Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Europe's Software Problem

berthub.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 585 posts

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#421

Post by duped »

hardolaf wrote: post #278
fvdessen wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason the US has freely flowing funding is because the VC has an immense amount of cash from the previous generations of successful Unicorns. So why was it (and still is) easier to raise unicorns in the USA ? The thing that separate the internet economy with the traditional is the massive network effects that makes it a winner take all game. And at that game the USA has a massive home advantage with a huge cultu…

> The reason the US has freely flowing funding is because the VC has an immense amount of cash from the previous generations of successful Unicorns. So why was it (and still is) easier to raise unicorns in the USA ? You're ignoring that all of this money initially came from massive investment by the Defense Advanced Projects Administration (DARPA) which funded the semiconductor industry in its infancy, which funded t…

I see this comment often and it strikes me as conspiracy nonsense.

For example, AMD was founded within a year of Intel - years before either manufactured a CPU. You're blurring lines with antitrust lawsuits in the 90s.

Now if you want to talk about the Federal government single handedly propping up the market for semiconductors until the end of the Apollo program, that's a different story and includes more players than DARPA.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#422

Post by GekkePrutser »

beebeepka wrote: post #415
nickpp wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the law was so bad even its creators can’t implement/understand/respect it.

Is it, though? I thought they are only required if the site is setting tracking cookies. Is that not straight forward enough?

No it's required for all types of tracking including but not exclusively cookies. Only days collection that is absolutely required to provide the service may be collected without consent and for that purpose only.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#424

Post by rad_gruchalski »

varispeed wrote: post #384
lesto wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As EUropean living in a different country for work, is not that easy at all. Try to do your taxes in Swedish or German or French.. Or try to have a social life with people that while could speak English will probably switch to their own language when in more than 2-3 person. Yes of course you can learn the language, but dont think you can be proficient in a couple of year, especially if working 40h/week, and still yo…

> will probably switch to their own language when in more than 2-3 person. That's just rude and why would you want to socialise with such people. I had some great experiences and even when I was the only person not speaking the local language, everyone spoke English in my presence. There is plenty of people that have standards and if you cannot find them at a given time, just focus on something else.

> That's just rude and why would you want to socialise with such people.

Well, tough luck. Welcome to Germany. Living and working in Germany? Learn German. This is the treatment I’ve got and frankly, that’s okay!

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#425

Post by kdomanski »

zerkten wrote: post #76
imNotTheProb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have LLCs?

LLCs aren't really relevant to this. The poster was commenting on bankruptcy laws with the assumption of familiarity. You can check out articles like https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10657-006-8978-... , but the gist is that bankruptcy in the US is forgiving versus being a terminal state in Europe. This is both in law and in society. Once someone has gone bankrupt in Europe, they are historically, are a p…

This. In addition, in some countries like Germany, having your name connected to a bankruptcy will ruin your credit score, making it difficult to e.g. rent an apartment.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#426

Post by vetinari »

unknownOrigin wrote: post #256
fvdessen wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes far beyond that. If you are in Italy and want to expand to Germany you need to hire german speaking people and that means opening a Sales Office in Germany, and dealing with different labour regulations etc.

And just to add to this, from a certain level (revenue) that's not that high (and depends on idividual states) you need a presence (VAT registration) and a business bank account in the country you're selling your services/goods in, even if you're not actually located there. E.g. a medium sized online shop based in the Czech Republic that is shipping to Hungary. Now imagine this if you're shipping to many EU states...…

> you need a presence (VAT registration) and a business bank account in the country you're selling your services/goods in, even if you're not actually located there. E.g. a medium sized online shop based in the Czech Republic that is shipping to Hungary.

Alza (CZ) is slightly bigger than a medium sized online shop and they are using CZ VAT ID intentionally for intracomunitary B2B sales, even though they do have physical presence in other countries.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#427

Post by xwolfi »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #179

I'm a European, living in Europe, developing software. Lack of imagination is not our problem. It's so good that we supply our best talent to the US where it does extremely well revolutionizing AI, designing hardware for Apple, developing games, stream online music, etc. E.g. Amazon's CTO is Dutch. Basically the person that has been running AWS. The people and the education system are fine. Europe does have a few iss…

Yeah I moved to Asia from Europe, and I dont think it's the lack of imagination that make us so slow, inefficient, unable to compete abroad etc. Or else here in China we'd still be cutting wood and milking cow: there's very little "imagination".

But the systems are built differently, usually turned specifically to succeed fast and loud at the cost of individual comfort. For instance, where I come from in France, you would keep a useless, even toxic, employee for months for fear of the firing trial, but where I am now we can all be dismissed arbitrarily with a month notice, and that makes the hiring very different: people have a strict behavior feedback loop, where they need to change to stay somewhere, companies have no pressure on lowering hiring because of legal issues, employees can always always find better.

This turns a population of mild puppies into a fastly rotating workforce cross pollinating at light speed and I admit I think Europe can never win against people who built such systems. It's just not the same game anymore.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#428

Post by Havoc »

Yea. Europe seems to be taking a strong stance on things from a human pov but I can’t help but feel that’s a sure way to lose in the world that is coming.

The only thing better than data is big data. Yet gdpr etc is basically the opposite

Worse yet the same applies to the US. Think US will lose against the Chinese model too. Not as badly as Europe given the sketchy shit US big players are allowed to do but that’s still a far cry from the collect everything model the US is up against

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#429

Post by rad_gruchalski »

kazen44 wrote: post #366
mnouquet wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A plumber needs formal education, at least in Germany. Three years of it, to be exact. And then some more to run his own shop. Here's Europe's problem. The same way you don't need 5+ years university education to put together whatever piece of hardware / software together, the same way I don't need studying hydraulic to put together hydraulic implements.

mind you the german education system is very different from the US/English one. Germany (and many other european countries) has the idea of a trade school, in which one learns a trade. Usually these are combined with working experience in the form of apprenticeships. In my experience, continental europe has far more emphasis on early work experience compared to ango-saxon countries. An internship usually lasts a coup…

> Germany (and many other european countries) has the idea of a trade school, in which one learns a trade.

And that is a problem. Want to be a plumber? 3 years education. Want to open a bakery? 3 years education. Want to work at a bank? 3 years education. Want to be a hairdresser? You guessed it right - 3 years education. Handwerker? No luck, 3 years education. Car mechanic? Forget it. It’s ridiculous.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#430

Post by dukeyukey »

mnouquet wrote: post #338
WYepQ4dNnG wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> raising similar amounts of money in Europe is super hard This. I am European but live and work in US. Simply put, US wins hands down because they: - have resources, read $$$$ - take risk - have the right entrepreneurial mindset Europe? let's just say they are not even close.

In Europe, everybody wants to be a manager because mere developers is not high enough status. In the US, a 45yo DB engineer is akin to highly skilled wizard.

Tbh this isn't my experience in the UK. Manager is just one path people take; others aim for tech lead, or principal engineer. I really don't see how 'status' comes into this.
Post reply on HN