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Dear Europe, please wake up
91–100 of 323 posts
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#92European here. It normal that EU become the #4 economy in the world. There is nothing wrong with that. What wasn't normal was to see billions of people in poverty. I am happy to see India and China catch up. The best way to be #1 economy is to destroy others. We don't want to do that. Indian entrepreneurs are as ambitious as the growth of their economy. EU wants to focus on ecology and democracy and this impacts it's…
I've never been to China, but the US strikes me as palpably more dystopian every time I go - and that's from someone who loves the country and its people. As for India... well, hopefully everyone will benefit from the growing wealth. Europe has a very high quality of life. To the extent it's sustainable, I don't see what's wrong with a government and culture aiming to make people happy and comfortable rather than #1.
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#93These e/acc types are insufferable and if anything "SF" has been ruined by them. I know I'll get downvoted or flagged given this is HN, but there's more to life than startups and private equity[0]. Let's leave Europe alone, huh? [0]: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2023/world-happiness-trust-...
When you're rich you can have untouchable bombers and precision artillery destroy your genocidal enemies from hundreds of miles away. When you're poor you end up suffering from bombings and cruise missile attacks.
When you're rich you have AC. When poor you die in heat waves. When rich you get to integrate immigrants to the point. When poor neo-Nazi politicians stir up trouble as they languish in poverty and squalor.
When rich you get to crush pandemics. When poor you have to pretend they aren't happening.
Europe was not poorer in the 2000's. This is just cope about the failure to handle the financial crisis and COVID properly.
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#94>> If every day is 1% harder for you than your competitor who will win? Your competitor. And in global markets where frequently 1-2 companies become the dominant player in a market this means you will not be a bit smaller. You will fight for scraps. Abandon all hope. The race to the bottom is over. Any country not bowing at the feet of ever tech founder will be relegated to third-world status by the end of the decade…
Following this guy's logic, a country which the Western world has historically shunned, aggressively avoided investment in, and generally turned its back to for decades, Russia, should have completely folded and collapsed after being completely choked off from the world by sanctions imposed on it years ago.
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#95This 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 pretty common in Germany. Three months is standard; longer is possible. I worked as a researcher for a German university and had a six-month notice period. You can imagine how productive most people are during that time.
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#96This 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
I am in Sweden, it's 3 months of notice here as well.
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#97Why 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.
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#98“Europe” is not a thing I tell most people trying to expand. It’s just a bunch of countries. Yes, some things are unified but it really doesn’t matter. It’s fragmented, extra work, and it’s bullshit compared to just building for a unified market like US or China. Tall poppy syndrome is also very real in Europe. It’s a dream killer and is deeply ingrained in many societies here. You can work hard all you want but thes…
EU is not a disconnected market, it s theoretically easy to connect. However it is infested with middlemen, (local or Brussels-based) who all want a bite and as a whole create a mountain of useless bureaucracy that costs too much and ultimately makes EU too expensive
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#99A lot of the "Europe is bleh" rhetoric is about Western Europe - specifically France, Germany, and the UK (if they make it harder for European and Asian immigrants to come). The Eastern and Central European countries have always felt much more dynamic and open to work hard. There's a reason why the countries on the lefthand side of the graph provided are also the ones with some of the better innovation industries in…
In all honesty, tech people in EE show up to the office at 11 and take a legit one hour plus lunch break to eat proper food at the restaurant together. To ensure team cohesion of course. I'm not sure if that counts as a hard work or the result is simply better because you hire smart people and can't micromanage from SF due to 10h time zone difference. >German, French, and British government officials are the worst to…
> tech people in EE show up to the office at 11 and take a legit one hour plus lunch break to eat proper food at the restaurant together
Let's be honest, most techies do that from India to Israel to Poland to US.
That said, Eastern Europeans are fine with occasionally partaking in crunchtime.
Meanwhile, when I dealt with our Western European sales and engineering teams they would all ignore messages even if a Tier 1 critical customer's shit hit the fan.
WLB is critical, but there are occasional exceptions that need to be made.
Why should I pay the same amount that I would in Eastern Europe, Israel, or India for someone who won't help firefight.
Re: Dear Europe, please wake up
#100>> If every day is 1% harder for you than your competitor who will win? Your competitor. And in global markets where frequently 1-2 companies become the dominant player in a market this means you will not be a bit smaller. You will fight for scraps. Abandon all hope. The race to the bottom is over. Any country not bowing at the feet of ever tech founder will be relegated to third-world status by the end of the decade…
As a startup founder in Germany, I am very unhappy about all the friction. „Just Fuck off“ is very unhelpful as an advice, or even as a basis for discussion, and mostly unrelated to the article posted.