I'm not surprised that MOOCs are a big factor, people like me who have left school years ago have forgotten how to write a BFS, we need something to brush up those knowledge.
If you run statistics against using sites like careercup, you may find that being the top factor.
On their website they have pictures of both the prototype and other manufacturers' cars. it makes a lot of sense to just sell the driving system, like the android model. But I assume they designed the prototype to capture the public's attention. I just don't know why they can't spend a bit more effort to make it look desirable.
that's partially true, but you forget european countries usually have higher tax than US (not only income tax, but also VAT, fuel tax, etc).
here in London a mid-level engineer, which I assume is the bottom half of senior software engineers, are typically paid £50-£60k/year in startups, which usually have poor pension schemes. £50k is about $60k and you already start paying for 40% tax for the top £10k of your salary.
You can get more if you go to big companies but then so can you in the US.
That might be true for start-ups. VP level engineer in the bank can yield £80-120K and that does not include bonuses and other perks.
If you plan to run a start-up, and you can have remote first organisation (physical co-location is not required by say client attendance or manufacturing process) then do so!
And if you do stay in London, compete with banks for best talent with your wallets, not ping-pong tables.
I was talking about mid-level engineers in startups, not senior engineers in banks, if you want to compare big employers, £80-£120k is nothing compared with $250-300k you get as senior developer in Silicon Valley.
Well, the 1 bedroom in London is far from 3000-4000 per month.
I don't know the details of the costs of living and all the expenses. Maybe SV is better but I just want to say that it is not twice as better, contrary to what some comments would have you think.
The cost of living in SF is 1.4 times higher but the wage is 1.75 times higher. Note this number is assuming you are renting, and not considering electronics which is a lot cheaper in the US.
The house price in London is still more expensive, and if you are a senior developer in your 30s that's probably more relevant than renting price.
Factor those in, as a software developer, in SV you are easily 30-50% better off than London, the best paid city in Europe. The pay gap between Europe and US do exist, Silicon Valley is the technology centre of the world, Europe isn't.
True, but try talking to a Japanese about WWII, and you'll be surprised how little they know about what happened, it's NOT taught in school, not all the facts.
Government brainwash is not exclusive to communist countries.
As a Chinese I have to say it's hard to believe “Not one of the six Chinese devs had ever seen that photo or had any knowledge of what happened there”, it's more likely they don't want to tell you what they really think.
When I was in Uni, the Tiananmen square videos are all over the university intranet, including the documentary shot by Hongkong journalist and some shorter documentaries made by the west in later times. Everyone in my class has watched them and we all know what happened on 04/06/1989.
The censorship power of chinese government has been greatly over estimated.
My guess is not that it's been censored, per se. I believe that it's been contextualized by the government in a way that's out of alignment with the way the rest of the world views that event. Outside of China, we view that as a symbolic event of an unknown, brave individual standing up to an oppressive government. Inside China, it's likely seen as a relatively inconsequential event. Their reactions to my interest included both "what event are you interested in?" or "why are you interested in that event?"
I don't think this is unique to China and I think it happens to some extent in the US. I think people, especially the right wing Republican voters, are shielded from the viewpoints of the rest of the world on many topics. Having been outside the US for almost the entire election cycle, I don't think most voters in the US realize just how much Trump is ridiculed outside of the US. In the US, the comparison with Clinton is roughly 50-50. Outside the US, I've yet to meet one person who doesn't believe that Trump could be a serious choice. There's recognition that Clinton isn't perfect and we should have nominated someone better, but there's general consternation that our country could have made the choice that it did. Granted, I've been mostly in Asian, Muslim countries where Trump's rhetoric about Muslims has an even greater ring of ignorance to it. But the US media has contextualized a lot of what went on in the election cycle very differently from the way the media in the rest of the world has.
The difference, of course, is that the recontextualizing in China is at the behest of the Chinese government. It's disturbing and dangerous no matter how it happens. But it's undemocratic when the government is the one doing it.
How many of OP's taxi drivers were savvy university graduates in your opinion?
Censorship being soft and porous does not help - it keeps the outrage from bubbling over as the 5% of smart potential leaders who could give a voice to discontent will (a) work around the censors in ways that the 95% can't or don't bother [VPN etc] and their discontent has an outlet, and (b) these 2% can be kept in line by offering or refusing career opportunities based on compliance to the mainstream party line... [if you speak out against current policy, you won't get that professorship or that managerial role or your company returns will be tax audited in a way your corrupt competitors aren't]
You misread the OP, he's talking to 6 dev people, not 6 taxi drivers. I'd be surprised if anyone without a uni degree can find a dev job in a foreign company in Beijing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro censorship. But you and many in the west assume people in China are all brain washed and incapable of seeing their own history. Sure, a large part of the population can't be bothered, but I'd bet it's not 95% as you assumed, and they have increasingly less influence in today's China.
And speaking of which, you don't think the west is ruled by 2% of elites and manipulate the media to tame the rest?
I doubt the EU has any plan of anything. With rise of nationalism and protectionism, the EU is fighting for its own existence.
China was never a equal trade partner to the west. In fact, I don't think any of the developing countries can be equal trade partners to the developed countries. When you are weak, open your market completely to western multinational companies with huge capital and technology advantage is economical suicide, and it will benefit no one but the rich and powerful at the very top on both sides.
> Of course, almost all of the roads and railways are to extract resources, not to help locals in any way.
That's a very sinister comment, when China builds a road, it's all about grabbing resources and can not help the locals in anyway? Are the locals banned from using these roads? Are there no jobs created in those country because of these projects?
I'm in London too, $120K job in today's London market (£100K) only exists in some banks, hedge fund and HFT companies, and you'll definitely need 10year+ experience to get those jobs.
I think the salary gap between US and UK programmers in the last decade has definitely increased.
One reason is exchange rate, only a few years ago GBP/USD is 1.5x, now it's 1.2x.
Another reason is that tech sector boomed in the US, big companies like google and Facebook are doing really well, there are also more successful small companies, fuelled by VC money. together they drive programmer salary up.
However, the UK economy is totally dominated by finance. And the banks are not doing particularly good after 2007.
It's not about top-down disallow, it's just restrictive for many reasons. To use a programming language to build a system within a company, I need not only the approval of my boss but also other developers in my team to know that language or at least eager to learn, that's not always possible.
If you run statistics against using sites like careercup, you may find that being the top factor.