confusion. So better learn German and Russian. :-)

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#262

Post by Muromec »

bradhe wrote: post #199
Muromec wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don’t even get me started about on-call culture. No, I don't want to answer to your pager robot at 3 am for things I have no control over and don't want to touch. Get another robot to answer that or hire an SRE. I want to write my CSS and my 1 hour lunch break and live a life.

I dunno man the company pays you 10x your peers for a reason.

I'm pretty sure I'm not getting paid 10x of anything.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#263

Post by dukeyukey »

cherryteastain wrote: post #193

Europeans always like to approach this issue from the perspective of Europe being uncompetitive vs the US. I'd say it's not Europe that is underperforming, rather the US has been over-performing since the 2008 GFC. If we look at other major developed countries (say Japan, S Korea, Canada, Austalia, New Zealand) they also lack the same innovation ecosystem the US has. Their economies have also been largely stagnating…

Whenever you compare the US economy to Europe, keep in mind:

* That the US functionally speaks a single language

* Has the single largest piece of arable land on the planet

* Overlaid with the largest navigable river system in the world

* Has by far the greatest energy resources of any country

* And is separated from any competitors by massive oceans and thousands of miles

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#264

Post by steeve »

subsubzero wrote: post #157

So many things here. Lets talk pay, US tech workers, lets just say Sr SWE and up, and lets look at SF as the author uses this as a focal point. Salary is roughly $300-400k a year(in SF FANGish company), in Europe or England its about half of that, and maybe even less. I know as I have family I married into that points out this fact, the best workers all go over to the US and make large salaries over there at US tech…

> In France you are not allowed to even layoff employees unless you are close to bankruptcy(I think this was changed a few years back).

Of course, this is not true.

What is true is when you hire somebody, they are on a trial period of 3-4 months that can be renewed once. After the trial period is done, you need a cause to fire them.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#265

Post by dukeyukey »

j7ake wrote: post #97

Why should Europe care where they are amongst this myopic ranking of “best tech hub”? Western Europe is a great place to live, raise a family, and retire. None of the tech hub countries are even remotely comparable to Europe in this sense. If there are people in Europe who want to work in a high growth industry that desperately, they can move to USA or China.

> Why should Europe care where they are amongst this myopic ranking of “best tech hub”?

Because I'm European, and I'd like more money and a richer lifestyle.

> Western Europe is a great place to live, raise a family, and retire.

The average new-build home in my country (the UK) is about 850sqft. That's not flats, that's homes.

> If there are people in Europe who want to work in a high growth industry that desperately, they can move to USA

Do you know how tricky it is to move to the US as a skilled worker, and how much luck is involved?

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#266

Post by dukeyukey »

solatic wrote: post #143

> Here is my Question: Why did we stop with “single market” efforts? Why is there no effort to unify legal entity in Europe? I'm not sure the author understands what he's asking for. While having California residency, you can start a Delaware company, open offices in California, pay taxes to the State of California. If the State of California sues your company for unpaid taxes, which court do you end up in? Californi…

To a point, the UK has taken that role. Lots of EU tech companies set up residence here, since our corporate law is extremely developed and understood. But ofc Brexit has made that trickier.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#268

Post by dukeyukey »

lycos wrote: post #47
marcinzm wrote: post #22

This misses the big one: California bans non-competes, bans anti-moonlighting clauses and lets you quit with no notice. If you’re at an EU company and need to give 3+ months notice to quit that will discourage starting your own company on the side.

I have never seen a 3+ month notice to quit in the country I live, curious which country this happens in? Sounds extremely ridiculous if true

It's reasonably common in the UK for senior staff (although 1 month is standard), but it's often negotiable. It's not law though, it's just the standard work contract.

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#269

Post by dukeyukey »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #248
braiamp wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also couched in the article: > Americans love their hero-arcs so much that people manage to spin anything into a “coming from nothing story” – even if they got their first investments from their uncle and worked for free in the “garage” of their parents multi-million-dollar house in Palo Alto.

It's a bit unfair to talk about the garages in Palo Alto being attached to "multi-million-dollar" houses. When the people starting Apple, HP, Google and Facebook took over a garage, the places were solidly middle class. Even now, the price tags distort our perceptions. I've heard some venture capitalists say that most of their investments would go for salaries that would be turned over to the real estate world.

I mean, I live in London in the biggest place I've ever lived in (700sqft!) since moving out of my parents home. Having a garage would add another £200/month easily. Having that amount of spare room in a tech hub is a massive advantage!

Re: Dear Europe, please wake up

#270

Post by hackable_sand »

wrboyce wrote: post #238
triceratops wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found myself nodding at the first 2 paragraphs, then got serious whiplash on paragraph 3. That was wild.

Yeah, what the hell haha. How someone can think “I propose that 27 countries are absorbed into the USA” is reasonable is beyond my comprehension.

Definitely an American proposition.
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